Andy Dingley wrote:

On 4 Apr, 19:55, raden wrote:

Do you mean Mazac ?

Mazak or Zamak, if we're going to get snippy over spellings.

Potmetal is older than Zamak and the older zinc potmetals were
especially brittle when aged, owing to purity problems and iron
precipitation. Old Victorian "potmetal" was usually a lead alloy and
ductile rather than brittle (although about as strong as cheese). Some
low-grade Victorian brasses were also termed potmetal, although these
had to be really low grade (usually by being porous) before they
became brittle.

The stuff I'm thinking of probably was zinc now that people have mentioned
it (rather than ali).

Interesting.

Tim