I believe Thai bali spacers more than likely contain lead, how safe is it to use them?

Jellybean, you seem to be a bit confused!

Thai is Thai and Bali is Bali, you either have Thai spacers or you have Bali spacers. Thai spacers are made in Thailand, Bali spacers are made in Bali Indonesia - two different countries, two different styles, two different methods for working metals.

Having cleared that up, if they are sterling or fine silver, as most spacers marketed as Thai or  Bali are, they don't contain lead. If they are base metal, they are more than likely imitations made in China or eslewhere and might or might not contain lead depending on the base metal used. It's usually a good rule of thumb to avoid lead-based metals for use in fabbricating jewery.

 Hope that clears up some of the confusion for you!

Thank you for your reply. I got the description wrong they are Tibetan silver bali style spacers.

I suppose I won't know if they contain lead without testing them, but how safe would it be to use them without knowing? Would the amount of lead if any contained be enough to worry about? Because they were cheap I doubt they are silver.

Any advice would be appreciated thank you.

Hi Jellybean,

 Thanks for clearing that up, and it does make a big difference! Tibetan silver is another thing altogether.

You can take a look at this article to understand a bit better what the deal is with Tibetan silver:

http://reviews.ebay.com/Tibetan-Silver-A-Buyer-s-Advisory_W0QQugidZ10000000003804484?ssPageName=BUYGD:CAT:-1:LISTINGS:1

Depending on where the spacers were manufactured, they may or may not contain amounts of lead and other metals which can indeed be something to worry about. If you don't know what country they came from, it would be best to avoid them. European suppliers are safer for the purchase of Tibetan silver and any other base metals because of the extremely harsh safety restrictions in the importation and manufacture of certain metal alloys and content of the finished product. If you don't know where they came from, and are not sure if they're safe, don't use them. Since as you say they were cheap...set them aside for use with something that isn't jewelry if you can't bring yourself to throw them away - you can use them for scrapbooking, make Christmas ornaments with them, use them in sculpture, whatever...but best to avoid using them in your jewelry!

 Have a nice day!

TierraCast makes leadfree beads and findings here in America. They are as beautiful as Thai or Bali spacers and they have no lead like the Tibetan silver stuff has. TierraCast products usually come in silver, gold, and copper finishes. See them as Lytha Studios here. Once your there click on the 123 Bead Store.

 The name "Tibetan silver" has become a marketing term for cast components primarily coming out of China, some sold direct by Chinese websites and e-bay sellers from China. Despite the name, there is no silver in the alloy used. A few years ago the so-called Tibetan silver was primarily lead alloy. At least one Chinese caster has converted to zinc alloy as indicated by TierraCast's testing described in the e-bay link above. That's at least an improvement over lead alloy. 

However the so called Tibetan Silver continues to be sold by implying there is silver content. There is no silver!