Removing lead "casing" from wiring

[Strtspdlx]

I suppose the gentleman I bought the house from was also a caster of sorts as I found a ladle some sprue cutoffs and a very small stash of lead insulated wiring. To be exact about 10-12'. I thought about just cooling it up and melting it in my pot. Is there a better solution to seperate the two without melting. My only fear is asbestos between the wires burning off and me breathing it in. But I have no way to tell if it contains asbestos.

[imashooter2]

A hatchet will split it no problem.

And asbestos is a mineral. It doesn't burn.

[pete501]

I have about 90 pounds of lead sheathed wire. It has three insulated copper wires inside. Diameter is just more than 1/2 inch. The insulation on the wires seems to be rubber along with added rope like filler all encased inside a rubbery tube. I was contemplating melting as a package but the rubber is going to make this an unpleasant process. The lead is pretty soft and I have tried scoring down the length with a sharp knife without success. Tin snips are not pointed enough to get inside the lead casing. I did cut a six inch section and then using wire cutters, opened up one end of the lead and gripped one copper wire with the wire cutters and rolling it back thus pulling one wire out. The other two wires required less effort to remove. Needless to say I am not going to do this to the amount that I have but for 12 feet, this would be only 24 times 6 inch sections. 6.3 ounces of wire yielded 5.2 ounces of just the lead.

[Strtspdlx]

I was unaware of that.

A hatchet will split it no problem.

And asbestos is a mineral. It doesn't burn.

[lwknight]

Get about a foot of it unsheathed then tie one wire to something solid and rip the casing with the other wire. The sheathing splits pretty easily when you pull wires on opposite directions. Sometimes the wire just pulls out. Either way, mission accomplished.

[lightman]

I've had lots of cable sheathing but it was from the phone company, not electrical. Larger diameter casing and smaller wires. I cut it into 24 inch sections and pulled the wire and paper wrapper out of it. The last batch that I got was very very old and the paper wrapper put off some dust that concerned me so I wore a dust mask. Most cable sheathing is soft lead, running about 98% pure.

[jsizemore]

14-10 gauge wire goes pretty easy. Split the case on 1 side for about a foot. Put your foot on 1 conductor and grasp the other and PULL. Splits easy. Usually just paper left in the lead sheathing.

[Drm50]

On the small lead cable that is made for direct burial, that contains 14,12,10 copper conductors
I nail one end to a 2x4, straighten out on 2x4 and split with a cable knife. Telephone cable I just
split with a hatchet. If you are lucky, the splice sleeves for Phone lines can still be had, these are
the "empty" sleeves they use to slip over splices, to reseal the cable.