Lead cover on telephone wire.

[lightman]

Glad to hear that you got it melted.

[Piłsudski]

I am reminded of my career of years ago. A cable splicer supplied me with splices, which are 6" to 8" in diameter and maybe 18" to 24" long. Al of the wire used in lead cable days is fabric insulated.

I cut the sheath with a hammer and chisel. It is very soft lead.

My work included a lot of soldering. The soldering iron holders were full of clumps of solder, since nobody had any reason for getting the solder out. It was even more of a reflex than a practice to tin a tip that had been sitting and tap the iron on the holder. My early forays into casting for 45 Auto and 38 Spl were from this source, cable splices mixed with solder clumps. I still have two or three clumps of solder in the garage.