Lead of Questionable Purity?

[tg]

"i'll be getting a hardness tester," :shocked2:

I think I'll let this one pass...........Snowdragon, only one ex, I've got three and none of them live in Texas :grin:

 

[Lt Frank]

A bluish cast to the bullets is caused from your lead being to hot when it was poured......Frank

 

[Lt Frank]

Daren...When you flux your lead and skim, you are only removing the impurities such as dirt. It does not change the mixture of the lead itself. Cast a ball and if you can scratch it with your finger nail, you can pretty well bet that it is close to being pure lead and therefore it can be used in your rifle......Frank

 

[Joel/Calgary]

simply, nothing is written on a canister. VESUVIT, CHECH REPUBLIC. thats it. could be 2f.
dont matter, it burns fine, 25grs by weight is a light charge. puts holes in paper.

OK, I did a web search. Explosia a.s. ( http://www.explosia.cz/en/?show=trhaviny#t8 ) lists 3 types of Vesuvit B.P. under explosives and none under propellants that I can find, but the product description ( http://www.explosia.cz/en/trhaviny/cerne.htm ) lists 4 types, with one (Vesuvit LC) a propellant for "muzzle loading guns, historical guns and for reloading hunting ammunition". I think we've identified your mystery powder. It lists a grain size of 0.28 - 0.71mm, which puts it within the 3Fg size range, but slightly finer on average. What few mentions of it that I can find in English suggest that it's a decent powder, but I haven't found a comparison with any of the powders we know in a language that I can read.

I hope this is of some use.

Regards,
Joel

 

[Joel/Calgary]

An old rule of thumb that was often used years ago when I started this hobby was that if you could scratch the lead with your thumbnail it was soft enough to use in a M/L. Now this is not very scientific and you can scratch fairly hard lead.

With respect, after you've scratched enough lead (there's probably a joke in there somewhere), your thumbnail can start to get somewhat calibrated, from "scratches really easily and my nail really digs in", through "scratches fairly easily but my nail does not dig in much", to "scratches with difficulty and my nail does not dig in" (somewhere around wheel weights, IIRC), and on to "Holy Cr@p, that's hard!" as you get on toward the type metals. It's kind of like shopping for patch material - after a while it is possible to do surprisingly well without bringing out the micrometer.

Regards,
Joel

 

[nkbj]

Yes, it's true. Being of questionable purity can indeed give them a bluish cast.

 

[Little Wattsy]

can i assume that if i melt lead of questionable purity, without fluxing, and skim off the crud, that what is left in the bottom of the pot is pure lead?
(a former scuba diver offerred me about 50 pounds of old divers weights)

Scuba weights SHOULD be pretty pure lead.

 

[DarenN]

i melted a few pounds and poured it to ingots.
my thumbnail says it is at least as soft as the .490 Hornady balls that i have; maybe softer.
i still want to get a hardness tester and check it to be sure.

 

[Leatherbark]

I was given a good bunch of lead from an old church..When I cast it it had a real bluish cast to it..Made some very nice balls

Me too.........an 1840 something church.........made some blue balls also........Someone here said that it was lead in it purest form

Bob