I’m reading Reserved for the Cat by Mercedes Lackey, and I was wondering about something featured in the story. In an effort to be as prepared as possible against supernatural attack, the protagonist arms herself with a six-shot revolver. Two of the loads are steel-nosed (iron), two are silver and two are “Blessed Lead”. According to the story, this is lead taken from the roof a a church and consecrated. Is this something Lackey made up, or is there an actual tradition of this? Searching was hopeless because of the inability to filter out the word that’s pronounced “leed” from the results.
Well, some ancient cultures had lead lined coffins, or lead soldered coffins? There had to be a reasoning behind why they’d use lead for the coffins, right? (Coffins found buried under London for example, not sure if Roman or from pre-Roman times, don’t remember. It was quite a big deal a year or two ago, this find they made though.) What about the alchemical ideas on lead, did you look them up? Maybe it’s for other kinds of undead, zombies or the like? 
A lack of reference isn’t proof of anything, but I have never heard of “Blessed Lead” as protection from any faerie, spirit or undead.
I think she made it up, but it sound good.
Perhaps the thinking is, it was part of a church, and consecrated, therefore that makes it proof against nasties that might withstand steel or silver? Maybe a bit of brick and a slingshot would be as effective?
Brick from a church, consecrated brick, not ordinary brick.
Holy stuff is generally good against anything unholy. Demons in particular. Lead is easy to turn into a bullet and thus weaponized.
I read a comic were a guy made a bullet inlaid with ivory from the bones of a number of saints. He used it to kill the devil.
Yeah, I think it’s the “blessed” part, not the “lead” part, that’s important. It’s lead because it’s a bullet, and that’s what you normally make bullets out of. If bullets were normally made out of copper, it’d have been blessed copper.
I saw a vampire movie years back. Horrible thing, can’t remember the name of it. But it did have one cool idea: the hero, preparing for the big showdown, empties out a bunch of buckshot shells and repacks them with rosary beads.
…GENIUS! I am so stealing that idea if I find an active gaming group playing World of Darkness/VtM. 
I realize it won’t work against all opponents in that setting, but there is a chance it might work on some of 'em.
I haven’t studied this or anything, but I’m pretty sure the lead coffins were used because lead was abundant and is easy to work with. The same reason that wine jugs were made out lead or pipes or even bullets, really.
That may be it. I had thought I had read something about a belief that lead sheilded from evil influences though? Sort of harking back to the ideas in alchemy?
Huh, I’ve never heard that. And as far as I know, alchemy’s hey-day was a little bit after the all the Roman lead coffins found in England. I know that lead coffins for wealthy people continued into the middle ages, but I’m not aware of any connection to a warding off of evil. It was more of a “Look at how much I can afford to spend now that I’m dead!” thing, since a thousand pounds or so of lead would be incredibly expensive.
Yeah, it’s been a bit since I read of the lead coffins, and coffins soldered shut with lead. I might very well be brainfarting as to times. I’m hazy on the dates, you seem to have read more recently, I think maybe I filed the information away improperly. Aren’t there some though, who theorize that lead was used, and coffins using it were expensive not just for the cost of the metal/cost to make but because it was thought it was dense enough to be proof against evil? I am unsure how credible the people who put forth such ideas are, but I can’t shake the idea that I’d read this cultural theory. But again, it isn’t unheard of that the rich get all the protections in life, and death you see this in Ancient Egypt too.
Thinking about this, most if not all traditional protections from EVIL pre-date firearms, or at least firearms that would shoot a lead bullet. But, if I were to make lead bullets that could possibly take out a nosferatu I would certainly use ones cast from lead that has been soaking up sanctity in a church environment.
I still think Ms. Lackey made this up for her story, but it is clever and internally consistent.