Today I found a sailboat keel, this hunk of lead is 5ft long (tapered at both ends) 5 inches thick in the middle and about a foot wide, any guesses as to how much it weighs, I'm thinking 500-700 lbs the way it landed in my truck....there must be alot more out there with the hurricanes of recent ripping boats to pieces and landing in peoples backyard

You sure it's not zinc? That what cathodic protection anodes are made of.

Sailboat keel/ballast could be and probably is a mix of just about anything the boat builder could get at the time the boat was built wherever it was built. Melt some down, pour some bullets, you'll find out.

if you subscribe to "Wooden Boat", as I have for several years; you will note that nearly all references there are to lead, in a fairly pure form. It was, and continues to be cheap compared to other options.

I scored big time about 20 years ago.
I had my metal detector with me and checked behind an old gas station in Florida.
I told the people that owned it that I would remove the lead contamination at no charge and they agreed. It took 4 of us just 2 days to dig out six 55 gal drums of wheel weights. I have no idea what it all weighed but it sure made a lot of sinkers.
My brother was commercial fishing at the time.
Best score I ever had on anything.

Cheers, John

quote:

I have no idea what it all weighed but it sure made a lot of sinkers.

SINKERS!!!??? OH NO.... Not sinkers!!!

quote:

Originally posted by Doubless:

quote:

I have no idea what it all weighed but it sure made a lot of sinkers.

SINKERS!!!??? OH NO.... Not sinkers!!!

DITTO!

quote:

Originally posted by Doubless:

quote:

I have no idea what it all weighed but it sure made a lot of sinkers.

SINKERS!!!??? OH NO.... Not sinkers!!!

Dang loons,eagles,sea gulls must be all dead by now.

now we know who caused all those red tides off the coast of Texas...

quote:

I scored big time about 20 years ago.
I had my metal detector with me and checked behind an old gas station in Florida.
I told the people that owned it that I would remove the lead contamination at no charge and they agreed. It took 4 of us just 2 days to dig out six 55 gal drums of wheel weights. I have no idea what it all weighed but it sure made a lot of sinkers.
My brother was commercial fishing at the time.
Best score I ever had on anything.

What a score!! Those would have all been the good ones from the old days. Higher tin content and no zink or steel weights.

well its lead alright, I melted my ww's into muffin pans but the boat keel I started casting sinkers just to keep the different types seperate, I stamped a "WW' into the bottom of the muffin pans so I wont forget where the lead came from, I used a porta Band saw and sawed three 4lb chunks off and got well over 80, 2oz sinkers, when I need bullets I'll just melt the sinkers,
[IMG]C:\Users\Jay\Desktop\Lead Keel.png[/IMG]

cub take 2 of the ww & tap them together. Note the tone they make. Now do the same with the keel material. Does the keel material produce a higher pitch than the ww? If it does its a harder material.