Hello all.  A member at our makerspace has what she called a bakers table with a sheet metal top.  She has another table she's like to cover with the same material, if possible.  She asked me what I thought the metal was, but I don't know.  I'm guessing some kind of tin.  It has a dull grey (perhaps with a slight green tint) patina, and IMO, doesn't feel as soft as lead would be.
Any thoughts?  Any chance this has a significant amount of lead to not use as a baking table any more?
Thanks

I would guess tin, too.  But it could be a tin alloy such as pewter which has things like antimony and copper and bismith mixed in.  Older pewter sometimes had lead.  I suspect that one of those kits they use to test for lead based paint could tell you if there was any lead present.

GNM

Any chance of getting a couple of pictures of it? I googled bakers table metal top and every response was stainless steel, usually 14 ga.

I can't control the wind, all I can do is adjust my sail’s.
Semper Paratus

 

Modern kitchen table tops will almost definitely be Stainless Steel (either 304 or 316).  I'm afraid I'm not familiar with vintage/antique ones, but what you are describing could be galvanized steel (as currently used for sheet metal ductwork).  I personally wouldn't use that for direct food contact.

At a guess I would say galvanized sheet metal as well.

If she wants them covered in stainless they do make sheeting for covering table tops. When they built our parts counter at work they covered it in stainless sheeting. Unfortunately I dont know what company they got it from. 

Thanks all.  Pewter is probably what it is, I'm fairly (almost 100%) sure it's not galvanized.  

Good call on the lead paint test kit.

I'll try to get a picture.

Stay cool

Magnet will tell if galvanized steel

Some stainless is magnetic though not strongly so. . . Usually. A scratch test will help with broad identification, Pewter is pretty soft so use the soft scratchers in a mineral hardness test kit. You can get cheap ones at toy stores. The back of the point of a pocket knife GENTLY drawn across it is good for a broad range of hardness depending on the knife. A pre-70 Buck is crazy hard steel, won't quite scratch glass and not a good one for this. 

Mild steel won't scratch stainless but will score old pewter almost like cheese. the snipped end of a piece of rebar tie wire is a better choice than a knife.

Just buy a rock hound hardness test kit at a toy store. OR maybe call a scrap yard or local college and see if they will shoot it with their x-ray spectrometer.

Frosty The Lucky.