As the original thread was locked, (???) in the instructions from my tester, Lee recommends "It is always best to check hardness on side or nose of the bullet. Never test the base of the bullet as the results will show softer than actual hardness. If you wish to check a large ingot, check the portion of the ingot that was in contact with the ingot mold. Be sure to file a pad before testing." Under the table on page 3.Lee Lead Hardness Testing Kit
Postby mt_sourdough » 21 Jul 2014 23
The instructions with Lee's Lead Hardness testing kit says you need to test an area where the alloy was close to the mold.
I hope this clarifies it.
I have been testing some of my old lead, ingots and some of the ones I just cast from newly purchased wheel weights (from evilBay). One of the most surprising to me was when I tested one of the spacers from an old box of linotype, still in type form. The spacer indented the farthest, it appears to me to be about .120! The regular letters indent to about .046 - .048. This makes me question one of the recent purchases of linotype as it was all spacers. Will have to go through and tests all of those ingots and see how hard they really are.
Been testing everything, really. New toy, you know how it goes. Great idea, really.