Lapidaryforum.net
Let's Rock => Rock Talk => Topic started by: Asianfire on September 03, 2017, 11:01:47 PM
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Most likely slag, but from a very interesting location in England (Bumble Hole), kindly lugged all the way over here by Kelan, a friend of my daughter.
Very interesting material. Could be from some smelting foundry in England as the area was an industrial hub for iron and other metal productions from the 1700's onward (Foundries there supplied the chains and ankers for the Titanic).
Definitely behaves like glass, breaks and flakes like it, ant is just as annoying to ones fingers. Had several splinters stuck in my hand by the time I had cut the first face.
There is also the distant possibility of it being natural and hence obsidian, as the area has been known as a source of minerals usually bordering obsidian. And presence of volcanic activity in the past makes that a possibility too.
(https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4378/37016081215_d5b83bba20_c.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/YoZ6jP)ppkelan2 (https://flic.kr/p/YoZ6jP) by Kainzer Kurt (https://www.flickr.com/photos/bchallenge/), on Flickr
Glassy braking surfaces, and a golden sheen coming from under the skin (likely internal fractures).
(https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4442/37016081555_891d5cca8c_c.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/YoZ6qF)ppKelan1 (https://flic.kr/p/YoZ6qF) by Kainzer Kurt (https://www.flickr.com/photos/bchallenge/), on Flickr
Tried to get a cut-off to test material, but cant make up my mind which side to use, so turns into a pendant. :) :) :)
(https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4343/37016080955_702a4cf0cc_c.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/YoZ6fk)ppkelan3 (https://flic.kr/p/YoZ6fk) by Kainzer Kurt (https://www.flickr.com/photos/bchallenge/), on Flickr
Any info on possibilities, will be highly appreciated, Kurt
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oooooh, so very nice. drool, drool, drool :icon_thumleft:
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Nice, yeah!
But is it slag (no bubbles to be found anywhere), or Obsidian.
Or maybe even some sort of flint mixture (The boy was looking for flint originally).
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Looks like Obsidian to me.
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It looks like slag to me.Most slag has lots of gas bubbles but not all and remember that ore that was new or difficult to smelt was shipped around the world looking for a furnace manager ( chemist) who sould be crative enough to firure out how to efficiently smelt the new and difficult ores.Ore smelting was like the dot.com revolution of our day in that those with enough imagination and resourcefulness to figure out alternetive smelting processes could produce minerals out of mines wastes and get very wealthy in the process. I lived in a town where the mine owners from around the world lived in New Jersey and they used the slag from the local smelting (iron from the many deep local mines) to fill in hillsides in steep terrain and build whole towns on the slag.Some local ores were very complex zinc ores with lead and many rarities and this ore was shipped to England initially.Global capitalism and it's attendant mysteries is not new.Out west here we have huge amounts of arsenic in a lot of gold-copper-silver ores and initially much of that ore went to England so there is the risk of arsenic exposure.
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Agree with slag. Bubbles/vugs aren't right, and even for glassy, obsidian-like materials such as tachylyte, colors are wrong. Man-made slag turns up in some surprising places, some with interesting stories behind them (such as Tengizite), locations and appearance (such as yours) which makes them interesting for jewels. Natural slag glass occurs, too, but is much rarer (takes intense heat and a long cool-down) and usually only in small pieces and thin crusts.
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Thank you so much for the elaborations, confirming my original idea about the material.
Had a word with Kelan yesterday, and he confirmed the find amidst former brick factories, but research shows that the locations of those factories changed over time. Yet, as they produced a type of blue bricks, could give a hint to the colour observed in this material.
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Good to put the slag tag on those cabs in my mind. There's a lot of low-grade obsidian here in AZ that has crappy brown layers in it. I just shot from the hip on that one - good thing I didn't come up missing some toes or sumthin'... .
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Some slag glass can be very pretty. I have some I bought that came from 16 century copper smelting, I think it was Norway?
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Oh yeah, we have a couple of chunks of slag glass here too. None old or notable for any reason, but pretty. One looks similar to the "ice cream" opal from Idaho.
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Agree with slag, that is not a bad thing plenty around can be very pretty, and I know Kurt will be very happy to call it what it is. Unlike some the of uses on the FB mineral ID sites who get most upset that their ruby, sapphire or emerald is actually slag.
David
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Yeah, no problem calling it by what it is.
As most of you know, I usually distance/avoid using man-made material, and shy away from stabilizing and or repaired pieces.
But in this case, thus far, I like the result, and it helps that it was found/given by someone courting my daughter, as well as being from an interesting location.
I wrote to the town-council, and hope to get a reply in regards to occurrence as well as possible origin of this material sometime in the future. Would be neat to know just what kind of smelting process resulted in this particular material.