Fair Lead pricing help

SINNER

SINNER

“Custom”.
2A Bourbon Hound 2024
Benefactor
Supporting Member
Multi-Factor Enabled
Joined
Feb 9, 2021
Messages
1,606
Location
Holly Springs, NC
Rating - 100%
90   0   0
I am possibly going to trade some lead to a friend here for a tractor implement. I obtained my lead a while back and so I do not know current values but availability was dire when I got it so I have to assume it has only gotten worse in the last few years since then. What he is interested in is 80%ww and 20% soft lead already fluxxed once and in small pot friendly ingots. Any idea whatsoever on pricing would be greatly appreciated. I will do him more than fair but want a starting point as tractor implements aren’t cheap either. Thanks a bunch!
 
Last edited:
I always think $1/lb as a starting point. Your alloy is a little sweeter than most so maybe $1.20/lb.
I haven’t looked at prices in a while, but you could also check the vendor ads at castboolits.
 
Schattenreiter said:
What does lintype go for. I have 2 - 3 hundred lbs of the stuff.
Click to expand...
Linotype is a little complicated. The actual lines of type are one thing, spacers are another, ingots could be a variety of things even if they look like a foundry product. That said, the last deal I saw on castboolits was a trade request, guy wanted 3lbs of soft lead for each lb of lino, and isn’t getting much action. Trades don’t maximize value, but using my $1 baseline for lead that means lino is a bit under $3/lb. I’d post a USPS SFRB up at $3/lb and see what happens, if it sits then move down, and if 10 people post “seconds” the move up for the next box.
 
I wish I had known to save all that Linotype we used for decades in the letter press shop.
 
Sp00ks said:
I wish I had known to save all that Linotype we used for decades in the letter press shop.
Click to expand...

My wife works at the local paper and that is where I got mine. They used to have the whole set up to melt and pour the letters. No telling how many times this stuff has been cycled. I even got the ingot molds they used. I have talked many times with the guy from the print shop who melted and poured the letters and ran the press also.
 
Schattenreiter said:
My wife works at the local paper and that is where I got mine. They used to have the whole set up to melt and pour the letters. No telling how many times this stuff has been cycled. I even got the ingot molds they used. I have talked many times with the guy from the print shop who melted and poured the letters and ran the press also.
Click to expand...
There used to be a little shop on Bloodworth st in Raleigh. Anyone that knows the area knows its a predominately a black neighborhood. They had a linotype machine. I would stop by there to pick up some type.

The old man with the cane in the back would throw every racist slang a white boy could imagine at me. The son would apologise and tell Dad to hush. This would continue every time I walked through the door.

I could only imagine what the old man had seen in his day to be such a racist bastard. Maybe it was lead poisoning.
 
Just for interest- a lino type setting machine is called a Mergenthaler invented by this guy-

en.wikipedia.org

Ottmar Mergenthaler - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org en.wikipedia.org

If you've ever seen one in operation, it's quite the steam punk sort of thing.

BTW- last batch of lead I purchased was $1/lb for pure
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom