"Charles Schuler" wrote in message
. ..
Copper, tin, lead, and other metals are non-magnetic and so are many
alloys such as "stainless steel." Also, metals such as nickel are only
weakly magnetic.

Ally is soft, so gouges easily, light, white, non-magnetic, has a dull sound
when you hit it, and won't solder to with regular solder. Old ally will
usually sport some white powdery oxide corrosion, and exposed surfaces may
well have characteristic pock marked surfaces. If the scrap is painted, or
has not been exposed to the elements, then its a lot harder to tell. There's
not much scrap pure ally out there, because it's not a very useful metal. It
fatigues easily and is generally not very strong or resistant to
deformation, and is too soft. It can be made a lot more useful by alloying
it with other metals, which I guess does affect scrap value, as the wanted
ally would have to be seperated out from the other metals.

Arfa