Rod that is cast, not cast rod

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Hi,I recently ran into a pile of miscelleneous welding rod. All but one is pretty common.I am trying to ID this stuff.The odd one is a rod that is cast from something. It is very heavy and hard. The rod is cast about 1/4" square x 24" long.There is no visible flux on it. It has a gritty texture from the mold. The ends have some mold flashing on them.On guy I showed it to said he thought is was some sort of hard surfacing rod used by blacksmiths....I put an OA torch to it on a couple pieces of tool steel. No flux. It grabbed both pieces. I have very little experience with gas welding so wouldn't know how this is supposed to flow, It seemed to blob more than flow. But this was dirty steel, no flux and mystery rod to boot. Any ideas on what it maybe?Ray
Reply:Is it brittle?Can you break it with your hands?It is probably cast iron rod, it was used to Oxy-Acy weld cast iron with a boraxo like flux. the whole piece was real hot and it took a good bit of operator skill. My dad showed me how to do this back about 35-40 years, but I haven't used this process in almost as many.If it has an aluminum look, there was something like an aluminum / white metal solder.Just my  opinion, not from a book, just from the road.Howes Welding Inc.www.howesweldinginc.com