Orange Lead.

L

Lbob131

Member
Joined
Jul 18, 2012
Messages
616
Does anyone know  what the benefits of orange lead  was on woodwork?  Keep the woodworm at bay  perhaps?

I'm  restoring  an old irish horses  cart  which  hauled  turf from the bog. Probably at least  100 years old.
It was  housed by the previous owner  so not in bad condition. The door wouldn't close  on his shed though  so he cut    3 feet  off the  shafts  so partly ruined it.

It has draw pegs,  tapered dry  tenons, wrought iron  work  and some very  nice hand craftsmanship. 

 
I had never heard of this before so I looked it up and apparently, orange lead is just lead oxide, kind of like a lot of abrasives use aluminum oxide for grits.

How is it used with/presented to the wood?

Tom
 
AFAIK Orange lead was mostly used to seal the grainy ends of wood and generally as a one layer coating for wood on the parts that wouldn’t come into contact with the elements (eg the inward parts of window frames and such).

It has been abolished of course, due to the health hazards (lead!), but over here in Europe coatings that have the same function are often colored orange, probably because of the strong association with quality.

My dad, who was a carpenter for nearly half a century, still had some of the illegal stuff in his shop, ten years ago. Swore by it.
 
Lbob131 said:
Does anyone know  what the benefits of orange lead  was on woodwork?  Keep the woodworm at bay  perhaps?
Click to expand...

It is very durable, has very good adhesion and keeps moisture and acids at bay. Don't know about woodworm though, but I don't think it helps against that.

Bert Vanderveen said:
It has been abolished of course, due to the health hazards (lead!),
Click to expand...

Strangely enough it has not been abolished, you can still get is easily, with lead and all. No idea why, it sounds stupid.

For instance Tenco sells it. If you look at the health and safety PDF you'll see it still contains lead.
 
Lead was used in paints because the lead oxide molecules bond very well with linseed and other oils producing a very durable long lasting paint or primer. The life expectancy of lead paint was very high. I believe lead paints are still allowed to be used in some industrial situations for this reason.

Using red lead on end grain is useful since the end grain is were rot and insect attack are more likely to occur or start.

 
Me too. [smile]
I'll post up an image when its finished. Its in pieces right now.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top