solid aluminum billet question

[beartail]

I have been using a solid 1 in piece of aluminum for a billet now for a while.i have noticed I break a lot of preforms close to Finnish.could the billet be playing a bigger part in that than my skill? in other words could it be to hard or soft or heavy? it seems to do great until I get the preform almost ready for pressure then pow! I know copper is best but being a poor ass I have to do what I can to continue to persue this addiction!

[cowboy]

I'm all about copper, never tried alum. I gotta think as hard as I have to swing that heavy copper most of the time while just barely nipping a small platform that aluminum would be twice as much work for half the bang weight and follow through wise. My two cents.
 I picked up round copper remnants at a metal mart years ago for weight market value. Not cheap but will last a lifetime.

[bowmo]

Yea agreed, not much mass to it. That can be super key, sometimes I even tie a flat stone to my moose billet to up it's weight.

[Outbackbob48]

I don't know anything about the use of Alum for billets but if I use solid copper I seem to break more preforms than when I use lead filled caps. I started with caps so I blame my breaking on the hardness of solid copper and not setting thinks up differntly for the use of solid copper. If your looking for cheap caps are less than $3 but I usally have to replace mine about every 6 months if I'm doing alot of knapping, I have some solid stuff that would last a lifetime just need to use it so i get the feel for it. Guess I'll go replace my cap, nothing like the smell of lead and JB weld and wood smoke fumes first thing in the morning Bob