what is this metal?

Recently I was clearing out a the garage of my father in law. Amongst the junk I came across a small bar of metal that felt a lot heavier than I would expect for the size.

On closer inspection it scrapes back to a light copper colour but appears to be denser than copper.

Dimensions are 6.4mm diameter and 48.25mm long. Weight is 22g on my kitchen scales. I calculate that as 14g/cm3.

So unless I have got me sums wrong it is denser than lead (11g/cm3) but the only stuff denser than lead that I can think of that is coppery coloured is gold but that is much denser at 19g/cm3.

Has anyone got any bright ideas or ways I could better identify it?

https://www.dropbox.com/s/k62nu1pf4t4gsws/20180126_093459.jpg?dl=0

Edited By Toby on 26/01/2018 09:49:26

Edited By Toby on 26/01/2018 09:49:43

Best guess is a copper tungsten "heavy" alloy, **LINK**

HTH,

Rod

Was your FIL in the nuclear business? Or do anything that might have come across lab samples of such materials.

Reason I ask is that once I read that Uranium pellets for the Magnox reactors may have been that sort of size. Uranium alloys may have had that sort of density if mixed with lighter materials, and either copper plated to reduce corrosion or the oxide may be coppery in colour. Advice: wash hands thoroughly after handling if it could be a pellet

On further searching, the density of one of the 6 crystalline allotropes of Plutonium is 13.59. Possibly within your margin of measurement error. Most of the others are 16- 19.59.

More likely to be Tungsten though. Hope it's more likely!

Regards

Richard.

Edited By richardandtracy on 26/01/2018 10:14:43

Sounds like it might be tungsten. If you srape it to copper colour and it oxidises back to grey/silver within minutes or less then it is almost certainly tungsten.

Rik

First, no the FIL was not in the nuclear business. He was a toolmaker.

I do know someone who is and I asked him if he could take it into work and get it checked. The answer was not printable

It doesn't oxidise, the scraping in that picture was done before christmas. It is also fairly soft - when scraped with a knife it feels as soft as copper although I haven't tried properly cutting it. I am pretty sure the colour is the base metal, not any form of plating.

It also looks like it has been cut from a longer rod, both ends sawn and the dark covering in the pictures is I think just general dirt from sitting in a box of rubbish for quite a few years.

So far I am liking Rod's suggestion. I gather copper tungsten is used for welding electrodes so that would fit with where the FIL worked.

Shame, I was trying to convince myself it was 18ct Gold although I knew that was a bit unlikely

Sounds like Tungsten Copper. I have a small piece somewhere, it is very heavy. It was given to me by a guy who did wire eroding. Most of the guys he worked with had made themselves a set of darts from offcuts they managed to get hold of!