Has anyone ever had to split one of these?
I'm about to take on a mahusive restoration (and just to make things really tricky it's a GradeII listed building in a conservation area)....

So I've not only got to take apart an old lead / oakum joint to let in a new branch but replace it with the same (except I might use glassfibre yarn, lead wool and a blow torch (but don't tell anyone))...

Has any LBer ever had to pick out a lead/oakum joint? Is it easy? I'm assuming you just chisel out the lead, unwind the oakum and job's a good'un?!?! Easier said than done? I'm going to be about 6 metres up a ladder when I do my first one so I'm trying to find out any hints and tips now!!

Don't Fall

LOL!

Ask a Shipwright that question, my dad would go crackers if you used glass fibres, as he has done a lot of caulking with oakum in his time and i have still got a large ball of it in his old toolchest, together with loads of caulking tools and mallets.

Do the job properly or ill send his ghost to haunt you together with the sound of a thousand caulkers tapping away

Mike