Sigh. Always test cast iron of unknown history. Any wall mounting tips lol?
this post was submitted on 24 Jun 2025
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Cast Iron
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is this common with old cast iron?
Cast iron can be used for melting lead to form shot and fishing weights. That’s rare now but did happen
Actually when I was a kid, one year my Dad melted metal for weighting my pinewood derby - I do wonder now what he melted and how. Not many easily obtained metals are heavy and have a low melting point
It was most likely lead. It was also used as weights for fishing lures and a ton of other stuff.
I melted metal for my kids' cars. It isn't hard to find a low melting point allow that is safe as well (well as safe as a low melting temperature alloy can be...)
It could've been pewter. You can melt that in a pan on the stovetop. 170-230°C is all it takes and your typical electric stovetop can get up to 800-900°C.
I see a reference to lead being removed from pewter “in the 1970s”, and yes, I’m old enough that lead is still in question
Pewter contains Antimony, which is still toxic. It used to be made into cups to induce vomiting.
Not really. Though sometimes people do use the pans for weird shit and they can get contaminated that way. One example I heard was of people melting lead for fishing weights and bullets (though your cast pan would have to be really old if it was used for that).
Not necessarily. People still scavenge lead (often from car batteries) and cast their own fishing weights and bullets.
Not that it's a cast iron level of this issue, but I knew a guy who paid for college (this woud have been about 10 years ago now) by purchasing scavenged and derelict boats, then chopping\melting the lead ballast out of them to resell as raw metal. Never underestimate the value of scrap metal or people's willingness to gather it up for money.
There is a multi billion dollar industry revolving around scrap metals.