🔎 UNIDENTIFIED Buckle-what type? how old?

[CAP]

Found this buckle in a donated scrap bucket. Filed it a little on the side and the metal is a whitish color, not brassy.
Any info appreciated!

 

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[ticndig]

The buckle is made of white metal , AKA pot metal for sure , could be harness related or a belt buckle . age I'd say 1900-1925 .

 

[GlowingArtist]

How do you know it is "white metal"? This is an extremely common buckle shape likely still being made today.

 

[ticndig]

How do you know it is "white metal"? This is an extremely common buckle shape likely still being made today.

42 years of working with metal, the description given and the pics . now you tell me why you think I'm wrong. sure it's a common shape but that has nothing to do with metal composition . your post are always off the wall.

 

[TheCannonballGuy]

GlowingGem asked:
> How do you know it is "white metal"?

Tcndig used the Metallurgical name "White-Metal," which means any of several varieties of non-precious (and therefore inexpensive) silvery-looking metal alloys. The cheapest of them all is "Pot-Metal," so named because it originated as leftover foundry scraps of Tin, Zinc, Lead, Antimony (etc.) all tossed into the melting pot together to produce cheap metal objects. A manufacturer who wants to cut costs will use Pot-Metal instead of making brass buckles, because brass contains copper, which is far more expensive. (It is used as money, y'know.)

We know with certainty that this excavated buckle is made of White-Metal, and more specifically Pot-Metal, because of the distinctive type of corrosion we see on it. Notice that in all three photos this buckle's patina shows scaling and "pocketing," with bits of white scattered among the grey oxide. That "look" is a characteristic of zinc corrosion, and zinc is usually a main ingredient in Pot-Metal.

> This is an extremely common buckle shape likely still being made today.

That is correct. The usage of Pot-Metal for cheap belt buckles became more and more common as the 20th Century progressed. Therefore, although this buckle COULD be from the early 20th Century, I think it is "statistically" more likely to be from somewhat later. (I wore one just like it, mass-produced when 2-inch-wide leather waistbelts became popular among the hippies in the 1960s/70s.)

 

[GlowingArtist]

Can metal that goes through fire oxodize much faster and appear older than it actually is? And wouldn't that be a big reason why people would leave metal belongings for other to find.

 

[GlowingArtist]

I just read online that pot metal doesn't rust. So it shouldn't be pot metal.

 

[Red-Coat]

I just read online that pot metal doesn't rust. So it shouldn't be pot metal.

If you define "rust" as a mixture of iron oxides and hydroxides then it doesn't rust in that sense because it's non-ferrous. It does however produce other oxidation/hydration and corrosion products derived from its non-ferrous constituent metals.

"Depending on the exact metals "thrown into the pot," pot metal can become unstable over time, as it has a tendency to bend, distort, crack, shatter, and pit with age. The low boiling point of zinc and fast cooling of newly cast parts often trap air bubbles within the cast part, weakening it. Many components common in pot metal are susceptible to corrosion from airborne acids and other contaminants, and internal corrosion of the metal often causes decorative plating to flake off." [source: Wikipedia]

As Wiki also notes in the entry for "rust" (of iron): "Many other metals undergo similar corrosion, but the resulting oxides are not commonly called "rust".