AndyC wrote:I bought mine new at Bass Pro - they had plenty ;)
Here you go - $12.99
I'm in two minds about buying a hardness tester.... I'm not sure I'm at that stage yet....
Well, guess I am more of a cheapskate. I just have some old muffin tins that I bought from the Goodwill store for $0.50 each.
As far as the hardness tester goes, I use the Lee product. It was around $50 IIRC.
But for getting started, you can get a good idea of relative hardness using artist's graphite pencils. There's a writeup on Castboolits forum.
The typical pack of artist's pencils has a set of 4,5,6 pencils of different hardnesses. You want the graphite pencils for this test. A set of pencils lasts a very long time and costs under $10.
Hardness ranges in a typical set are 6B (the softest) up to 6H (the hardest).
A standard #2 pencil is HB hardness which corresponds roughly to 15 BHN which is approximately Lyman #2 Hardball.
The typical pencil hardness ranges:
Softest
6B Dead soft pure lead 5BHN
5B
4B Swaged lead/Isotope container lead, Speer soft lead bullets, Hornady buckshot
3B 1:20 alloy, 10BHN
2B Range Scrap (mixed)
B Clip Wheel Weights 1:10 alloy
HB (#2 pencil) Lyman #2 "hardball" alloy (92-6-2) 15 BHN
H Linotype
2H
3H Monotype 20BHN
4H
5H
6H Foundry Type 25BHN
Hardest
Water quenching lead alloys with antimony will typically bump them up in hardness depending on age of alloy 1-2 places on the Pencil Scale, about 5BHN maximum. For example, range scrap alloy tests out at "2B" unquenched and "B" quenched. Not much antimony in range scrap since it is mostly the soft cores of FMJ bullets & shotgun slugs mixed with whatever cast bullets are there. Clip wheel weight ingots test out at "B" air cooled but the water-quenched bullets test at "HB" after a few weeks.
Basically ,take your sample of lead. Find a nice flat spot to test. Select the pencil you want to use. Sharpen the pencil at a nice 45 degree angle, leave the tip not needle sharp, but flattened on the end. Hold the lead at a 45 degree angle to the lead sample as if you are writing on it. Push the pencil backwards of normal writing direction, trying to use the tip to shave off a sample of the lead. If the pencil is harder than the lead it will cut off a curl of lead. If the pencil is softer it will skid across the surface of the lead, it might leave a line or mark on the lead but not cut it. Try this with different pencils until you find the one which just cuts the surface of the lead. The hardness of the lead is the next pencil softer.
For example, if a 2B pencil just barely cuts the lead, your lead hardness is about 3B, which is 10BHN approximately.
I'm in the habit of keeping a stub of a #2 pencil in my pocket whenever I go to a junkyard or potential lead source. It's a simple, cheap and reliable way to get a rough guess as to what sort of lead alloy you find. If it scratches with a #2 pencil it is soft. If it won't scratch it is hard.
I like most pistol bullets to be in the 2B/B range which is about 12 BHN. When properly sized it has been the best for 32 S&W Long, 38 Special, light 44 Mag, 9mm, etc. When I shoot Magnums I use HB hardness (about 15BHN) again, sized to match the barrel bore.
I could have sworn I posted this here before, but after extensive searching I guess it must have been on a different forum.
