Sigh. Always test cast iron of unknown history. Any wall mounting tips lol?
An shit, I’ve never tested my thrifted pans..
this post was submitted on 24 Jun 2025
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Cast Iron
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a lot of lead tests are unreliable, keep that in mind
I've never even considered this as a potential history for a used pan. Thanks for the post.
Yeah this one is a heads up - I've always thrifted and sourced my pans at flea markets. I would imagine that sandblasting the pan and re seasoning might mitigate?
Wouldn't sandblasting aerosolize the lead?
Probably, but you should be wearing PPE anyway. And washing your hands like it has lead, even if it doesnt.
Generally microscopic particles of silica, metals, paints, oxides, etc. aren't good for you
My point is it would spread the contamination around. RIP sandblasting place, no? All the objects around, would all receive a thin veneer of lead.
not all sandblasting is ghost busters style though. Plenty of smaller units in use that have some pretty extensive filtration add'ons for just this type of situation (think sci-fi medical glass-box with glove inserts you stick you hands into and where the alien eventually breaks out of).
Thank you for the explanation and the mental imagery. I'm a big Alien fan.
Depends if the lead is just a later contamination on the surface or is already in the material since the beginning. For first one your idea might work, second one definitely not.
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Someone used it for making bullets. Selling it without disclosure was quite irresponsible of them.
It could have been an estate sale and changed hands a couple times, considering how old these are
I would still clearly mark any cast iron that I used to melt metals.
how? what methods don't just wash off?
A stamp on the cooking surface is one way I've commonly seen it done.
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LASERS!!!
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that's even a thing? djeebis
Oh yeah. Bullets, fishing lures, etc. It's pretty common to have one dedicated to lead out here in the rural parts of the US.
Can confirm. Though, I picked up a cheap steel pot from goodwill for this purpose ... cast iron was too expensive for my lead melting needs ; )
Cast iron is fairly ubiquitous in Appalachia. 🙂
If you use a test on a pan that is known to have not have been exposed to lead, is it still positive? I've heard that some of these tests are designed to give false positives so that they do not give false negatives, but I do not have a source for that and it would be bad to assume it to be true without evidence.
Yes I did test against known pans and it came up negative :/
You should somehow permanently mark it so someone unfamiliar with your test doesn’t try to use it for food
Drill a hole in it
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A hacksaw score across the handle?
Is there no way to get rid of the lead?
My question is really academic - literally. I'm curious about the physics/chemistry of what happens when lead is melted in cast iron.
If a pan tests positive, seems safer bet to retire it - pans are cheap compared to your health.
Chemistry instructor here. It depends on how hot you get the pan. For the most part, the lead is going to stay in the seasoning, like someone mentioned above. However, if it got anywhere close to the melting point of the iron, you could wind up incorporating some of the lead into the iron itself. This seems pretty unlikely, as lead melts at about 325^o^C and iron melts above 1,500^o^C, but it's possible as natural gas and propane burners can get up to above 1,900^o^C
I'd hope they weren't cooking it until it was glowing bright white hot.
Me too, but since we don't know exactly why they were melting lead or what other metals might have been mixed it, it's impossible to say for sure.
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I'd wager it's mostly surface contamination, so maybe but it's not worth it - assuming you can even safely remove the lead without contaminating everything around you, you now have a bunch of lead to dispose of.
Once that's done and you have a pan with "undetectable levels" of lead do you even trust it knowing the pan's history?
Its a lot of tools, time, and testing, when you could just go buy an uncontaminated pan and move on.
This is something I would expect a chemistry type content creator like codyslab, nilered/blue, or E&I to do just to demonstrate how feasible it is.
With a cost breakdown and showing what chemical waste remains after the fact, it would be super obvious it's not worth it unless you have some sentimental attachment to it, like it was your great grandparents pan or something.
oh god, don't tell Nilered. He'll end up melting down hundreds of cast iron trying to get enough lead to make something with lol.
seriously though, whoever does it I hope they find some older ones to test as well and not just trying to replicate it with melting metals. Might be like trying to find a 4-leaf clover and they would be getting tons of people just shipping pans but I think it would be important to see the effects time had. Full testing including cutting open and seeing the results in the layers below the surface if they're trying to remove it.
Holy shot never thought to test used cast iron of unknown provenance.
You can def strip it, the lead contamination is in the seasoning but it’s not gonna get into the iron. Buuuut sanding that down will be a hazmat zone. I’d bunny suit/sealed goggles/P100/sand on plastic sheet cause that’s gonna be the worst case for lead dust. Idk if it’s worth it.
Check flurospec if you have some extra disposable cash for better lead tests https://www.detectlead.com/, I wonder if the types of tests you used turned red due to interacting with iron or something (unlikely but possible, they incorrectly react sometimes and it’s red so monk brain wonders…)
Oven cleaner will strip seasoning
Just be sure to put a label on the back stating it should not be used and contains lead. You never know who may attempt to use it someday for whatever reason. Also, in case something happens to you and someone cleans out your place, they will know its deadly and should discard it instead of keeping it.
Why not break it and throw it away?
The norm where I'm from is to drill a hole in the bottom so it becomes useless.
The best idea ive read.
Until someone fills the hole with a little lead. Good as new!
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I wonder if you tried the electrolysis trick to remove all of the coating and then tested the bare metal if it would still have lead contamination.
If the coating contains lead and you get rid of it, and then the bare metal doesn't, then you could just re-season the pan and it would be fine, right?
Can I ask where you got the lead testing swabs (brand/part number)? I’d like to test some of my cast iron.
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
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