Whatsit? Found this molten hunk of metal today, curious if anyone can help.

W

wyndsurfr

Jr. Member
Dec 19, 2014
21
3
Appalachian Mountains, USA
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
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It's heavy for it's size, def. not copper or lead or steel... I cut it with a butter knife, then put a little file to it and the file cuts the heck out of it. Tarnished, but cleans up well when really scrubbed or scraped... I'm thinking melted clad, probably not a solid chunk of silver, but I don't know enough yet... any thoughts from the experts? The color doesn't come through in the photo well... Maybe pewter? I'm quite curious but too ignorant to tell what it is, I just know what it isn't.
 

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big chunk of silver solder maybe?
 

I 'want' it to be silver haha, it's probably over an ounce whatever it is... It seems harder than pewter would be, softer than copper. I would imagine silver solder would have other junk metal in it and not be worth anything...

I'm just learning how to use my machine and hitting some areas that I know I'll find silver... I threw a silver dollar through the coil and it hits the same as this does, but I know that doesn't mean much..
 

even though you believe it's not lead, if you found it anywhere near older homes, my belief is that it is a hunk of plumber's lead
 

Looks like plumbers lead residue. ..
 

it's possible, just saying I don't think it's lead... It seems a little too hard to be lead, a serrated butter knife will cut it, but only barely, the file really bit into it. I'll take other's word here though, I'm just throwing darts here haha
 

I reckon I'll just start a bucket for these types of things, the consensus seems to be lead so I'll take you folk's word on it. At the very least, we can make bullets out of it haha.
 

Thanks for all your help folks :hello2: I know I'm going to pull some good stuff out of this site, so I'll post back when I get something worth posting haha... First day jitters and all :dontknow:
 

If it's that soft it's almost surely lead, or a heavily lead based alloy.
 

Looks like sounds like lead, can you bend it with your hand?
 

Take a small piece and see how hot it needs to get before melting. Might help.
 

I don't really have a decent way to tell the temp of it when it melts. I'm just gonna call it a lead alloy, obviously I was hopeful, but... hey, lead is hard to get right now and we reload, so it's still valuable to me :thumbsup: I haven't started casting yet, but we have all the necessary stuff to do so, I've been saving all my lead doodads for when I do get around to casting a bunch of stuff... since I likely will never know exactly what it is, I'll just use it for pistol plinking wadcutters and throw it in a mix of various unknown alloy stuff I've already got... Still a win and to top it off, i found a better trowel than the one I used to dig it up with :thumbsup:

Maybe I'll get some time to really hunt tomorrow, fingers crossed for some good silver here! I've got some super ground that is likely 'virgin' all around me and my own 30 acres has some serious history and is for sure 'virgin' ground, I've probably got years worth of hunting just on my own land. I'll be sure to post anything really cool!

thanks for all your help!
 

wyndsurfr said:
I don't really have a decent way to tell the temp of it when it melts. I'm just gonna call it a lead alloy,
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Sounds like a plan to me. If you happen to have a soldering gun/iron, see if it melts under that, not much heat there.
 

Could be lead from a moonshine still.
 

Melted aluminum can? I have found a bunch of melted aluminum.
 

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