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(Very new to thrifting) Bought a smooth 80s cast iron pan and noticed some silver specks only after getting home.
(sh.itjust.works)
I’m guessing the finish chipped from the store cleaning the pan aggressively, but poorly, given the recent sticker date. Is that unusual? Gonna refinish it myself this week, as long as this isn’t setting off anyone’s alarm bells.
Edit: gonna head to the hardware store for a lead test kit and magnets this weekend, unless someone can think of a better process. Thanks for the advice, all!
Out of curiosity are they prone to false negatives do you know?
I have a data point of size ~5, when a friend purchased a bona fide lump of lead in order to be the control for his lead test strips. And he basically used the test strips in pairs: one on the object in question (eg cast iron pan, ham radio, etc) and then the other against that lump of lead. There have not been any false-negatives from the lump.
Unfortunately that's a bit outside of my area of expertise, I never really see false negatives being discussed when this comes up, I'm sure they happen, not many tests are 100% foolproof either way.
Most lead tests are really designed for paint, so using them on a pan is kind of outside of what they're made for to begin with and I'd be a little skeptical of the results either way.
My understanding, and it may be wrong, my knowledge on the tests comes mostly from places like this where people are cast iron geeks more than chemists, are that the tests are almost more of a test for the presence of metal in general not so much specifically lead, so you get a lot more false positives because of course there's more metal in a metal pan than you'd expect there to be in any kind of paint, and it's better to err on the side of caution and give a false positive instead of a false negative.
Again, that's secondhand knowledge from people who I don't have a ton of confidence in having their facts straight to begin with, so take that with a huge grain of salt.
Thanks!