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Help from those whom know their Metals.

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I had a couple of Stiffel Lamps from my Mom,s Estate. I though they were solid brass due to their weight. Turned out they are brass Plated. I did some research and Stiffel produced Lamps from Zinc, Pewter, and of course Solid Brass. I rendered them down in a fire pit last night. This morning i put chunks in my lee pot and it took about a hour at full temp to make a pour able ingot. Cannot figure out the metal. It,s heavy in the ingot,s. Know it,s not lead. could be a pewter as it melts under the lee pots 600 degree ceiling. Not aluminum it,s too heavy. have to cut it with a hacksaw and it has to be cut all the way through. it,s too tough for a partial cut and then snapping off the piece. I was thinking Zinc but Zinc has a 700 degree plus melting point. If it were pewter it lacks the customary grey color. Any suggestion,s as to what it might be are appreciated. Im Stumped! Thanks, SM
 

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Pewter is mostly tin with a bit of copper, antimony and other metals. Easy to melt and polish. Zinc is nearly the same weight as cast iron and if you get it in your lead the lead is worthless for bullets. Looking at metals it would be impossible for me to tell what it is although my work as a machinist for forty years has exposed me to many.
 
Zinc poisons any lead alloy for casting purposes. The lead will pour like loose grits batter. IT only takes a wiff of zinc to ruin it. You lead pot is now unsuitable for casting bullets. You may be able to clean it aggressively and save it, no guarantees. Keep the zinc far away for bullet casting operations.

IF you put a drop of muriatic acid on the metal you can determine if zinc is present. Zinc fizzes and make bubbles, lead does not.
 
Zinc poisons any lead alloy for casting purposes. The lead will pour like loose grits batter. IT only takes a wiff of zinc to ruin it. You lead pot is now unsuitable for casting bullets. You may be able to clean it aggressively and save it, no guarantees. Keep the zinc far away for bullet casting operations.

IF you put a drop of muriatic acid on the metal you can determine if zinc is present. Zinc fizzes and make bubbles, lead does not.
I did not mix lead with this alloy. I used the lee pot to see if it would melt and be pour able. Im thinking that it can be used for casting furniture for build,s I just cannot determine exactly what kind of alloy it is. I used a separate steel pot in the lee pot while doing this. So my insert for lead was unused in this case. Thanks for getting back to me.
 
Pewter is mostly tin with a bit of copper, antimony and other metals. Easy to melt and polish. Zinc is nearly the same weight as cast iron and if you get it in your lead the lead is worthless for bullets. Looking at metals it would be impossible for me to tell what it is although my work as a machinist for forty years has exposed me to many.
There is no one specific formula for pewter. It can 50% lead and legally be offered as pewter.
 
Britannia is an advanced very high quality pewter. It is NOT common pewter! If it were, we would not call pewter, pewter, we would call all of it all Britannia metal. Did you read your source well? It says 1.8% LEAD!! Pewter does not require lead to be pewter, but it can contain up to 50%. Modern pewter usually does not contain lead, but from certain countries, it may. AGAIN, there is NO SPECIFIC formula for pewter.
 
Out of this long list of non ferrous metals only one is listed as pewter. Britannia has no lead and isn’t called pewter, my statement is pewter is mostly tin. The point being the question was what metal is this? Looking at it will not be a way to know, only a lab can test it and give an accurate answer.
 
I had a couple of Stiffel Lamps from my Mom,s Estate. I though they were solid brass due to their weight. Turned out they are brass Plated. I did some research and Stiffel produced Lamps from Zinc, Pewter, and of course Solid Brass. I rendered them down in a fire pit last night. This morning i put chunks in my lee pot and it took about a hour at full temp to make a pour able ingot. Cannot figure out the metal. It,s heavy in the ingot,s. Know it,s not lead. could be a pewter as it melts under the lee pots 600 degree ceiling. Not aluminum it,s too heavy. have to cut it with a hacksaw and it has to be cut all the way through. it,s too tough for a partial cut and then snapping off the piece. I was thinking Zinc but Zinc has a 700 degree plus melting point. If it were pewter it lacks the customary grey color. Any suggestion,s as to what it might be are appreciated. Im Stumped! Thanks, SM
Given your description I'm betting it's Zamak or another zinc alloy. If there's a scrapyard within driving distance have them shoot it with their XRF gun, then you'll know for sure.
 
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