So for the pazzo Vickers Hardness testing...
With a sample size of ten locations i got an average of 107.7 , with a max of 111.75 and minimium of 103...
This is pretty standard fair for a 6061 t6 aluminum piece, so nothing exciting... Its exactly what it should be yet again...
In contrast... the CAST piece averaged right at 100 VH, with numbers as low as 85...
Again, this is pretty much to be expected, as cast pieces tend to be much more susceptible to things like impurities when they are being made, which will create an anisotropic, non homogeneous type situation... It almost acts (and many times is) like a multi-phase composition
similar to for instance cast irons ... Though i am taking liberties with many definitions for the sake of ease of understanding...
Billet when its made tends to be a significant increase in purity (frequently many magnitudes more pure) over a cast piece with the exception of its alloying elements, leading to a much more homogeneous isotropic situation... That means for any specific point in the lever, your likely to have the same mechanical properties, and much less likely to run into a weak zone..
Putting this into something that makes sense, when you analyse a part for failure, you don't see an absolute fail point.. Instead you get a probability curve of LIKELY failure points, where for a given system, x% would fail from a sample size of y components...
If you can narrow the deviation of the properties, you make the range of failure more predictable, because the chance for significantly weaker points is less likely...
Or, using the weakest link analogy, the stock lever, is made from a handful of random strength links, of at least similar strength, though some stronger, and some weaker....
The pazzo would on the other hand be made of a handful of links, which are all very identical in strength, so the system would fail only when the links as a whole had reached its failure point...
However, its important to realize that while the hardness is indicative of some properties, it by no means tells the WHOLE story, or even most of it.... SO, the jury is still out in many ways... I guess i just want to iterate the importance of not OVER reaching when it comes to interpreting anything about what i am saying or concluding..
NOW, SOME PICTURES!
The Chinese impostor arrives!
One of these is not like the other.... can you decide which is which??
For blanca, i promised Saiid pictures of his levers death! YUP, A CHOPPED UP PAZZO!!!
Bits n pieces, that piece is what gets mounted for the metallography...
Mounted up for some testing..
The hardness testing continues!!
Lastly, a really poopy picture of the mount... a little on the dark side for some reason...
I hope i can get some china lever hardness testing for tomorrow...
I may like my chinese levers but I know the chinese arent out to beat pazzo and make the best levers. The strength will probly never be tested but that is still a very interesting fact! 
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