✅ SOLVED I think its lead...

[cti4sw]

I think it's lead...

...but only bc the white oxidation reminds me of the shotgun slugs I'm getting used to finding. I can't get a weight, except that the combined weight of both is less than a pound.

 

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[OhioFinds]

If the weight is that low, my guess is that it's not lead. The weight of lead is .39 lbs per cubic inch

Lead (Galena) Facts


Weight. 0.4092 lb/cubic inch. 2.44 cu. in. of cast lead weighs1 lb. 707 lb. per cu. ft. 1 sq ft of lead sheet 1 in. thick weighs 59.2 lb. 11.34 g/sq centimeter ...

Lead (Galena) Facts - Cached

Read more: Weight of lead per cubic inch

Also, it's my understanding that the oxidation on your shotgun shell's is more likely caused by the gun powder, and possibly from being exposed to water. Have you checked to see if it is magnetic?

 

[cti4sw]

It is NOT magnetic. I never knew that about the gunpowder. This white stuff doesn't rub or flake off like the slugs' do.

I just had a disturbing thought... Sodium has a white oxidation. But as I found this in the ground, I kind of think that sodium would have exploded from moisture contact a long time ago. Still, I want to see if the white stuff scrubs off, but not at the risk of myself (and half the apartment building)...


<later that night...>

Okay... according to this article:

1. Sodium is soft enough to be cut with a coin. Check.

2. It's a silvery-white color. Check.

3. Sodium floats on water. Well, since it's so pliable, I think I'll work a tiny piece off and drop it in the sink... <short time later> Aha! It doesn't float, and it didn't react! A good sign, an omen that I may not die tonight (a sodium chunk this size reacting with water could destroy my apartment - I remember that much from my last chemistry class).

What other metal out there is very tensile, pliably soft, silvery in color, dense, and has a white oxidation? Answer: lead. I scrubbed it a little with a toothbrush on one side, and it also has another lead characteristic: a bluish-silver color. So it's lead.

BTW, when I said the weight was less than a pound, that's because when I stuck it on the bathroom scale (the only scale we own), it didn't read anything but 0.0 lbs. The surface area may not be enough to elicit a true weight out of a bathroom scale.

Okay, identity solved, I have a chunk of lead. Question #2: WHY did I dig up a chunk of lead?

My only guess is that back in the day hunters probably made their own shotgun slugs, so I could see some guy over a campfire boiling lead bits from this chunk in a mold to make his own buckshot and slugs. If the shells were largely wax paper back then, that would be easy, carry a tin of gunpowder and some waxed cardboard and a chunk of lead. Thoughts?

 

[cti4sw]

Anyone?

 

[skeeterd]

I agree. Probably carried by someone to build their own bullets, slugs and shot.

 

[duggap]

Assuming it is lead, I would think it is from a smelting bar. Not a totally uncommon find in CW camps, particularly early war camps. The white is lead oxidation and shows the age of the artifact. Leave it on there.

 

[cti4sw]

My first CE-era relic!

Well, in an earlier post, I did say that I think the site is a former homestead, bc almost all of the relics I find there are household-related. I could totally see some old CW vet sitting on his front porch smelting his own shotgun slugs. Thanks for the confirmation!