Oxidized Balls.

[Whughett]

Like asbestos lead is only toxic if ingested by eating or breathing in. It’s possible I suppose to dislodge the white powder and have it become airborne. The phone company instructed us to spray cables with a wetting solution that were being removed from service. and rolled up onto reels. A couple of clicks above oxidized balls though.
Washing one’s hands, not eating while handling any lead is prudent and safe.

Someone in a past post mentioned tumble lubing round balls in liquid Alox. That would solve the problem I’d think and prevent oxidation straight off.

 

[Redcow]

I coat (spray) my freshly cast lead balls with WD40. The WD40 prevents the oxidation during long term storage.

 

[Flintlock]

Just about everything a man does has some aspect of a little danger in it, enjoy the little dangers in life while we can and before were regulated out of everything for or own good.

 

[doubleset]

Is the oxidation dangerous, more so than just the lead balls it is on?

Not a chemist, but ...

First, it appears that the white powdery substance that forms on lead over time is not an oxide, but is in fact lead carbonate. There don't seem to be any white oxides of lead. It's a carbonate -- not an oxide -- not that that matters to any of us, I think.

You can read the Thermo Fischer Safety Data Sheet on lead carbonate yourselves and draw your own conclusions, but mine are that unless you're sniffing it, chewing it, or rubbing it in your eyes, the danger is not severe. And the warnings there about washing your hands seem sufficient without employing any esoteric cleaning substances.

"Handle in accordance with good industrial hygiene and safety practice. Keep away from food, drink and animal feeding stuffs. Do not eat, drink or smoke when using this product. Remove and wash contaminated clothing and gloves, including the inside, before re-use. Wash hands before breaks and after work." (from Precautions for Safe Handling section)​

​

 

[J. Paul]

From my plumbing days, bright shiny lead can transfer to hands, into water, etc quickly in a short time. As it turns gray, (oxidation) the transfer slows dramatically.

 

[SOLANCO]

I know I handled lots of fishing weights that were oxidized when I was a kid and probably ate lunch after handling them too.

I am somewhat mystified that I survived childhood.

 

[doubleset]

I am somewhat mystified that I survived childhood.

I spent a lot of the sixth grade with a small pool of mercury in one of my coat pockets. And I mean ... not in any container. Chalk it up to a budding interest in science -- and lack of focus on potentially dangerous substances in any kid's environment.

 

[Lonewalker]

It's tingly

 

[Erwan]

Not a chemist, but ...

First, it appears that the white powdery substance that forms on lead over time is not an oxide, but is in fact lead carbonate. There don't seem to be any white oxides of lead. It's a carbonate -- not an oxide -- not that that matters to any of us, I think.

You can read the Thermo Fischer Safety Data Sheet on lead carbonate yourselves and draw your own conclusions, but mine are that unless you're sniffing it, chewing it, or rubbing it in your eyes, the danger is not severe. And the warnings there about washing your hands seem sufficient without employing any esoteric cleaning substances.

"Handle in accordance with good industrial hygiene and safety practice. Keep away from food, drink and animal feeding stuffs. Do not eat, drink or smoke when using this product. Remove and wash contaminated clothing and gloves, including the inside, before re-use. Wash hands before breaks and after work." (from Precautions for Safe Handling section)

I don't quite agree with you...

Lead carbonate (II), or simply lead carbonate, is an inorganic compound with the formula PbCO³.
White paint made from "basic lead carbonate" PbCO³-Pb(OH) and linseed oil; toxic and a source of lead poisoning, it is now banned.

As long as the manipulation is done by a shooter who moistens his plates with saliva, I let you appreciate the harmlessness of the thing...

Lead carbonate is of the same family as lead acetate or "Saturn sugar" (sweetener that causes lead poisoning) and that is why it is eliminated in the same way: boil it in white vinegar and throw away the resulting sauce then rinse. Undistilled white vinegar is the base for acetic acid (acetic acid = distilled vinegar) ........ to make lead acetate and carbonate industrially.

You can certainly read a lot about this in English and American (sorry, but my school references are in French).

This explains why white vinegar (an esoteric product if ever there was one) is the only product capable of eliminating this toxic white powder by dissolving it under heat.

 

[doubleset]

I don't quite agree with you...

Lead carbonate (II), or simply lead carbonate, is an inorganic compound with the formula PbCO³.
White paint made from "basic lead carbonate" PbCO³-Pb(OH) and linseed oil; toxic and a source of lead poisoning, it is now banned.

As long as the manipulation is done by a shooter who moistens his plates with saliva, I let you appreciate the harmlessness of the thing...

Lead carbonate is of the same family as lead acetate or "Saturn sugar" (sweetener that causes lead poisoning) and that is why it is eliminated in the same way: boil it in white vinegar and throw away the resulting sauce then rinse. Undistilled white vinegar is the base for acetic acid (acetic acid = distilled vinegar) ........ to make lead acetate and carbonate industrially.

You can certainly read a lot about this in English and American (sorry, but my school references are in French).

This explains why white vinegar (an esoteric product if ever there was one) is the only product capable of eliminating this toxic white powder by dissolving it under heat.

C'est bien, mais je ne sais pas sur quoi vous n'êtes pas d'accord ... Are you perhaps suggesting that the danger is in the use of spit patches when using these corroded balls? I do agree with that. I had overlooked this case, and I suppose it does present some danger. Or is the danger simply in handling them? But that's covered by the hand-washing protocol. The lead-based paints were banned almost entirely because children were chipping off little pieces and eating them.

You can post references to French sources for me, and I can likely struggle through them. I just don't want to try to speak it or write it any longer. But maybe you will force/encourage me back to that -- et ce serait une bonne chose, n'est-ce pas?

 

[SOLANCO]

I spent a lot of the sixth grade with a small pool of mercury in one of my coat pockets. And I mean ... not in any container. Chalk it up to a budding interest in science -- and lack of focus on potentially dangerous substances in any kid's environment.

We now live in a time when many (?most?) children in our society are mollycoddled. My parents would likely be in trouble today for the things I was allowed to do back then in the 1950's.

 

[Flintlock]

We now live in a time when many (?most?) children in our society are mollycoddled. My parents would likely be in trouble today for the things I was allowed to do back then in the 1950's.

A 10-12 year old boy walking down a township or county road with a long gun today would cause a stir I'm sure.

 

[SOLANCO]

A 10-12 year old boy walking down a township or county road with a long gun today would cause a stir I'm sure.

Did not raise an eyebrow in Smyth County VA in the '50s.

 

[SOLANCO]

I spent a lot of the sixth grade with a small pool of mercury in one of my coat pockets. And I mean ... not in any container. Chalk it up to a budding interest in science -- and lack of focus on potentially dangerous substances in any kid's environment.

When I was a kid a professor at the University of Pennsylvania lived across the street with his family. I remember him teaching his daughter and I how to melt lead and pour it into molds we carved in wood boards to make "coins".

 

[Flintlock]

Did not raise an eyebrow in Smyth County VA in the '50s.

Didn't here until lately, then city slickers started building homes and turning into the city their trying to leave.

 

[Whughett]

I spent 30 years as a telephone technician working lead sheath cables and various size lead sleeves used to enclose splices in water filled environments. Blood tested at regular intervals in the last 10 or so. Never tested high.

 

[Ames]

I'm too old to give a dern what color my lead balls are. I dont have enough years left for it to catch me.

 

[waksupi]

A simple way to prevent oxidation is to mix soap and water, dip the balls, and let dry. No rinse.

 

[Flintlock]

Shoot them before they oxidize, dig them out, melt down and start again.

 

[Erwan]

C'est bien, mais je ne sais pas sur quoi vous n'êtes pas d'accord ... Are you perhaps suggesting that the danger is in the use of spit patches when using these corroded balls? I do agree with that. I had overlooked this case, and I suppose it does present some danger.

So there is no reason to have different opinions: the only problem is the contact with the mouth and the only contact with the hands is not really a problem as long as one does not suck one's fingers or that one handles the bullets, that one takes the patches to suck them in the mouth: in this case one comes back to the children who scratched the walls to eat the sweet paint......
For the rest, it was only a question of questioning the answer I had given concerning the dissolution of this white lead oxide powder by simply boiling it with hot vinegar by explaining why hot vinegar forms or dissolves this oxide. I treated many bullets in this way and always with success.
It was still necessary to explain the why of the how and therefore to speak about oxides (what they are and how they are formed) and their use as well as lead poisoning to make me understand......
It is also said that sapa used as a sweetener precipitated the fall of the Roman Empire. I doubt that this is the most profound reason or the only one, but there may have been a small influence...