Questionable properties of a few ingots.

[Cactus Cris]

I have a few ingots that I got from a person that are hard, gold tinged silver in color, and not as heavy as the lead ingots of the same size.  Could they be tin, or something else?  Should I mess with them or throw out?  Hate to if they are tin.

[Kragman71]

Cris,
FIRST!  Do not mix that alloy with any others that you may have,until you are sure that it is safe.
Then you cast some bullets with the alloy,and shoot them with a known,reliable charge.
If the alloy contains some contaminent,like Zinc,the grooves on the bullet will not ever fill out. If you have 15% tin,or more,You will have some left in the barrel.
Frank

[Leftoverdj]

Melting point of tin is a good bit lower than that of lead, zinc a good bit higher. I'd cut a chunk off one of those ingots you think may be tin and drop it in a casting ladle with a buckshot or RB for the a muzzle loader and apply heat. If the chunk melts first, it ain't sinc.

Other simple test is weigh one of those ingots or a chunk of one and measure the amount of water it displaces. Figger the specific gravity and check it against that of tin.

[Lloyd Smale]

all my babit ingots get that little gold ting its the copper in it in small ammounts it wont hurt  if your conserned and want to get rid of it. heat the lead to about 700 degrees and then shut your pot off as it cools it will all float to the top where you can skim it off