Plumbers Iron Pipe Joint Lead

[Firephoto798]

I picked up some scrap lead from a salvage yard today. In the collection is about 25 lbs of the lead strips that were used to fill joints on iron pipe that came from an old building demolition. I cleaned some of it and tried the pencil test in several spots and it showed a BHN of appx. 10. That would make it more than pure lead, but not up to 50/50 bar solder. I have done a search for a description of what the material properties might have been on the old plumbers lead with no luck.

What would be the best way to find out what the material content might be? Does anyone know what it would be for old joint lead? Should I just cast some with it and test there properties? I would rather not just mix it in with my known lead without knowing what it is.

Thanks

Jim

[Hairy Dawg]

All of the plumbing lead that was used for iron pipes that I've gotten has been close to pure lead.

[Winger Ed.]

All I ever ran into was essentially pure Lead.
As Lead ages in the air, it turns gray. If it is alloyed much it'll usually be more silver colored and no so oxidized.

When you buy Lead from Plumbing supply houses, it usually comes in pure Lead 5 pound ingots.

Some are vent stacks, but most cast Iron pipe with the Lead joints is from sewer lines.
So don't be surprised if your boolits smell sort of crappy.

[Dusty Bannister]

Old plumbers would likely use whatever is in the pot at the time. 1-20 has a BHN of 10. You may be finding out that ingots and bullets do not exhibit the same hardness when tested because they have different cooling rates. The lead in the poured joint just needs to be soft enough to be pounded into the joint to seal against leaks. You probably had some tar and fiber that was first pounded into the joint and then the lead was poured and pounded into the joint to hold things in place.

[too many things]

its pure
but make sure you heat for while and do saw dust. it will have rust from the cast pipe.
its fine if you clean it

[Firephoto798]

Thanks for the replies.

Jim

[richhodg66]

I got a whole bunch of that stuff from a demolition project on post about 24 years ago. Agreed, it's a little harder than pure, but mixes well with other things and might make good .38 Special wadcutters just by itself.

[Conditor22]

[Firephoto798]

That's what mine look like.

[bangerjim]

Pretty nasty stuff. All I have ever seen is almost pure. But who knows, they may have thrown some COWW's in the pot if they were running short.

They wanted it as soft as possible so to keep a seal as the earth and pipe moved around over time.

[farmbif]

we had special gloves at the scrap yard for that kind of brown covered stuff

[NyFirefighter357]

I got a bunch of lead from the estate of an old plumber. There was a bunch of soft lead ingots but also a pile of COWW and 50/50 solder. Pounded lead was soft lead wool, most of the joints I find are poured lead and oakum. Poured joints can be any melted lead. Left over lead pipe, melted ingots or some form of mix with solder or what ever was left in the pot. In the stuff I got I had 5-6 Pot sized ingots that were dumped out of cooled pots. My B-I-L is the only plumber I know that still pours lead joints, he uses what ever scrap he takes out, mostly lead bends from toilet waste lines or old poured joints recycled back into new joints.

[ACC]

I picked up some scrap lead from a salvage yard today. In the collection is about 25 lbs of the lead strips that were used to fill joints on iron pipe that came from an old building demolition. I cleaned some of it and tried the pencil test in several spots and it showed a BHN of appx. 10. That would make it more than pure lead, but not up to 50/50 bar solder. I have done a search for a description of what the material properties might have been on the old plumbers lead with no luck.

What would be the best way to find out what the material content might be? Does anyone know what it would be for old joint lead? Should I just cast some with it and test there properties? I would rather not just mix it in with my known lead without knowing what it is.

Thanks

Jim

If you are talking about the silver ring around the lead joint it is probably 3% tin and the rest lead. My dad was a master plumber and that what he was require to use back in the day, at least in San Antonio.

ACC