Bismuth alloy vs. lead

[richsc]

I recently used bismuth alloy (aka Wood's Metal, cerrobend, other names) to replace wet sand when bending some brass tubing. I'd had a terrible time with the tubing crimping with wet sand, but that problem is elimiinated with bismuth alloy. It melts at 158'F, so can be cleaned out of the tube almost as easily as sand. And it is very low toxicity, certainly less than lead.

I was wondering if anyone has used this alloy as a template for hammering out belt plates or similar thin metal objects? It will not be hard to do the template but I was just wondering if anyone had experience with it.