What kind of shellac I've found?

[KennyZ]

Hi,
I'm starting to repad an old Conn clarinet and noticed an unusual kind of shellac, as a silver colored with micro grains (?)
It seems original because there are no signs of previous shellac work,
it go away easily and leave the key cup in like new conditions but I'm wondering what it is...

[Chris Peryagh]

I dread to think! I'd strongly suggest you get it analysed to see if it's safe. Does it melt in boiling water and is it adhesive when heated? It looks like Cerrobend.

Never seen anything like that before - just the usual offerings of various colours of shellac and sealing wax and hot melt glue. Oh - and Evo-Stik on B&H clarinets, but never anything metallic.

[CooolJazzz]

I'd hate to think of anyone stupid enough to do it, but I swear it looks like molten lead. As kids, we used to gather up the bits of lead left behind after contractors were installing central heating ducts under all the new houses being built in the neighborhood. They used molten lead to seal the joints of the ducts, and as soon as they left in the afternoons we would go under the houses and scoop up the drippings that had fallen on the ground. Then we would melt it back down and fashion it into all sorts of cool sculptures. One kid...(must have been an eagle scout or something)...even made a sand mold and ended up making a scale version of a civil war canon out of lead. Anyway...what I see on the back of that pad looks exactly like the bits of cooled lead drippings that we would find under the houses. Maybe they tried to use solder??? Talk about improvisation!

[Sigmund451]

Cerrobend is a low temp soldier. I wonder if the key cups were deeper than the pads they got so they filled them? Stranger and dumber things have happened.

[KennyZ]

Chris, I'm so worried about the Cerrobend ... on a clarinet from 30's ?
No, the key cup is not so deep to need "extra" filling