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No clue what it could be.

The weight is almost the same as a silver dollar.

No pattern to recognize what it might be.

To start with I thought it might be lead but it can't be cut by either a sharp knife or a razor.

?????????????????????

sample2.jpg

sample.jpg

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That is what is left after a troll chews a tire.  Trolls chew tires like we chew bubble gum.  They cough those up like an owl afterwards.

I dunno

shrug

HH
Mike

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I've got two updates:

It is non-ferrous and the chief machinist where I work is going to check the metal with a hardness analyzer, what ever that is.  Once I have a hardness value I'll be able to compare that to known metal hardness values.

Just another bit of information.

 He has a complete machine shop at his home where he makes knives from steel.  I'll update tomorrow. 

 

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It could be pewter. Britannia 8 is lead free and doesn't tarnish or gray out like a leaded pewter. Brit 8 has 92% tin, 6% antimony, 1.5% copper and .5% silver. Antimony is used to harden the alloy making it less malleable.

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I think it would greatly help in identifying - to calculate the specific Gravity- by immersing it in the liquid ..., 

The second test would be - just a little bit - what is the melting temperature of the material. The low melting temperatures would prove to be lead, tin or zinc ... high melting temperature - it is silver ...

Practically, compare 2 different pieces of metal -for example... pieces of tested metal... and pieces of Aluminum - by simply comparing... the melting temperature.

 

MeltPntChart.jpg

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(Pure) molybdenum (Mo) is very close to silver in specific gravity (10.3 vs. 10.5).  Pure tungsten (W) is up there with gold (both 19.3).  Mo and W are in the same vertical column on the periodic table meaning they share some chemical and physical properties.  Both are quite hard and have high melting points.  Tungsten (often alloyed) has a lot of industrial uses.  Molydenum not as many AFAIK.

What you have is likely some kind of alloy, which makes identifying it more difficult.  Still fun in my book.  ?

 

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It could be just a chunk of waste metal from casting either from a runner/spru or large air vent. When sand casting there are pieces similar where metal is poured into the mold (spru then runner) and where it exits the mold cavity on the other side of the spru.

These extra pieces are lopped off the final casting and usually re-melted.

If it is slightly soft and heavy and doesn't have the oxidation you would see on softer lead or harder zinc I would guess it is tin based.

I do quite a bit of pewter castings and that looks very similar. Pure silver would be much brighter than that.

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