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Thread: What's inside ankle weights?

  1. #1
    Join Date
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    What's inside ankle weights?

    What's the black sooty material that's used inside many ankle and wrist weights?

    I've owned several pairs of 10 lb ankle weights. They contain bags of material that can eventually break open and is inappropriate for use in a residence. It's a black granular material that includes a fine black sooty powder.

  2. #2
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    Feb 2003
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    I had some that broke apart and were filled with iron shot and a lot of what looked like carbon dust.

  3. #3
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    It's graphite. Inocuous, can't hurt you. It's just a nuisance to clean up (if that is what you mean by 'inappropriate').

  4. #4
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    Quote Originally Posted by William Chain View Post
    It's graphite. Inocuous, can't hurt you. It's just a nuisance to clean up (if that is what you mean by 'inappropriate').
    Yes, by "inappropriate' I mean too much of a problem to clean up. I think of graphite as the material in pencil "leads". I assume the type in weights is a denser material. Why not use lead shot instead? - more expensive? more of an environmental hazard if discarded?

  5. #5
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    Thanks for posting this. Mine are probably over 25 years old. I think I'll toss, and replace them.

  6. #6
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    Lead is very expensive. Lead (metallic lead, lead(0)) itself isn’t terribly dangerous. Lead(II) in components of say, paint, or batteries is another story.

    Quote Originally Posted by Stephen Tashiro View Post
    Yes, by "inappropriate' I mean too much of a problem to clean up. I think of graphite as the material in pencil "leads". I assume the type in weights is a denser material. Why not use lead shot instead? - more expensive? more of an environmental hazard if discarded?

  7. #7
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    It seems to me that two important characteristics would be low cost and high density. Lead is certainly dense but not cheap. Graphite is neither. Cast Iron is both and the waste from grinding the castings even cheaper. It would also have the Black, sooty dust. Stephen, can you check the stuff with a magnet?
    Beranek's Law:

    It has been remarked that if one selects his own components, builds his own enclosure, and is convinced he has made a wise choice of design, then his own loudspeaker sounds better to him than does anyone else's loudspeaker. In this case, the frequency response of the loudspeaker seems to play only a minor part in forming a person's opinion.
    L.L. Beranek, Acoustics (McGraw-Hill, New York, 1954), p.208.

  8. #8
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    Just found some from Rogue fitness that don't have the sand, or powder in them. Probably not that comfortable, but the only thing I do with them is hanging leg raises anyway. I certainly don't want to have to clean that stuff up, off of rubber flooring.

    https://www.roguefitness.com/mir-adj...-wrist-weights

  9. #9
    Google "Heavy Sand" (aka zirconium silicate). We use it forearm and buttstock bags in benchrest shooting. It's heavy.......

  10. #10
    Join Date
    Sep 2016
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    Modesto, CA, USA
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    I had some that used cast iron hot dogs. At the lab they used heavy aggregate to make concrete shielding blocks. It was just iron ore, gravel sized, for extra weight. Kind of the opposite of cinder block.
    Bil lD

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