Lead-sheathed cable

Came across a deal at the scrap yard yesterday, 250 lbs. of lead sheathed cable. About 1/2 inch - maybe less, and has paper insulated very small copper strands inside. Now I've got to figure out the best way to separate and then I'm going to sell him back the copper after cooking off that little bit of paper. Has anyone had any experience with this stuff and do you know the purity of the lead sheath? It is VERY flexible - like lead sheet, which leads me to think pure lead. Any pointers??
Thanks!

If you can, cut it in to pieces short enough to get the paper out before smelting. If not make sure the paper is 100% completely dry. If you put a piece in your melt that has even damp paper things get ugly, ask me how I know.

Fishnhunt-
I just (this week) had the fun of stripping the lead off about 100 feet of the same stuff.
I used a rose pruning shear to cut the stuff into 2 foot pieces and straightened them. Then using a sheetrock knife scored around the circumference. (Used a scrap piece of plywood as a work surface and "rolled " a deep score line in the lead.) Bend the sheathing at the score line and pull the lead off the cable. If you cut too deep you get paper and some wire with the pull. If the pull is to hard you can cut the copper short and it pulls off the paper and copper easier. If the long sheathed cable is deformed or kinked it will give you a fit. Also if the paper insulating the wire gets wet it will difficult to slide off. I did score short pieces length wise and pry at the score line but that was a real time consuming and I reserved that for the kinked or wet pieces.
Hope this gives you an idea. I have a buddy that has used his table saw with a carbide blade mounted backward and a jig so the cable runs through a little trough. He had much larger cable (1 inch). Messy and dangerous wear protective equipment for sure!
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crappie-hunter ---
I did it too! Darned exciting!

I just got about 20 ft of lead sheathed telephone cable which is about 1.25 inches in diameter with lots of paper wrapped strands of copper inside. It is pure lead sheathing and I plan on slitting it with aviation snips or a sharp short stout knife and peeling it open to remove the wire before melting into ingots.
A tubing cutter would also work to cut it in sections.

fishnhunt, after you have cut the cable in short lengths, hit the wire in the center of the cable to drive some of the wires far enough out to enable you to grasp them with long nose pliers. After you have pulled a few of the wires out, the rest will almost fall out. I worked for the phone co for over 37 years and I have done this many times. You can consider the sheathing to be pure lead.

I'm glad to hear that it is pretty much pure lead from Gopher Slayer - thanks! Spent some time with it this afternoon and after trial and error found that if you use a tubing cutter (for cutting copper pipe) and go around it about three times it cuts a perfect ring and the edges are not deformed. Stretch the cable out in the yard trying to avoid kinking it. Use the tubing cutter and cut so that you have a piece about 2 or 3 feet long, pull the lead sheath off the wire and then cut the wire off and repeat the process. The kinks and squeezed places slow you down - but this works great on good round cable. Thanks again for all the comments!