Checking hardness

Winelover

North Central Arkansas
Hmmm . . .
For starters: Enough neighborless acreage, somewhere West of the Continental Divide between 3000' and 4000' in elevation, that would sustain my wife and our immediate family, excellent medical facilities and doctors no further than 10-miles distant, and the means to provide us with our wants and need, and maintain us in our particular lifestyles.

Pretty much describes what I have, east of the Continental Divide. I have 57+ wooded acres, surrounded by other large tracts of wooded vacant land. Closest neighbor is @ 150 yards away, as the crow flies, has only 5 acres of very steep land with highway frontage. Thirty one acres of my land goes behind them, insuring no one will ever build near me. Next bordering neighbor is @ 1/4 mile down the highway. Behind me, I can see one other house, up on the next ridge, 1/4 mile or more away. I'm a hunter and spend a lot of time in the woods. Never ran across or seen any other signs of human activity.

There is a highly recommended hospital, less than 10 miles away. I've used them for two knee replacements and two hernia surgeries.
 
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Walks

Well-Known Member
Bret,
The Saeco reads cast bullets of .30, .38 & .45 caliber with a FN. The scale is 1 - 10, there is a conversion chart that shows Brinell Hardness. So far the COWW's ingots have read true to hardness.
My Source has given Honest weight+ and True Hardness. And after 500+lbs in the last 3yrs, I have NO Complaints.

That is one Fantastic Bench.
 

Bret4207

At the casting bench in the sky. RIP Bret.
I have a Cabine Tree, wonderful tool. But again, it gives you Bhn, not what the alloy is made up of. My point is that Bhn is only maybe 1/3 of the story on a good day, only 10% or less at other times. As I've said countless times, I can take the same alloy and give you 3 different readings or 3 different alloys and give you the same Bhn. So my faith in Bhn alone telling me much is not real strong. Let me shoot it a bit and then I can start making determinations about what is good or bad with that alloy regardless of a Bhn. No offense to anyone intended, just my experience after putting way, way too much faith in a Bhn alone.
 

Ian

Notorious member
Another thing...if you have more than about 1% antimony in your mix, reading the hardness off an ingot will not always give a true indication of the alloy's strength when cast into bullets. Ingots cool very slowly compared to bullets and will always test softer for the first few months to years. I have some ingots from a foundry that took several years to test as hard as the bullets did a month after casting. Binary lead/tin or close to pure lead ingots obviously will test close to what the bullets will.