What's so great about red lead paint?

[BrianY]

I have been wondering about red and white lead paint for almost as long as I've been reading about boat building. I know that the stuff is used for priming new wood and bedding canvas deck coverings, but I've never read WHY it's used, what it does or why it has an almost mythic aura among wooden boat folks. Please enlighten me....

[Kev Smyth]

It sticks extremely well, is very tough, and is slightly toxic to the spores wooden boats fear most.

[Cuyahoga Chuck]

Brian,
Chemical compounds that contain metals are often quite colorful and easy to obtain so they make good pigment for paints. Certain lead compounds are not only colorful but quite poisonous so they can ward off attachs by wood-loving microbes.
Charlie

[Stargazer14]

I sort of wondered about the stuff also.
As I was ripping apart my boat, fixing bad repair jobs that had only made things worse from the previous owner, I found that the only wood that was not rotted was coated with red lead.
I dont wonder anymore.

[bottompaint]

The beauty of red lead is the lead. It is an "inert" metal and does not wash away, desolve, or chalk. Thus, when painted on wood, it stays in the grain forever. When you seal with a coat of red lead paint...it stays sealed.

[Cosmo Lengro]

;)

[Norske3]

Still legal...has the percentage of lead been much reduced since the days of WWII?

[ 09-18-2005, 06:01 AM: Message edited by: Norske3 ]

[Peter Malcolm Jardine]

Dave Fleming.... or Bob Smalser..

We need your recipe for homemade red lead.

It is THE primer for bare wood. ;)

[Dave Fleming]

See.....

Red Lead Paint Formula (http://www.woodenboat-ubb.com/cgi-bin/UBB/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic&f=4&t=002736&p=)

[Lucky Luke]

I think hat "white lead" putty fits to this thread, too.

White lead = Lead carbonate being too dangerous, it is not avilable anymore (although, if one insists, he will surely find a way to get some from some chemical plant). What we have instead is a zinc oxide ("blanc de zinc"...I don't know if the french for it can help..?) that comes as a paste...unusable as such as a putty for hull seams.

My recipe was Zinc oxyde mixed with a little of a home made read lead paint similar to dave's, and some more linseed oil till a sticky orange paste was achieved. All that "by eye"...no measurement!

The beauty of it is that it really sticks, does not dry (remains quite flexible), and allows to fill up the seams of a dryed out hull: not a drop of water when lauching. When swelling, it gets squeezed out a little and may need some flushing and top coating again (above water line). Before filling up the seams, having primed with red lead before caulking, I would "re-prime" the seams over the caulking and put this putty just after the red lead paint had started hardening.

[Ethan]

Hmmm...

Could I use read lead on untreated barn timbers?

Seriously, what's the difference between using it inside my boat and inside my shop?

[Chris31415]

Its poisonous!

[Thad Van Gilder]

well, I use it in my boat...

seems it would work well in an old barn.

-Thad

[preston]

Originally posted by Thad Van Gilder:
seems it would work well in an old barn.Perhaps not where the livestock can chew on it.

Preston

[Thad Van Gilder]

good point!!!

[Frank E. Price]

I read somewhere a couple of years ago that white lead was still available in feed & seed stores. What do farmers use it for? Is it still poisonous if you cover it with non-lead enamel and don't chew on it?

Many years ago in the navy we used to slush down wire rope with something that sure looked like it had white lead in it, with our bare hands. Hmm, that could explain some things.

Frank

[ddeaton]

Do you only use red lead on bare wood? Can you prime older bilge areas with traces of original finish intact?
Thanks,
Danny

[Jay Greer]

I have always primed topsides of new boats with a thin mixture of red lead and turps followed by standard primer and enamel. I guess it works cuz, I've never had a paint job blister no matter what color the enamel is.

[AndersG]

I have some (limited) experience of "red lead". I always have about 2 inches off water in the bottom of my boat. Inside bottom is painted and this spring I had to paint some areas that had peeled of. Under the paint there was read lead, so I used it again (have some left, about 30 years old..). This time I left it uncovered. Last year the water in the boat went black and dirty, this year the water in the boat stayed clear and the red lead is like new.. This stuff is good, but very poisionous! Use it with care, and keep children and pets away from it.

just my 2 cents.

/Anders