✅ SOLVED Need help with ingot!

[JohnDee1]

Hey I dug what I believe to be a ingot. It is incredibly heavy and non-ferrous. It is has a name cast on it, that I could not find anything about. I think it’s lead, but part of me hopes it is silver. Does anyone have any tips to determine what metal it is, and how old it may be. Or if it is even an ingot? Thanks!

 

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[Reanm8er]

It's a lead ingot typically used by sheet metal men in constructing long runs of galvanized gutter. A whole one was a foot long or longer. Probably five pounds. That's not the only thing they were used for because sheet metals techs, of old, soldered all kinds of things together. I think the name was Belknap!

Best wishes!

 

[JohnDee1]

Thank for the reply. Do you know in particular a history of this belknap, or is that just a guess on its name? Could solder ingots contain other metals? Also how old do you think it is? Thanks again!

 

[JohnDee1]

Could it be some type of alloy, as it behaves differently from a lot of lead I have. It has a different signal than some fishing weights and metal musket balls. It also behaves weird with ice, almost melting it instantly. I don’t know I might be crazy, but I am glad I found it.

 

[Reanm8er]

Well John, I was a metal worker pretty much all my life. My early specialties were welding re: to fabrication and then high pressure pipe welding. From there
I graduated into structural welding and then into machinist and toolmaker. I have worked with sheet metal workers and also bent and hammered my share of duct together but it really wasn't my scene. I was more of a millwright! I've seen these ingots in the inventory along with sal ammoniac and liquid flux made from HCL and zinc but was tickled to death that some other sap was doing that crap. I'm speaking strictly from memory but it's a 40 yr old memory! In the end I was in charge of a shop full of us maniacs! Best Job I Ever Had!

Best wishes.

 

[Reanm8er]

yeah, it's hard lead, not pure but alloyed with zinc!

 

[JohnDee1]

Thanks again for the responses. It’s nice the wealth of knowledge the forums like this can be. Sounds like an interesting Career. Any type of metal work is fascinating to me!

 

[HuntinDog]

Plumbers lead
It contained a higher % of tin which malkes it harder then straight lead.

 

[Haldean]

Lead used for soldering often contains tin to make it stronger and antimony to make it melt or flow better. We learned sheet metal soldering in high school shop class. We heated our soldering irons in a small furnace and used a flux paste then applied the lead ingots to the sheet metal. We mainly used galvanized sheet metal. The soldering irons were actually made out of some kind of copper or brass and not iron.

 

[Jason in Enid]

Could it be some type of alloy, as it behaves differently from a lot of lead I have. It has a different signal than some fishing weights and metal musket balls. It also behaves weird with ice, almost melting it instantly. I don’t know I might be crazy, but I am glad I found it.

It has a different signal because its a giant hunk of metal. Your metal detector doesnt know what is under the coil, only how but the response is. That ice melting garbage needs to be forgotten. I has zero truth to it. If you want to know the metal composition of an unknown, you need an XRF scanner, or at least and acid test to give a general idea.

 

[Reanm8er]

Great comments guys! The brand Belknap existed at least into the 60s. When OSHA and the EPA came along, manufacturers that knew their products would be trying to deny or assume the product liability either sold their factories or closed down, for good. As the info was revealed that lead was killing industrial workers and children who ate paint chips, often left the country.

Ingots like this would also have been used by plumbers to seal sections of large waste pipe.

In my mind I can walk into my shop, go right to the cabinet and pull out the third drawer from the bottom and read the name Belknap on the ingots. I don't know if you could find a seventy year old former plumber or gutter man, but perhaps you could find a multi generational family business or hardware store.

Good luck!

 

[Bigcypresshunter]

Yes I was gonna say the old cast iron drain pipes. Thats a time when tradesmen were tradesmen. Today anyone can glue together PVC.