How to tell hardness - 24hourcampfire

So was given dads casting stuff when he passed. How can a layman figure out the hardness of the ingots he left and what is in the pot.
Would be nice if there was a way without buying a special tool.

Checking lead hardness with drawing pencils

Many possible pencil makers out there, of varying adherence to quality control. The guys at castboolits generally use and recommend the "Mars Lumograph" set made by Staedtler in Germany. Bought mine on ebay a couple years ago, a 12 pencil set in a metal box, for 14 bucks to my door. Borrowed my rich friend's Saeco tester to check the accuracy of the pencils, pencils very accurate.

Originally Posted by NVhntr

Checking lead hardness with drawing pencils

Cool series of recommendations. Thanks.

Ordered a hardness tester, thanks for the replies

Originally Posted by flintlocke

Many possible pencil makers out there, of varying adherence to quality control. The guys at castboolits generally use and recommend the "Mars Lumograph" set made by Staedtler in Germany. Bought mine on ebay a couple years ago, a 12 pencil set in a metal box, for 14 bucks to my door. Borrowed my rich friend's Saeco tester to check the accuracy of the pencils, pencils very accurate.

This.
Some of my stash were eye openers when tested. Pencils live on my bench.
Have to guard them from the wife!😤

Originally Posted by NVhntr

Checking lead hardness with drawing pencils

Wow, this is great. Thanks for the link.

A good hardness tester trumps anything else.

I was going to comment about the disconnect between hardness and all the answers so far, but nah, this isnt the fire!

Originally Posted by gnoahhh

A good hardness tester trumps anything else.

Indeed.

fingernail test...

if you can scratch easy with fingernail, it's "lead"

if you can't it's "lino type"

good enough.

if you have any roundball moulds, cast the unknown and compare weight to the weight for that mould in lead.

The Lee Hardness tester is super nice to have. In my experience it's plenty accurate.

Originally Posted by blammer

fingernail test...

if you can scratch easy with fingernail, it's "lead"

if you can't it's "lino type"

good enough.

This is actually fairly accurate as long as one doesn't have whimpy nails. Sometimes you don't have a hardness test close by. This was taught to me a few decades ago by an old bullet caster. He claimed if you could easily gouge the lead with a thumbnail it was soft, south of BHN10. If you could mark the lead but not really gouge it, 11-16/17 depending on how much of a mark it left and if your thumbnail won't mark it and it feels glassy, it's hard, 18 or higher. I just checked some water dropped bullets with a BHN of 29. Like trying to mark glass with my thumbnail. It has worked well for me to get a ball park hardness until I could check it with my LBT tester.

Originally Posted by mart

Originally Posted by blammer

fingernail test...

if you can scratch easy with fingernail, it's "lead"

if you can't it's "lino type"

good enough.

This is actually fairly accurate as long as one doesn't have whimpy nails. Sometimes you don't have a hardness test close by. This was taught to me a few decades ago by an old bullet caster. He claimed if you could easily gouge the lead with a thumbnail it was soft, south of BHN10. If you could mark the lead but not really gouge it, 11-16/17 depending on how much of a mark it left and if your thumbnail won't mark it and it feels glassy, it's hard, 18 or higher. I just checked some water dropped bullets with a BHN of 29. Like trying to mark glass with my thumbnail. It has worked well for me to get a ball park hardness until I could check it with my LBT tester.

Another indicator is whether the alloy is shiny or oxidized.

Soft alloys will be very dark in color, as well as being very easy to scratch.
Pure lead or .22 rimfire lead.