Lead, Grade Information
Soft Lead
Soft pure lead items, fishing weights, old type metal, solder, and cast lead shapes. A clean, versatile scrap grade priced by weight.
Periodic Table Position
History & Interesting Facts
Pure or "soft" lead, essentially unalloyed lead, has been used since prehistoric times for small cast items, weights, and fusible components. Archaeological finds of lead net weights from Neolithic fishing sites confirm that the metal's density made it the obvious choice for weighting fishing lines and nets millennia before its many other applications were discovered. Lead sinkers for fishing have been in continuous production since ancient Greece and Rome, and remain the most common lead item encountered in everyday life outside of vehicles. Gutenberg's invention of the printing press around 1440 required a low-melting alloy for casting movable type, lead, alloyed with antimony and tin for hardness (type metal), was the solution used for over 500 years until phototypesetting made hot metal type obsolete in the 1970s and 1980s. The resulting obsolescence of the printing industry's type metal created a significant scrap stream of lead-antimony alloy.
Historical Uses
Soft lead's low melting point and easy castability made it the ideal material for items requiring frequent re-melting and recasting, fishing weights, musket balls and bullets, plumbers' wiping solder, and fuse wire are all historical applications. Organ pipes in traditional pipe organs use lead or lead-tin alloy for the resonators that produce the organ's characteristic sound. Ship keels were traditionally cast from soft lead ballast, easily shaped and dense enough to provide the stability required. Stained glass window cames (the H-section lead strips holding coloured glass panes) are made from soft extruded lead profile, a tradition unchanged from the medieval cathedrals to contemporary stained glass artists. Coffin seals and casket linings in high-status burials used lead sheet or casting. The Romans used soft lead as a sealant and adhesive material in construction, bonding stonework and filling gaps with poured lead.
Current Uses
Soft lead scrap includes fishing weights and sinkers (the most common item), old organ pipes from church and concert hall restorations, old type metal from defunct printing operations, wiping solder from old plumbing joints, lead shot from clay pigeon shooting and game shooting, old coffin linings from cemetery clearances, and miscellaneous cast lead items. Fishing weights are subject to environmental regulations, lead weights below a certain size are banned from UK inland waters to protect waterfowl, so there is an ongoing flow of older weights being replaced. Scrap lead items should be free from steel attachments (fishing hooks, frames), rust, and excessive contamination. The soft, easily bent character of pure lead and its characteristic silver-grey colour distinguish it readily from other metals.
Future Possible Uses
Soft lead's applications are declining in some areas (particularly fishing, where environmental regulations are progressively restricting lead weight use, and shooting, where non-toxic alternatives are gaining ground) while remaining stable in others (organ pipe manufacture, stained glass, and specialist casting). Lead-free alternatives for fishing weights, tungsten, tin, and bismuth, are gaining regulatory support, potentially reducing this scrap stream over time. For organ pipes, lead remains irreplaceable for its acoustic properties, the resonant quality of lead organ pipes cannot be matched by other materials, ensuring this specialist application will continue. The recycling economics of soft lead are excellent given its low melting point and high purity.
Where Does This Scrap Come From?
Soft lead comes from anglers and fishing tackle retailers clearing old stock of lead weights, game shooting estates clearing old shot and spent cartridge concentrates, church and concert hall restoration contractors removing old organ pipes, demolition companies clearing old printing works with legacy type metal, plumbers encountering old wiping solder at joints, and estate clearances that include old lead items of various kinds. The material should be free from non-lead attachments. Old type metal (lead-antimony-tin alloy) is harder than soft lead and chemically different, it should be declared accurately as it processes differently from pure lead. Fishing weights are typically soft lead and are accepted by weight.
How Is It Remanufactured?
Soft lead scrap is among the simplest metals to recycle. Melted at 327°C, the molten lead is drossed to remove antimony oxide (if antimony is present) and cast into pig lead ingots. Soft lead with no significant alloying additions melts directly into primary-quality pure lead. Lead-antimony alloys (type metal, some bearing alloys) require a refining step to remove the antimony if pure lead is the target product, or can be used directly if the antimony content is acceptable for the intended application. High-tin solder (soft solder) requires separate processing at specialist solder refineries to recover both the lead and tin as separately valued metals. Recycled soft lead ingots are used in battery manufacture, new lead sheet production, organ pipe casting, and radiation shielding applications.
5-Year Price Trend & Forecast
Soft lead scrap prices track the LME lead price, with a modest premium for very clean, pure material (which requires less refining) over contaminated or alloyed soft lead. LME lead has ranged from approximately $1,800 to $2,600/tonne over 2021–2026. UK scrap yard prices for clean soft lead items have ranged from approximately £1,000 to £1,500/tonne. Fishing weights may be priced per kilogram rather than per tonne for small quantities. The market for soft lead scrap is stable and unlikely to change dramatically, as it is a small component of overall lead demand. Environmental regulations progressively restricting lead use in fishing and shooting may marginally reduce the volume of soft lead scrap generated in these categories over time.
📌 Note: All scrap yard prices paid by QuickStop Metals are updated daily against the prevailing market rate. Check today’s prices →
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