this post was submitted on 24 Jun 2025
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Cast Iron
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A community for cast iron cookware. Recipes, care, restoration, identification, etc.
Rules: Be helpful when you can, be respectful always, and keep cooking bacon.
More rules may come as the community grows, but for now, I'll remove spam or anything obviously mean-spirited, and leave it at that.
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Someone used it for making bullets. Selling it without disclosure was quite irresponsible of them.
It could have been an estate sale and changed hands a couple times, considering how old these are
I would still clearly mark any cast iron that I used to melt metals.
how? what methods don't just wash off?
LASERS!!!
I imagine at a high enough temperature, alloys of lead and iron are formed. Little crystals of lead may sit within the iron, which likely doesn't melt but might allow some lead in. Still, it'd probably be metallic lead rather than the much more bioavailable ionic (salt) form, but I still wouldn't use it for cooking. Props to OP for testing it.
that's even a thing? djeebis
Oh yeah. Bullets, fishing lures, etc. It's pretty common to have one dedicated to lead out here in the rural parts of the US.
Can confirm. Though, I picked up a cheap steel pot from goodwill for this purpose ... cast iron was too expensive for my lead melting needs ; )
Cast iron is fairly ubiquitous in Appalachia. 🙂