Rob said that it will kill me and this is my response

Rob Carroll i think you have to eat it for breakfast mate every day for a month to get lead poisoning Rob , as I usto work with lead nearly every day as a panel beaters appreciate,
i was constantly lead wiping rust  patches and dent filling , then filing it off and sanding down to finish.
Whilst smoking cigarettes.

First to lead wipe you have to actually tin the surface which means to add a shiny clean surface for the parent  material , the lead stick to adhere to.
I would use what was called tinning compound which is a paste that you brush on to the prepared surface and heat up with an acetylene torch or lpg burner till it bubbles up.

Then you wipe  off the top hot surface  with a clean rag ,
you then expose the shiny tinned surface ready for lead wiping .

Alternatively you can use solder flux and brush it on and heat wiping your lead stick on the heated area leaving you a nice tinned surface.
Failure to take this step will be a failure to apply any lead to the job it just wont stick .

We used 60/40 lead sticks which indicated that it was a stick of lead that was containing sixty percent lead and forty percent tin ,
70 /30 was much harder to work with but  cheaper to buy , tin content is important because lead in its hot plastic state the tin element works like a lubricant, helping you slide it around.

Lead doesn’t rust . 

So I went to the doctors every six months for a lead level blood test and  i never ever once registered  a reading .

So i think perhaps me making a few sinkers is harmless, except when it’s contaminated lead that you use ,
ie silicone , paint , bitumen etc on your base product.

Then the fumes that let off when melting your lead are quite noxious, and it must be performed outdoors if you have to.

But raw clean sinker making lead can be purchased at good tackle shops in rolls ready to melt down .

And its a bit of fun to actually pour hot molten lead in a mould and hey presto you have new shiny sinkers to use ,
At certain times offshore at Killy you need to paint then black but that’s another story ,

Cheers xxx
Curlyg