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[Sinfullyvannila]

It's just a junk ore right now, or at least was the last time I played. It could be used for so many things. Glaze, Crystal Glass, Catapult ammo, Trap ammunition, Seasoning(those wacky Romans).

Actually part of the reason i haven't played in so long is that currently, crystal glass doesn't use it. Real life Crystal Glass sounds like the most Dwarven thing imaginable. Rock, clarified by fire, and it's beauty enhanced with metal. Plus insanity!!!

Just Imagine a Marble Throne Room(or dining room) with Furniture made of Crystal Glass, Walls smoothed and engraved from the Living Rock, coated with lead glaze. A lone brazier sending out a low light that refracts off everything in sight.

It sends chills down my spine.

[Niddhoger]

Aye, right now its basically just a byproduct of smelting galena for silver.  Its too cheap and heavy to use as a trade good (yes, you can overload a caravan with cheap lead trinkets).  I mostly just use it to train blacksmiths by studding things with lead (doesn't add to weight).  It can also be used to construct lead floors for extra fall damage.  The ore itself (galena) is also magma-safe... but yeah, you have to be inventive to get any real use out of it and even then its the -ore- that is most useful (catapult/stone trap ammo, magma-safe "rock). 

I would definitely love to see crystal glass and lead glaze though! I hate that the only high-grade glaze is tin.  I typically save it for bronze (or trifle pewter), whereas lead is... yeah. 

[utunnels]

Well DF is full of useless junks and I bet lead is far from the worst.

[AceSV]

They also used to make lead warhammers, and gladiators used lead knuckles.  Slingshot bullets were made of lead too.  The Romans also covered iron constructions with lead to keep them from rusting, but that's not an issue for dwarf fortress yet. 

[GiglameshDespair]

Personally I like to make lead pipes and line my reservoirs with it for that extra flavour.

[Deboche]

I like the idea of using it for ammo. Surely the dwarves are inventive enough to create a crossbow/ballista trap that shoots lead bullets through tiny holes in the walls. It might also come in handy when stone fall traps are upgraded and the stones roll downhill. A gigantic lead ball would be even more destructive.

[Sinfullyvannila]

Yeah sorry. I meant the metal not the ore itself.

[Zammer990]

Well DF is full of useless junks and I bet lead is far from the worst.

Looking at you lay pewter

[AceSV]

I was just looking up Lead Glass, and yeah!  Let's make crystal glass out of lead instead of impossible-to-find rock crystal.  Do they even use rock crystal (quartz) to make sand-based crystal glass? 

Though perhaps it's worth pointing out that while lead glass has existed since ancient times, modern lead crystal glass is not the same and has electricity involved in the process.  But then DF also uses flux stones to make steel, which as far as I know is also a modern invention and not how the middle ages did it. 

[GiglameshDespair]

Materials such as lay pewter and the like were often used for thigns like cutlery, plates, etc. If those came into use (and couldn't be made out of stone) they'd suddenly be more useful than squandering iron on. Dwarves could get minor unhappy thoughts from not using cutlery and plates - having to put food on the bare table. Maybe they would also have to be washed after use, providing another use for soap and water.

[AceSV]

Materials such as lay pewter and the like were often used for thigns like cutlery, plates, etc. If those came into use (and couldn't be made out of stone) they'd suddenly be more useful than squandering iron on. Dwarves could get minor unhappy thoughts from not using cutlery and plates - having to put food on the bare table. Maybe they would also have to be washed after use, providing another use for soap and water.

I would make my dwarves use chopsticks. 

[Vattic]

Some other uses include medicines, cosmetics, and writing tablets.

Do they even use rock crystal (quartz) to make sand-based crystal glass? 

From what I understand quartz should work for glass making as it's mostly silicon. You'd need to add some lead or pearlash to lower the melting point to levels the dwarves can manage.

Though perhaps it's worth pointing out that while lead glass has existed since ancient times, modern lead crystal glass is not the same and has electricity involved in the process.  But then DF also uses flux stones to make steel, which as far as I know is also a modern invention and not how the middle ages did it.

From what I've read flux was used (sea shells by the Vikings), but isn't necessary when using a bloomery.

[AceSV]

Some other uses include medicines, cosmetics, and writing tablets.

Do they even use rock crystal (quartz) to make sand-based crystal glass? 

From what I understand quartz should work for glass making as it's mostly silicon. You'd need to add some lead or pearlash to lower the melting point to levels the dwarves can manage.

Though perhaps it's worth pointing out that while lead glass has existed since ancient times, modern lead crystal glass is not the same and has electricity involved in the process.  But then DF also uses flux stones to make steel, which as far as I know is also a modern invention and not how the middle ages did it.

From what I've read flux was used (sea shells by the Vikings), but isn't necessary when using a bloomery.

Thanks.  No, I know flux was used, but not flux stone.  Sea shells, glass, sand, stuff like that, but not slabs of marble and limestone.  I've also seen them produce medieval steel with manure as the carbon content, but that was mostly to prove a point. 

[Vattic]

You can use limestone or other stone fluxes in a bloomery. Both the sea shells used and limestone are primarily made of calcium carbonate and would be ground before use.

Edit: What gives away that dwarves use the more modern blast furnace method is that you can use coke and need flux. Charcoal had to be used with the bloomery method because it was cleaner and didn't make the metal so brittle with impurities.

[Wooster]

They also used to make lead warhammers, and gladiators used lead knuckles.  Slingshot bullets were made of lead too.  The Romans also covered iron constructions with lead to keep them from rusting, but that's not an issue for dwarf fortress yet.

Lead warhammers have to be a thing in DF: surely it's the obvious metal to use, where available, as it is a smidge denser than silver and far less valuable. I worked out recently how to get DF to allow me to make them, but I forgot by the time a new version came out.