How soft is phone cable sheathing?

[Skychief]

Anybody ever tested telephone cable sheathing for hardness (softness)? Idaho Ron's thread about tesing lead hardness made me wonder about this. I have a bunch to cast with but haven't used any yet. Thanks in advance for any comments.

 

[ohio ramrod]

Any that I have been lucky enough to get was soft enough to be considered "pure". Like lead flashing and pipe you want to avoid the area of seams as it may have tin solder in the seam area.
The seam area will do for smooth bore balls.

 

[ozark57]

I use it. It is the best.

 

[BrownBear]

The sheathing I use is pure as a maiden's heart.

 

[B.Habermehl]

The joints are noticeably harder, use these fore smooth bore balls or whatever. The rest of the sheathing is real soft. For m/l purposes pure lead. BJH

 

[Idaho Ron]

I ran a sample for a member here. I don't remember who it was. it ran .047 to .049 on my dial. the chart says it is 8.5 BHN. A little harder than pure. The chart calls it 40-1 In my opinion it would be perfect for the bulets I make. I have got to see if I can find some. Ron

 

[boondocker]

I use phone cable sheathing alot. It is plenty soft for round balls. I use the joints for my cartridge loads. I imagine different suppliers use slightly different compounds as sheathing part was'nt the most critical part on the line. As long as it sealed and held the pressured nitrogen in. These lines were charged to keep the moisture out. Boon :thumbsup: