More lead for sale

[John Bly]

I'm going to have a few more of the 26 1/4 lb lead bricks for sale, 24 of them in fact. It is good soft pure lead. It checks less than 5 Brinell in my Lee tester. I won't have them for the Early Bird but I'll have them for the later spring skirmishes. The price is $40 each which figures out to $1.52/lb. PM me if you wish to get any of this Primo lead. It's really good stuff, gets that purple color on the melt. Those who bought it last year have been satisfied with it.

[John Bly]

All 24 bricks are spoken for. I may be getting some more. I'll post on here if I do.

[John Bly]

I plan to have 30 more bricks of pure lead at Nationals. I've melted some into ingots and they check out at less than 5 Brinell. The bricks are 2" x 4" x 8" are 26 1/4 lb and the price is $40 each. A turkey cooker and an old dutch oven works well to melt them down. I can have them sawn into approximately 3 equal pieces if you need it that way. Send me a PM if interested. Everything I have now is sold until Nat'ls.

[Chris Sweeney]

John:

What indent dia. do you use to determine BHN of soft lead? The chart with the Lee tester I got only goes down to about a 7.

[Michael Bodner]

Chris,

I too use a Lee tester and discovered the same issue. I created a chart that extrapolates beyond the Lee published levels. The 'inches' column represents the value you read from the Lee microscope. BRH is the Brinnell Hardness. As you can see from the bottom of the chart, 0.1 (full size in the microscope) is 5.0 pure lead...

BTW: The chart has WAY more increments than you can read off the microscope. But it is complete...

-Mike



Inches
BRH


0.038
36.9


0.039
35.0


0.040
33.2


0.041
31.5


0.042
30.0


0.043
28.6


0.044
27.2


0.045
26.0


0.046
24.8


0.047
23.7


0.048
22.7


0.049
21.8


0.050
20.9


0.051
20.0


0.052
19.2


0.053
18.5


0.054
17.8


0.055
17.1


0.056
16.5


0.057
15.9


0.058
15.3


0.059
14.8


0.060
14.3


0.061
13.8


0.062
13.4


0.063
12.9


0.064
12.5


0.065
12.1


0.066
11.7


0.067
11.4


0.068
11.0


0.069
10.7


0.070
10.4


0.071
10.1


0.072
9.8


0.073
9.5


0.074
9.3


0.075
9.0


0.076
8.8


0.077
8.5


0.078
8.3


0.079
8.1


0.080
7.9


0.081
7.7


0.082
7.5


0.083
7.3


0.084
7.1


0.085
6.9


0.086
6.8


0.087
6.6


0.088
6.5


0.089
6.3


0.090
6.2


0.091
6.0


0.092
5.9


0.093
5.8


0.094
5.6


0.095
5.5


0.096
5.4


0.097
5.3


0.098
5.2


0.099
5.1


0.100
5.0

[Eggman]

That's a whole bunch a numbers you've got stored in your head there Bootsie! Now, please give us some benchmarks - indicate some of the different hardnesses of different bullets you use in different guns, and lead source. If willing I'd like others reading this to do same. Where are wheel weights in this scheme.

[Maillemaker]

I don't have a means of testing hardness, but from what I have read wheel weight lead typically ranges from 10-20 BHN.

With the exception of one batch of lead I bought, I have always bought pure lead. I used to buy it online from Rotometals.com. Ends up being about $1.80 per pound delivered.

However, before the last skirmish, I drove down the night before to Troy, Alabama, and stopped at Sanders Lead Company and picked up 5 60-pound ingots of pure, assayed, lead for about $.91/pound.

It's my intent from now on whenever a skirmish is at Brierfield where they start shooting on Friday and I need lead I'm going to swing down there on Thursday night in my RV, stay at the local Walmart parking lot overnight, then stop by Sanders Friday morning and pick up pigs to bring to Brierfield.

When I do this I'll send out an email to all deep south commanders so I can pick up lead for anyone who wants a pig. It costs me about $50 in gas to make the trip down to Troy and back so I'll probably price the pigs at cost + $10.

I use wheel weight lead in my smoothbore, and I use pure lead in my revolver, carbine, and musket.

Steve

[John Bly]

The older Lee testers had a chart that stopped short of pure lead. If you go online and do a search you can find an expanded chart that goes down to a .100" diameter indent which translates to 5 Brinell. Thats the info Bootsie is showing. 5 Brinell is supposed to be pure lead. Testing some years ago by Dan Theodore, a dedicated black powder shooter in CA who has since passed on indicates that pure lead can measure as soft as 4.5 Brinell. My lead gives an indent of .102-.104" diameter which is off the chart for soft lead.

[Chris Sweeney]

Thanks John/Bootsie.

The Lee tester is pretty neat tool at a good price, but it is a tad technique sensitive. It would also be better if the graduations were either a bit larger or something other than lead color!

I just melted down about 50 lbs of wheel weights to make a bunch of bullets for my Swiss Vetterli. The hardness came out at just about 10. individual pieces may be harder or softer than that, but 9 1/2 - 10 is what I usually see for wheel weights. Never seen any at 20. I would think that might be a little brittle for something that spends its life bashing into pot holes.

[jrexrode]

I bought lead from John last fall and it was as advertised, pure and cast really good bullets. I picked up another lot of lead from him this weekend because I was so pleased with the results I have had!

[John Bly]

I'm bringing some lead to the Potomac Regional. 26 1/4 lb bricks for $40 each, good soft lead, as good as it gets. Let me know if you want me to bring more for you. I won't be at the 5th campsite but I'll be shooting carbine and smoothbore team on Sat and musket team on Sunday.