Scored some slabs of old X-ray shielding that appeared to be pure lead but when I melted it down and cast it into more convenient-sized ingots the stuff turned kind of a straw color (with some blue-ish highlights) as it cooled...almost looks like color case hardning. Scratch the surface with a screwdriver, though, and the inside looks normal.
Poured at around 800 deg. F and finished ingots filled out very nicely with clean, sharp corners and seem dead soft...don't have a hardness tester but can easily groove the surface with a thumbnail...but ingots all have same odd exterior coloration. Any ideas?
Bill