What's another way to remove oxidation from lead came apart from steel wool or a brass brush?

Question

We are trying to blacken and polish stained glass windows to a perfect black finish. The oxidation on the lead is causing silvery grey spots to appear after polishing. Using steel wool is effective, but time consuming. We've used everything from rust removers to acetic acid! The humidity where we live is very high, and we'd like to "restore" the lead that has oxidised so far.

Answer 1

I dont quite understand the question.. but Sodium bicarbide will usually work from a lead anode

Answer 2

Hello John, Yes, a brush and regular solvent will remove lead and copper fouling, but it will take time and effort ... and it won't remove all of it! Over the years, I have found some products that really work. For lead fouling in my handguns, I tend to have used a product known as RB44 ... it worked like a hot knife thru butter without any ill effects. I do not know if it is still on the market. For copper fouling, I found that Sweets 7.62 is the most effective copper fouling cleaner on the market. The down side with Sweets is that it is ammonia based ... because of that, you MUST put a light coating of oil on your bore to prevent rusting. For the effectiveness of the cleaner, I am more than willing to oil the barrel on my match rifles! When you use Sweet's, you just continue running patches thru the bore until they stop coming out greenish black. Good luck and good shooting!

Answer 3

this is a oxidation reduction, so if you learn just a tad bit of chemistry is might help. I myself have forgot...