Another anybody know what this is

Will

Well-Known Member
Found this in a scrap metal dumpster and I’m pretty sure it’s lead. Curious if anyone recognizes it.
It’s very heavy for its size, scratches easily with a thumbnail, and looks to have been melted off.
 

Wasalmonslayer

Well-Known Member
Good morning

If it is hollow core it for fishing.
I have used a bunch of it.
You score around it with a knife at the length you want and break off that piece.
Then you thread your line thru it and tie on your swivel.
It’s great for weight adjustment to get your bobber neutral boyant for light bitting fish like our steelhead here in the northwest.
Oh and it should be pure lead as it is super soft and pliable.
 

fiver

Well-Known Member
if it is like salmon says, they also make a thing called a weight clip.
you tie the clip on your line and slip a piece of that lead on the end, then if you get snagged you jerk the lead free from the clip and reel in your other stuff.
your bait is tied on above the lead.

if it's solid it could be solder, a 5% tin type is pretty common.
or it could be pure and used for cores for bullet swaging, you just cut a piece off then run the chunk through a core swage die and it extrudes the extra lead off to make cores the same weight and size.
 

Will

Well-Known Member
The strange thing is where it came from the only thing I can think of they use lead for is pouring Babbitt bearings.
 

fiver

Well-Known Member
Babbitt runs from high speed to low speed which translates into hard and soft or high tin with additives such as copper or nickel, all the way down to pretty much pure lead, low tin lead, or even antimonial only lead.
I'd melt it and watch for beads of sweating and the melt point.
sweat is tin, melt point would indicate how much.
you could also weigh a C.C. in water and do the math.

I'd just throw it in a bucket of ww's to melt later and not worry about it, unless I suspected it was pure [or had no tin] then I'd throw it in the soft scrap bucket for some bullet cores.
 

Kevin Stenberg

Well-Known Member
Will what dia. is the outside? If it is less than .310 i would be interested in buying a couple of feet. If it is less than .340 i would like about 6". Just thinking it would make good poundcasts. Kevin
 

Will

Well-Known Member
Kevin it’s a little over 1/2” in diameter. I’ll probably cast some muzzleloader bullets with it and weigh it against my pure lead bullets.
 

fiver

Well-Known Member
that's pretty big.
double check that there isn't any wires inside it.
a 1/2" roll that big would weigh quite a bit [5-6ish lbs.]
if it's more like 2-3 I'd check inside it.
 

35 Whelen

Active Member
Pencil lead Will....used for steelhead fishing in rivers....a piece is either bend off or snipped off and slipped in between a piece of surgical rubber and the fishing line.....meant to pull out when snagged on the bottom. Super soft lead.

Pencil lead.jpg
 
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