Goober of lustrous metal?

[Fishermanjuice]

Hi Everyone,


I found what appears to be an old piece of melted down metal of some sort. It is very lustrous, light color with almost a light blue hue, not magnetic, gave a signal like a silver dollar on my detector, breakable with pliers, not highly ductile, crystalline structure, the outside appears to almost have a fibrous appearance. See my video on YouTube for pictures.

What kind of metal is it? I feel it wouldn't be silver because the outside has the ugliness to it, but I might be wrong. This was found in the woods, near where a really old foundation once was, in a high trash area, near Pittsburgh PA.



Cheers,
Fishermanjuice

 

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[NOLA_Ken]

melted beer can?

 

[arnofarrell]

I must agree, most melted metal that is shinny or a silvery color is probably alumium. I find them all the time, cans melt fairly easy with a decent fire and alot of drunk folks.

 

[Fishermanjuice]

It is too heavy/dense to be aluminum I think. I at first thought this was a lead goober because I have found melted lead in that area. But then I saw the shine.

 

[Fishermanjuice]

Anyone have ideas of other tests to find out what it is?

 

[TreasurePirate69]

Perhaps Zinc? Zinc, aluminum, and lead all have very low melting points and can be melted with a standard propane torch. Perhaps you should try remelting it and see what happens. If it melts with a propane torch then it is not silver.

 

[Ism]

I'm guessing a lead based babbit metal. Or lead or tin with antimony.

 

[Fishermanjuice]

The Babbitt metal idea is intriguing. It appears to have that antimony type of color to it. I will see what happens when I put a torch to it tonight.

 

[Fishermanjuice]

Sooo, I did a search for "babbit metal" and clicked 'images' to see what they look like and came across this picture.




I brought home a chunk of metal that had this same shape that I left in my junk pouch. It seemed odd to me because it gave the same silver 44 signal and did not have rust or iron.

What would someone have been doing with this stuff at their house in the beginning of the 1900s in Pittsburgh? The foundation is pre-1907. The house shows up on a 1907 USGS but the only way you can tell a house was ever there is because there is still trash from it and a slight difference in the vegetation in the woods where the house once stood.

Are chunks of Babbit metal common?

 

[labradigger1]

possibly a antique mirror? the old ones had silver on the back of the glass

 

[Fishermanjuice]

Ok, so what I thought were houses were not houses. I looked at other historic maps of the area and discovered that the foundations were actually various buildings owned by "Jones and Laughlin Steel Corporation" back in the late 1800s and early 1900s, which explains a lot! I expect that much of the mess of iron and slag in the ground is a result of that operation and I should expect to find some rather interesting metals in such an area.

 

[roygpa]

Babbitt is/was used as a base for large compressors to reduce vibration for many years. How do I know that? Twenty Five years ago the company I work for was removing an old compressor to replace it and between the compressor and the concrete base was about 60 or 70 pounds of what I thought was lead. I asked my boss about it and he said it was babbit. He told me I could have it. I have used it to make lead fishing lures ever since and still have quite a bit left.

 

[Fishermanjuice]

I guess Babbit is used in many engines or anything with bearings and power.

 

[bigfoot1]

You can get a lead test kit at hardware store.If tests positive but is not ductile as lead...maybe pewter.Nitric acid will have a strong reaction,bubbles and all with the tin and lead in pewter.14k test acid is perfect.Do outside and only use a little...makes nasty gas.If it is actually brittle....send it to a metal testing lab....platinum group metal,rhodium has that property I believe.will bubble real hard submerged in hydrogen peroxide after a few seconds.Not difinitive but what the heck.

Good luck
pat