Wet Path - Problems with calcining

With the good weather I've decided to try and re-calcine my galena. So far with no luck: I started again at around 200 and over the course of several hours increased it slowly up to 500, and left it at that temperature for about two days. No visible change was noticed in the ground galena, as you can see in the picture. It still looks like uncalcined galena. I remember reading a method of extraction using nitric acid, then using acetic acid, so I might try that method when I have an extra few hours during a nice day.

Seven Basics

The weather is pretty miserable, and will be for a good few days. In the meantime I'll content myself with making some Basic Elixirs. I've started off with extracting the tincture of dandelion leaves using a big soxhlet extractor. I'll then calcine some of the plant and leach it for the Salt, then circulate the salts and tincture together for a few months. I'll do this for six other plants as well, each with a different ruling planet.
When the weather gets better and warmer I'll calcine my galena again to start the Acetate Path all over again.

Oil of Antimony update

My first try at the oil of antimony failed. I distilled the alcohol off a good number of times and I got nothing. I'll keep the alcohol as antimonial alcohol and see if it has any beneficial effects. I'm not worried though, this is how I learn. I'll be trying again using yellow glass and see how that goes. I'm just finishing up with drying some Salt and then when the weather's good I'll be starting my projects for this year.

Calcining, leaching, separating

Not a whole lot has happened. I'm continuing the calcining and leaching of my extra caraway and wine dregs (separately of course). I've also taken advantage of our good weather lately and separated out the acetic acid from the galena from my first attempt at the Acetate Path lat year, and will be purifying both further for another attempt. I've also ground up some stibnite in preparation for my work on the Fire Stone via the Kermes Method. Fun times!

Oil of Antimony

I've started the last stages of making the oil of antimony, which is seven distillations and cohobations. I really don't know how this is going to turn out because all the way through this project I've encountered difficulties, ie. not getting a proper coloured tincture, and not a whole lot of powder (antimony acetate) in the end given the amount of antimony glass I started off with - ie. after starting with about a pound of glass I ended up with about an ounce of antimony acetate. So I may or may not get an oil. I'll take pictures as I go along and post when I'm done.