Well I had a bunch of old lead laying around and felt like recycling it would be in my best interest, but I had no experience with pouring weights.
My first mistake was getting a bottom pouring lead smelter. It's great for smaller sinkers, but I bought a mold to make 8 and 10 oz cannon ball sinkers. I did find it will work, but the sinkers don't come out all pretty at times with the slow pour.
I used up all of my spare lead for (2) 8 oz and (2) 10 oz sinkers. Thankfully I have some big sheets of lead that still need melting. That Tin was a quarter filled with old egg sinkers and lead heads, so I did a decent job recycling the old stuff!
I also read about the impurities, but I never realized how much nastiness was in lead! You can see it in the pot here. That's some serious skimming I need to do!
My new mold!
My first pours...
I'm by no means going to become a sinker maker, but I like that I have the ability to do so if the great state of California decides to ban lead sinkers anytime soon.
More to follow as I play around more, but I'm pretty stoked to learn some new things about my craft.