OK, more information discovered and abosorbed and hopefully applied.
First, the soaking in vinegar definitely made things worse. I know “fight fire with fire” is a meme, but “fight acid with acid” should not be. I guess at some point people somewhere worked with mild lead rot and decided this was an answer. But it is not. To be unequivocally clear:
DO NOT USE VINEGAR ON LEAD ROT.
So right now, I have my figures sitting in a bath of baking soda and distilled water, to stop the enhanced lead blooming (rot) from my vinegar treatment. The baking soda was suggested independently by my Mom and Taltavanic on the Lead Adventure Forum. I’ll leave them there until Monday, and then clean them off in anticipation of the turps and mineral oil on their way (should get here Wednesday). Maybe the baking soda alone is enough, but given the amount of figures I have from 1975-85, when lead was still the primary medium, I am going to make sure it is eradicated.
In addition, it was brought up on LAF that lead bloom is toxic. While it evidently does not not get absorbed too bad through skin contact, working on the rot gets in the atmosphere and into your lungs. Also, handling it leaves it on your skin, and if you don’t get it off it can enter your system when touching your face or eating.
So now I am paranoid about the all the lead exposure I’ve had over the decades. Hopefully this series of posts can make all four people who read it aware of this fact.
Based on that, I am taking this work very seriously, now. I have gotten disposable gloves and masks for handling and scrubbing these figs. I am looking to get a good soap for washing my hands; regular soap is not strong enough to remove lead from your fingers, it seems. The most prominent that comes up in google searches is a product called D-lead hand soap. Amazon carries it. Walmart supposedly carries D-lead wipes. I’ll decide in the next day what to do there. Maybe there are other such soaps at auto part stores? Home Depot did not have any when I bought my gloves and mask.
Some pix, for those who, like myself, care about the bright/shiny stuff:
Action picture of baking soda and water working! I will toss out that toothbrush, as the lead may never come off of it.
The stuff I got at Home Depot. 3-layer masks (comes in handy; it seems there is a pandemic hereabouts), nitrile gloves (not allergic to latex, but these had a nice price point), and a 3-pack of wire brushes. I decided to get the steel bristled brush because I am not sure the old toothbrush has enough attack. Given that the lead damage is irreversible, there is going to be a certain level of detail loss, so I might as well make sure all the lead bloom is gone. Since it is a 3-pack, I’ll toss out the brush I use on these figs.
And finally…wood flooring samples. Free at Home Depot. I am going to make some kind of modular tiles with these. Maybe a tavern, maybe a wooden dungeon; we’ll see. I’ll take a few more whenever I go to HD. They look great. The grain is obviously huge for 25mm figs…but that’s life!