It is, but it’s tough because it’s really an amazing metal for the job. Lead alloys are unbelievably good at transmitting the kenetic energy from one thing to another, especially at the price.
Feels a lot like how asbestos is genuinely amazing at its job. But, you know… mesothelioma.
Metal salts are often water soluble, but a characteristic of lead salts is that they are especially water soluble. So heating up the pan with water should get rid of most of it. Boil water, pour it off, repeat a couple of times. If you’re worried, use acidic water - it’s going to mess up your pan but you’ve already proven that you know how to fix that, sir.
If you’re curious, you can test for lead by doing the following first. Use distilled water and instead of boiling it, heat it to about 70 C. Keep it there for a couple of minutes while stirring gently. That should get most of the lead, if there is any, into the aqueous phase, while leaving behind any other metal salts that could theoretically be present.
Pour off the water into a different container. Let it cool down.
Take a portion of it to a borosilicate vial and a few drops of HCl (hydrochloric acid). If a white precipitate is formed, it may indicate lead. Together with the fact that your cations were soluble in hot water, the evidence is quite strong.
If you really want to be sure and want to do some real cation analysis, this page has a flowchart which, if you follow it, will let you know which oxidative state your lead was in and therefore help you infer what anion you have. I’d skip that part unless you want to do it for the sake of whimsy.
That, and hobbyist bullet reloaders would use these to melt lead to cast into cheap bullets. Once you melt lead in the pan it will never be food safe again, I’d go as far as to drill a hole into the bottom so no one tries.
Test them for lead.
I didn’t think of that, I will have to look into that. These are from the era you would expect lead.
Some people use these pans to melt and cast lead fishing weights and/or bullets.
Wild that we still put lead in bullets… Especially for hunters that then eat their kill.
It is, but it’s tough because it’s really an amazing metal for the job. Lead alloys are unbelievably good at transmitting the kenetic energy from one thing to another, especially at the price.
Feels a lot like how asbestos is genuinely amazing at its job. But, you know… mesothelioma.
Ah that explains it! No lead would survive the initial casting but using it for that after the fact makes sense.
They should have lead with that /s
Metal salts are often water soluble, but a characteristic of lead salts is that they are especially water soluble. So heating up the pan with water should get rid of most of it. Boil water, pour it off, repeat a couple of times. If you’re worried, use acidic water - it’s going to mess up your pan but you’ve already proven that you know how to fix that, sir.
If you’re curious, you can test for lead by doing the following first. Use distilled water and instead of boiling it, heat it to about 70 C. Keep it there for a couple of minutes while stirring gently. That should get most of the lead, if there is any, into the aqueous phase, while leaving behind any other metal salts that could theoretically be present.
Pour off the water into a different container. Let it cool down.
Take a portion of it to a borosilicate vial and a few drops of HCl (hydrochloric acid). If a white precipitate is formed, it may indicate lead. Together with the fact that your cations were soluble in hot water, the evidence is quite strong.
If you really want to be sure and want to do some real cation analysis, this page has a flowchart which, if you follow it, will let you know which oxidative state your lead was in and therefore help you infer what anion you have. I’d skip that part unless you want to do it for the sake of whimsy.
That, and hobbyist bullet reloaders would use these to melt lead to cast into cheap bullets. Once you melt lead in the pan it will never be food safe again, I’d go as far as to drill a hole into the bottom so no one tries.