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I Forge Iron

Dragging a Magnet


b4utoo

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The black "metal" sand you get when dragging a magnet in the dirt.

 

Anyone know the content? And could you use it as a powder substitute for damascus.

Or use it to make a billet.

Yes, I know you could do anything, but has anyone actually tried it?

Curious on the results.

I guess magnetite for canister damascus could be the better question

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Magnetite (black sand) is Fe3O4, an iron oxide.  While it is a good ore to smelt iron from it would not work to forge or weld with steel or elemental iron. So, no, you couldn't use it as a substitute for powdered steel in canister damascus.

GNM (recovering geologist)

"By hammer and hand all arts do stand"

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I once had a lab instructor characterize me as a Vagrant Benthonic when I was late for a lab in the basement level of Old Main and so walked in the open window instead of hiking around to the front entrance and going up the stairs and then down the stairs and meandering through the halls to get to the lab room. As I had been interviewing as a cause of lateness and showed up in my "interview clothes", I was merely laughed at.

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On 2/6/2022 at 8:03 PM, George N. M. said:

Magnetite (black sand) is Fe3O4, an iron oxide. 

This is chemically the same as the scale that flakes off your workpiece as you forge. It should not be confused with Fe2O3 (hematite), which is the major component of rust.

On 2/7/2022 at 11:16 AM, ThomasPowers said:

I once had a lab instructor characterize me as a Vagrant Benthonic

I suppose that my work ethic and wildly varying focus would make me a Glacial Erratic.

 

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  I did some reading on that.  The nugget served as a door stop for 3 years!   They also found a 28 lb. nugget.

 

"Today, the Reed Gold Mine is a National Historic Landmark and listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The site is managed by the North Carolina Department of Natural and Cultural Resources, which offers guided tours of restored underground tunnels that date back to the 1830s. A reconstructed stamp mill — a machine that crushes ore to extract metal from rock — is demonstrated daily. The stamp mill technology dates back to the 1890s"

  Interesting Day Trip!

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Not much writing and TONS of woodcuts of the mining and refining technology of the day---also the first known use of ghosting in drafting, (Unless an earlier one has been found since I checked.)   Look at who did the Translation!  (And keep your eyes open for the dog----seems like whenever the person doing the woodcuts ran a bit shy of material he stuck the dog in somewhere in the background...)

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De Re Metallica is a very cool book.  Martha and I (both geologists) wanted to get in our time machine and go back and meet the Hoovers.  We tend to think of Herbert Hoover as a somewhat ineffectual President who presided over the early Depression and looks bad compared to FDR.  But he had a long history as a successful administrator and mining engineer.  He ran the relief efforts that saved many people in Europe during and after WW1.  His wife, Lou, was really interesting too.  She was the first woman to graduate from Stanford with geology degree.  They were in China during the Boxer Rebellion in 1900 and during the siege of Tensien Lou was riding her bicycle around for relief efforts through Chinese artillery fire.  Martha and I always thought that they were "our kind" of people.

"By hammer and hand all arts do stand."

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I particularly like the elevator---it has two waterwheels conjoined with the buckets oriented in opposite directions.  The operator directs a moveable flume to either wind the rope up or unwind it down to move items up or down into the mine.  Also the inventiveness of the water pumping systems.

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13 hours ago, Nodebt said:

  If you swing by for a look-see, there is plenty of room for RV parking here at the new place....;)  Do you bring Baxter & Ronnie on roadtrops?  I think Gina would love to meet them. :)

Oh yeah, they'll be with us. Deb's more likely to leave me home.

Frosty The Lucky.

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