Regional Commanders - The North-South Skirmish Association, Inc.

You will still have some dross on top where contact is made with the air containing the oxygen. [A neat
trick is to put a layer of plain clay kitty litter on top of the lead to keep the oxygen away.] Ahh, as a note, I
would use litter before the cat got to it though.
But if you are a dipper...Every time you stick that dipper into the pot and stir you are letting more of that
nice pure lead come in contact with the oxygen and making more of that lead rust, Yes rust. Rust as we
know it is Iron oxide. That is when one of them little iron atom thingies gets attached to a little oxygen
thingy and your truck soon falls apart. So this lead dross is just Lead oxide....Now all we got to do is get
rid of all the oxygen that has gotten stuck to our useful musket lead.
Now I took a chemistry class in back in school. Dang teacher never told me I could learn to do neat stuff
like blow things up, make beer and whiskey or get oxygen out of my lead or I would not of dropped the
class for another study hall or recess, I can't remember which. But with that great invention of ol’ Al
Gore, the internet, I done figured it out! [more on Al Gore later]
Ok here is what ya do. Dump that dross/lead oxide into your melting pot. By the way, do not use your
nice lead casting furnace to do this. Only place nice clean ingots into said furnace. I have a old LP gas
fired plumbers set up but you just need a heavy pot and fire. A turkey fryer works well and they can be
found for cheap. An old Coleman white gas stove works well also. Another hint, once you melt lead with
a stove and pot DO NOT us it ‘fer cooking any vittles. Most of the skirmishers I know just can't afford to
lose any more brain cells.
OK the plan is to get that old crap hot, then with something to make that oxygen go away leaving pure
lead...well as pure as it was before ya’ let it get rusty. Now all we got to do is add some Carbon and it
will hook up with that freeloading Oxygen atom. Under the heat it will turn in to Carbon Dioxide (CO 2 ).
That means each one of them carbon thingies will grab two of them danged oxygen atoms and just float
away! Taadaa...leaving the musket lead we started out with. Neat, huh?
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