I have a metal bar weighting 3 lbs. It is 2 inches wide and 4 inches long and the hieght is 1 1/2 inches. I was told that it is lead but it isn't soft and I can't scratch it like lead. There are no markings on the bar.
Any ideas are welcomed!
Or how to tell what it is?
Where'd you get it? It does look like lead. Maybe iron or steel.
Looks like lead from the pictures, it'd be nice if it was silver.
Does it have weight like lead?
That's quite odd. One would have to think it's an ingot of some sort, due to the uniformed size & shape, but the material is obviously the question. To me, it does appear to be lead, but that's just going on the photo.
Joe
It weights 3 pounds. I got it from my father in law who said it was lead and used as a door stop for 15 years that he had it. He didn't remember where or who gave it to him. Possibly it was left behind in the office that he took over when he started working that job.
Wouldn't lead be soft? Like the lead we find detecting?
its an awful small bar to weigh 3 lbs. so it has to be lead. it looks like the same bars i buy when i make sinkers for fishing.
Could be nickel. If you can't scratch it and it's harder than lead, that's a good possibility. A nickel ingot that weighs three pounds is worth about $19.00 at current Kitco prices.
They use those types of ingots and some rounds for nickel plating and the base electro coating for chrome plating bumpers and such. A lot of that comes out of Canada as they have a boatload of it in the mines up there.
Ed/ODF
(03-14-2015 09:15 PM)Ohio Dirt Fisher Wrote: [ -> ]Could be nickel.
That was my second guess.
It could be lead that has tin added to make it hard. People who cast their own bullets for modern guns need harder lead. There are other stuff that could be used to harden lead.