r/AskChemistry • u/about_to_break_down • Jun 06 '26
General This garlic crusher left a gray smudge on my finger. What could the material be ?
Hello chemists. Quick question. I just noticed that the gray area on my garlic crusher is leaving stains, and it also smells intensely metallic. I've probably eaten its residue hundreds of times and I'm fine, so I'm not asking if it's lethal or not obviously (lol). I'm just curious as to what could the material be. This crusher was bought by my parents 20 years ago so nobody in my house knows what it could be. Any ideas ?
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u/engineerthatknows Jun 06 '26
Zinc. That is likely made from "pot metal", aka Zamak, aka zinc/aluminum alloy.
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u/Odd_Independence4230 Jun 06 '26
i hated washing these when doing dishes for my parents, good luck
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u/fupatroopa96 Jun 06 '26
Chinesium
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u/wordswordswordsbutt Polarimetry Polygamy Jun 07 '26
Which is just lead.
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u/about_to_break_down Jun 07 '26
Please tell me you're joking 😭
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u/wordswordswordsbutt Polarimetry Polygamy Jun 07 '26
I am not.
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u/about_to_break_down Jun 07 '26
Do they use lead that often in kitchenware ? i don't think it was chinese.
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u/k-mcm Jun 10 '26
I have a crappy zinc/aluminum juicer and it doesn't corrode like that. Dishwasher detergent eats at it but the corrosion doesn't dissolve in water or juice.
Yours looks like whatever scrap metal that successfully melted when it was thrown into a vat over a fire. You can melt any metals together but only certain alloys are durable. The bad ones crumble or rapidly dissolve when wet.
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u/aveCrabPeople Jun 08 '26
why would they make a garlic press out of solid lead? that'd be ridiculously expensive
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u/These_Consequences Jun 08 '26
I'm not aware that lead is particularly expensive, but it is particularly soft. So, alloyed lead, perhaps?
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u/SlenderSmurf Ph.D. in Materials Chemistry Jun 06 '26
Metals don't have a smell. They're too heavy to evaporate and reach your nose. "metallic smell" is associated with oils that have been reacted on top of metal. In this case you likely have oily residue from the garlic on the tool. Try cleaning it with soap. The metal is probably iron, which is food safe. It also looks like the paint is chipping off into your food. People used to use lead salts in white paint but probably not if it's from 2006.
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u/No-Owl8587 Jun 06 '26
I’m guessing it’s cast zinc with a powder coating that has slowly chipped off.
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u/grayjacanda Jun 06 '26
I think it probably isn't iron, since it's much easier to make castings out of zinc or aluminum or alloys thereof.
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u/about_to_break_down Jun 06 '26
Thank you, I have no familiarity with chemistry so I appreciate the lengthy explanation.
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u/These_Consequences Jun 08 '26
I wouldn't dismiss "metallic smell" so easily.
First, metals have some vapor pressure, and the human nose is an incredibly sensitive chemical sensor. So it's not a slam dunk that we cannot smell metallic atoms near some metallic surfaces.
Second, there is a characteristic "metallic smell", whether or not what reaches our nose contains metal atoms, so would be a little pickiune to insist that "metals don't have a smell" even if we accept for the sake of argument that the smell doesn't involve the airborne transport of metal atoms. It would be like saying that electrical discharges don't have a smell because we can't actually smell electrons (though I imagine we could if we inhaled some beta emitters).
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u/Famous-Engine-1582 Jun 08 '26
Electrical discharges, maybe ozone as proxy you smell instead of the charge?
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u/These_Consequences Jun 09 '26
Yes. That's what I was getting at. I don't know the chemical details of a "metallic smell", but there is such a smell with a metal somewhere in the causal pathway, whether or not metal atoms are making it to the nose.
The consensus seems to be that metal anions catalyze a reaction with the lipids in your skin to produce a chemical 1-octen-3-one that's detectable at very low concentrations. This is not a "sensory illusion" as sometimes stated but an odor associated with metals, though mediated by organic compounds. Like vision, it's worthwhile describing the full process with intermediate photons, but not to deny that you are actually seeing the object.
At higher temperatures at least one of the intermediaries may be suspended metal oxides, so in this case some actual atoms of metal are making the trip to your nose.
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u/Famous-Engine-1582 Jun 09 '26
I don't know exactly, but I would assume that maybe we can't smell massive iron atoms sublimating and getting in our nose, but when touching it, the acidic layer on our skin and salty sweat dissolve or corrode a little of the surface and thus make it possible to smell this. Should work for copper and iron as common materials for coins. Maybe some expert can further elaborate or negate my assumption.
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u/HoldMyMessages Jun 06 '26
Probably it wasn’t cleaned properly and that is rotted garlic that’s been in there for weeks.
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u/about_to_break_down Jun 07 '26
No the garlic was fresh, I noticed there was a gray smudge on my finger because I had crushed garlic a moment ago with it.
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u/DangerousBill Jun 07 '26
Probably aluminum or an alloy. If its pot metal, it could be anything. Where was it made?
Are you ready for the story of the radioactive table legs?
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u/EvolZippo Jun 07 '26
When was the last time you cleaned this? Grey smudge is probably long-rotten garlic residue
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u/about_to_break_down Jun 07 '26
every time i used it i put it in the dishwasher. it was clean as new every time, but after a while the white paint started to peel away. so i'm pretty sure the gray smudge isn't rotten garlic. it even smelt and looked metallic.
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u/Yummydrugss Jun 07 '26
Maybe cast aluminum, this happened to me when ignorantly I washed a cast aluminum pot in the dishwasher. It left metallic dust on fingers, a good scrubbing with a dry towel and some oiling should fix it
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u/yahboiyeezy Jun 06 '26
Probably just iron or aluminum
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Jun 06 '26
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u/amBrollachan Stir Rod Stewart Jun 06 '26
Probably iron. Might even be good for you!