I am pretty new to all this. I am shooting black powder cartridge long range rifles, 1874 sharps, and want bullets to be 8-9 bhn. I have some pure lead 5 bhn and some linotype. How much lino do I need to add to get the mix to 8-9 bhn? Thanks!
I am pretty new to all this. I am shooting black powder cartridge long range rifles, 1874 sharps, and want bullets to be 8-9 bhn. I have some pure lead 5 bhn and some linotype. How much lino do I need to add to get the mix to 8-9 bhn? Thanks!
Lead alloy mixing cross, using BHN:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Y0raK6_Vbk
Assume a Brinell hardness for standard linotype (84% Pb, 12% Sb, 4% Sn) of 22.
This will come in pretty handy for mixing.
https://castboolits.gunloads.com/sho...oy-calculators
1/2 lb. of lino to 5 lbs. of pure will give you 9.7 BHN. So a 1-10 ratio would be good. I would try a small batch like the 1/2 to 5 and check your BHN and adjust the lino from there.
I have been using 'Bumpo's' alloy calculator listed above for several years. Each time I send in a sample for testing, it comes back very close to what I expected. Most of what I have had tested came to me of an unknown composition. I try to keep my components separate and labeled for future alloys. hc18flyer
Linotype has a larger % of antimony in it than tin.
For BPCR bullets you do not want any antimony in the bullets. Ergo do not add any linotype. Get yourself some pure tin and mix up a binary alloy of 20-1 or 16-1 for use in your BPCR bullets.
Larry Gibson
“Deficient observation is merely a form of ignorance and responsible for the many morbid notions and foolish ideas prevailing.”
― Nikola Tesla
So what are some sources for pure tin in the wild, or do you have to buy that from somewhere like rotometals?
You will find a lot of sellers on here in the S&S section selling pewter. Might as well be pure tin. If you use the alloy calculator you can figure out what you need using pewter but if you use a 20-1 or 16-1 formula with pewter it will work just as well as tin.
Boogan1,
I’ve sent a message to a friend in FWB who cleans out circuit board solder tanks of the leftover 63/37 solder to see if he can help you with a local source of tin. I use it for making my 20/1 used in my old single shots.
Bruce in Milton
You may be able to find partial rolls of solder at thrift shops and household sales, usually for cheap!
"We take a thousand moments for granted thinking there will be a thousand more to come. Each day, each breath, each beat of your heart is a gift. Live with love & joy, tomorrow is not promised to anyone......"
unknown
Swap you Lino for pure Tin.
As Larry said, you don't want anything other than a Lead-Tin alloy for BP cartridge rifles.
Don't use Lino, Don't use lead-free solder, Don't use Pewter.
You want pure Tin.
...or a solder that you are sure is Lead-Tin only.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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Boogan1, private message sent to you with my friend’s contact info. He said he’d sell to you per my request. Bruce
Pure lead runs 5-6bhn. If you only want to go 8-9bhn, about 8-1 lead/lino will be close.
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Fred, 8-1 would be a BHN of 10. 30-1 would be a BHN of 9 and 100-1 would still only bring him down to 8.7 bhn. Using lino to harden this up is going to be tough because he is looking for basically soft lead.
I just was going over my figures and I realized the alloy calculator has a bug! Although it shows that pure lead is bhn 5 in the pure lead column if you only put that in the calculation, as in 100lbs. pure lead and nothing else it will show estimated hardness of 8.6 at the bottom. So the calculator will never figure in the lead as 5, only 8.6 regardless of the numbers on the chart. It is probably best to usr the mixing cross found on Weiderladers site.
Using the mixing cross from Weiderlader I came up with 11-14 pure and 3 lino. Below is a link to the video of using the mixing cross.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Y0raK6_Vbk
Last edited by Rickf1985; 12-23-2022 at 12:05 PM.
BP | Bronze Point | IMR | Improved Military Rifle | PTD | Pointed |
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BT | Boat Tail | PL | Power-Lokt | SP | Soft Point |
C | Compressed Charge | PR | Primer | SPCL | Soft Point "Core-Lokt" |
HP | Hollow Point | PSPCL | Pointed Soft Point "Core Lokt" | C.O.L. | Cartridge Overall Length |
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