Thread: Leaded strops - Linen? Leather? Both?

Lead poisoning is a personal health issue I deal with today along several other health issues.

About 40 years ago I worked in several different leaded glass production studios as a craftsman. I had no idea at that time that lead was good for anything but making lead came for building windows and bullets. Soldering endless lead joints using leaded solder and flux and breathing the resultant steam/smoke as the joints came together for many years has left me with sky high lead markers in my system. My bad I suppose, but none of the craftsman I knew at the time ever gave a thought to even a simple paper mask.

This thread started about lead strops and that makes Nelson's warning completely valid in this thread.

So here is my last post on this topic, take it for what it's worth.

Everyone has an Uncle Louie who smoked 2 packs of cigarettes a day and drank a fifth of whiskey every day and he lived to 99 and never saw the inside of a hospital. if you are one of the fortunate ones with good genes almost nothing you do will affect you. Unfortunately most of us don't fall into that category though we like to think we do.

Old timers used all kinds of nasty stuff in the old days and either didn't know or care or had no choice. Most will claim the bad stuff worked way better than the modern "safe" substitutes and they are probably right. Old timers worked in the coal mines and when masks came out they laughed at the younger guys I mean you work in the mine and you die young, that the way it's supposed to be. That was the attitude back then and that can be said of many industries. My dad was a painter and he used lead all the time and he practically bathed himself in benzene and turpentine and all that stuff that now has a skull and crossbones on it. Just about all the guys he worked with died in their 60s of cancer.

When I was in the Navy we used to do Naval Gunfire support and there was no ear protection. A 5 inch 54 is pretty loud. Some guys put cartridges in their ears and others laughed at them. My hearing ain't too good these days.

Life is full of risks. Some we have control over and some we don't. I used to say to my friend who died on his bike, riding is risky and he used to say well you have to go sometime and I used to say yea we're all waiting in line to see the big man some day but you don't have to sneak in front of the line.