strange metal... cant identify it

[Rocknut88]

Hey guys need some identification assistance... i was using a vlf detector in dry sand and this hunk of metal maxed out my discrimination. I brought home and cleaned of the crust its very dark grey pourous looking when i break it which is very hard to do it has a very shiny crystal like structure its a very heavy/ dense metal. It is very hard not soft like lead but heavy like lead and similar surface color. I have a feeling its very old. Any ideas would be awesome. Pictures are pending

 

[Cupajo]

Meteorite?

Can't tell how large it is by you pics unless that is the whole thing in your fingers.

Sizable meteorite can be worth more than gold!!

CJ

 

[Water wizard]

Is it magnetic?

 

[Rocknut88]

No not magnetic its three chunks all together bout as big a half dollar

 

[WaterWalker]

Do a specific gravity test on it.

Using a gram scale with a resolution of .01 gr one that has a resolution of .1 WILL NOT give the necessary decimal places.

All figures quoted are approximate. They may vary according to the exact physical state of
the metal, as cast, rolled, drawn, because of varying degrees of porosity and temperature.
Alloys will vary considerably according to the other components they contain.
Specific Gravity (S.G.) is not expressed in units as it is purely a ratio.

METAL S.G. METAL S.G.

Gold - 24K 19.32 Silver

 

[hunter12]

Is it soft like lead, could be sheets of lead cargo from a ship.Iv'e found small pieces of lead that looked like that.

 

[Water wizard]

WaterWalker that is awesome!

 

[Tom_in_CA]

I don't mean to be a kill-joy, but ..... that's the kind of stuff we call "slag", and makes it into the nearest garbage can on our way back to the parking lot.

 

[EL Pulltabio]

I wonder if it's degraded aluminum foil

 

[Goldstrike]

Chances are there are firepits close by, or someone had a fire on the beach and you know what people throw in the pit's? yes, all kinds of junk which gets melted down and looks exactly like what you have. I could be wrong but I think you've got what most beach detectorists frequently find (including myself) which is melted down, perhaps an amalgam of who knows what metal! Thanks for posting though because when I first started finding this stuff, I wondered what and where it came from myself!

 

[Robert2300]

I think the slag/aluminum is probably the correct answer.

 

[mudpuppy]

Its too heavy to be aluminum...what you mentioned about it being crystalyn and shiny, porous, and harder than lead made me go and find a "rock" my wife brought home one day...its the same description of what you found..about the size of an egg...i have no idea what it is...its not some sort of lead or babbit or anything like that...if you find out, let us know...take it to your local rock shop or vo-tech metal dept..
Mud.

 

[Tom_in_CA]

If anyone here thinks stuff like this could be tested, and *might* be valuable, I'll make you a deal: I can provide you with hundreds of globblets like these. $1 each. You can test them to your heart's content. Heck, some may even be platinum or meteorites, and you can get rich by buying them from me! Just let me know how many you want, and I'll ship them to you. They're especially plentiful on beaches that allow beach-bonfires. Have a ball

 

[biglry]

If anyone here thinks stuff like this could be tested, and *might* be valuable, I'll make you a deal: I can provide you with hundreds of globblets like these. $1 each. You can test them to your heart's content. Heck, some may even be platinum or meteorites, and you can get rich by buying them from me! Just let me know how many you want, and I'll ship them to you. They're especially plentiful on beaches that allow beach-bonfires. Have a ball

Yep and if Tom don't have enough of them I have a barrel full of them all from Pismo Beach. They are aluminum cans that have been melted in a fire, then corrosion and electrolysis has set in with contact of the salt water, I find 10 to 20+ of them every day when hunting in the beach camping area south of Pismo Beach.

 

[Ron Lord]

n/t

 

[WaterWalker]

n/t

 

[Johnnyanglo]

It looks like molten primordial metalic helium extruded from the center of the earth ... or a melted beer can, not sure which.

 

[robinb]

Looks like steel that has corroded and the sand sticks to it, called "halo effect"

I find things like, keys, padlocks, watches, steel rings all have it, coats the item in a thick coat of crud.

I put it in strange acid which desolves the crud and leaves the original behind.

 

[Tom in Victoria]

Appearance and weight says babbit to me. Back when, the old smaller boats, used babbit for bushings instead of bearings as possible, on the drive or propeller shafts. Commonly used for emergency repairs on a lot of other stuff. Find it on our beaches in Victoria BC quite often. I assume no platinum nuggets have been found in your area !

Bit of trivia here; Platinum nuggets occur in southern BC, in Washington and Oregon and the only other place for platinum in nugget form, is apparently, Russia. The old miners of BC in the 1860's, threw it back, thought of it as unripe gold ! The Chinese miners, right on their heels, saved every bit of it !