At the scrap yard I bought 400lbs lead. They are in 4x3 sheets and are about 1/8" thick. It looks to have dry wall paper on one side. These sheets are very pliable, do you think it is pure lead ?

Thanks RML9MM ps. I paid .25 cents a lb.

Probably came out of some doctor's x-ray room. Good chance that IS pure lead. Try scratching it with your thumbnail. Should scratch easily.

Hardness testing should be done after casting....reason for this is because lead will work soften so if these sheets are rolled from ingots/pigs, it could be nice and soft now and hard as h*ll when you cast it.

markkw I am new to casting, and just started to gather up lead and things. I took a better look at the sheets and they are 4x2 by about 1/32". This lead was to be used for BPCR so I wanted pure lead. I don't understand how will be harder after I cast it ?

markkw I am new to casting, and just started to gather up lead and things. I took a better look at the sheets and they are 4x2 by about 1/32". This lead was to be used for BPCR so I wanted pure lead. I don't understand how will be harder after I cast it ?


Lifted this from the Corbin web-sie...it's not 100% accurate, but will definately be close enough for our use:
Lead Hardness Test

Here is a simple way to test the Bhn number of unknown lead samples: all you need is a caliper, two bottle caps, a vise, a 5mm diameter (aprox. size) ball bearing, and a known pure sample of lead (Corbin can furnish pure lead of 99.995% Pb with trace silver).

Melt enough lead to fill one bottle cap with unknown sample, and the other with known pure lead. Make sure the surface is smooth and flat when the lead hardens and cools.
When the lead is cold, put the ball bearing between the two lead surfaces and squeeze this "sandwich" in the vise until the ball is driven partly into both surfaces (just enough to make a fair sized dent, but not past the middle of the ball).
Remove the sandwich and measure the two dent diameters. First measure the known pure lead dent and write down this number. Then measure the dent diameter in the unknown lead sample and write it down. Square both numbers (multiply times themselves). Then divide the resulting square of the unknown lead dent diameter into the square of the known pure lead dent diameter. This could be written as (L times L) divided by (X times X) where L is the pure Lead dent diameter, and X is the unknown lead dent diameter.
The answer should be a number of 1 or greater. If it is a fraction, or less than 1 in value, you have inverted the two dents and divided the wrong way. In that case, try again. When you get an answer that is 1 or greater, multiply it by 5. This is the actual Brinnell Hardness Number of the unknown sample.
The reason that you will always get a number of 1 or greater is that the ball will always go further into soft material (pure lead) than it will into hard material (any alloy of lead with tin, bismuth, antimony, etc.). Therefore, the diameter of the dent will always be smaller in the unknown sample, if it is harder than pure lead, or the same as the known pure sample, if it is also pure lead. When you divide a smaller number into a larger one, you always get something greater than one for an answer. Brinnell numbers are all greater than one. You must multiply the answer by 5 because this is the adjusting constant for pure lead, which is Bhn 5 hardness.

This method is as accurate as your sample purity and your ability to read the diameter of the dent. A smooth surface is necessary so you can get a clean diameter to measure. A rough surface will throw off the answer because you may not get a true diameter to measure, if one side of the lead surface is higher or wavy. But in general, this is as accurate a method as any that uses tools which cost less than $500. A reading with an accuracy of only Bhn plus or minus 0.5 will be more than sufficient for purposes of swaging. When the Bhn number actually increases from 5 to 10, or doubles, the pressure goes up by a factor of four, or the square of the increase in hardness. A number of 5-6 Bhn is close enough to be called pure for swaging purposes. A number of 10-12 is close enough to be considered about "medium" hardness or suitable for -S dies. A number of 18-20 is hard enough to be considered strictly for the -H type hydraulic dies even if used in the CSP-2 hand press.

ribbonstone, thanks for that info,but I still don't understand why lead would be harder after you cast the bullet ?

When the lead is deformed, its crystal structure is weakened, so the material softens. Lead will recrystallize and gradually harden after the deforming stops. At room temperature it recrystallizes, and hardens, but slowly. At elevated temperature it recrystallizes quickly. From a melt, it will crystallize during the hardening, and be hard upon cooling.

This is backwards from how brass hardens while being worked, and softens when it recrystallizes in heat treatment.

Why do they behave oppositely? Ask God when you see Him.

SO there is no need to leads BHN before you cast ?

No, testing before you cast it is nothing more than a waste of time because it can change greatly...however, items that are found in their cast form, can be tested as re-casting them may only change them slightly not greatly like sheet lead that may be work softened.

Got a new hardness tester in the works that will give an instant reading w/o hassle and is economical to buy.

Which lead tester are you getting ?

I've always purchased linotype or melted wheel weights for my cast bullets they were hard enough to fire in my 45-70.

RML9MM, putting one of my own desing together. Just sent the prototype off for accuracy testing verification but I'm told they are no less than 5 weeks behind....hurry up and wait!

There is a very easy way to tell though it is certainly labor intensive.

Fill a 20 pound furnace up with the stuff. Must be a 20 pound furnace. Insert a casting thermometer being absolutely sure that the needle is not dragin on the surface behind it. Melt the stuff and make sure it is all liquid. Pull the plug and measure the temperature at EXACTLY one minute intervals. Be sure your head is in the same position relative to the thermometer at each reading.

If this stuff is pure lead the temperature will drop until it hits the melting point of lead. Somewhere around 620 degrees I think. Then the temperature will stay constant until all the stuff has hardened. Then it will drop again.

The exact temperature at which this happens is unimportant. It is the shape of this curve that matters. If it is pure lead, or pretty close, it will have the shape indicated. If it is not, then the shape will be different.

Works every time. Takes effort but it does work.

RML9MM, putting one of my own desing together. Just sent the prototype off for accuracy testing verification but I'm told they are no less than 5 weeks behind....hurry up and wait!

Did you have any luck w/ your 'new' tester?

rml9mm what are you going to use this for. If it did come from an X-ray room, it will be pure lead, or very close to it. Lead will age harden, or work soften, but the changes are usually not major, unless the bullets were water quenched or heat treated.
You can squeeze a small piece of your sheet and a 22 bullet(lead only) together, and see which one deforms more, since 22 lead is about 99% lead it should give you a rough referance.

Did you have any luck w/ your 'new' tester?


Yes and no. Made progress and then got hit with a setback, lack of manufacturing consistency in the parts purchased from outside vendors. We've gone through three different vendors so far and each has provided us with sub-stand quality in either materials or workmanship. Cost is obviously the major factor, I can't produce an instrument that would have to sell for around $390 and expect the average caster to buy it. That's just not going to happen. On the other hand, producing something cheaply will result in PO'ed customers which is worse than not having any customers.

We are waiting on one more vendor to supply samples but in the mean time, we're also working on a design change that will allow us to produce the testers in house so we have more control over the quality. If need be, we will trade off a little user friendliness to get the combination of higher quality and lower cost.