jamesp
Cave Dweller
Member since October 2012
Posts: 36,165
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Post by jamesp on Feb 22, 2017 5:50:03 GMT -5
Video on heat treating with a simple camp fire. Done it before, is easy. Best done on a calm day so fire will burn slowly. Forest fires can heat treat large quantities of surface chert over large areas. Forest fire heated this Savannah River bryozoan chert that was close to the surface. Must have been 10 acres of exposed rock, most of it was over heated. The reds greens, deeper colors in general are due to heat. www.flickr.com/photos/67205364@N06/8397817577/in/album-72157632569773602/Basic camp fire heat treatment. Basically bury rocks under 2-3 inches of sandy soil and build a slow camp fire over them. Walk away. Come back in two days to uncover. Toga outfit optional.
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jamesp
Cave Dweller
Member since October 2012
Posts: 36,165
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Post by jamesp on Feb 22, 2017 6:00:27 GMT -5
Any steel bowl fire pit can be used also. Bottom of a 55 gallon drum. Place an inch or two of sandy soil in bottom of bowl. Lay rocks out. Shovel 2-3 inches on top. Build fire on calm day. Harvest 2-3 days later when cool.
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jamesp
Cave Dweller
Member since October 2012
Posts: 36,165
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Post by jamesp on Feb 22, 2017 6:36:13 GMT -5
Or a metal coffee can full of sand and rock sitting on a wood stove for small amounts.
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Post by MrMike on Feb 22, 2017 7:28:44 GMT -5
Basic camp fire heat treatment. Basically bury rocks under 2-3 inches of sandy soil and build a slow camp fire over them. Walk away. Come back in two days to uncover. Toga outfit optional. Now this I can do, hopefully the leather boxers are also optional. Serious case of what you metal guys call galded
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jamesp
Cave Dweller
Member since October 2012
Posts: 36,165
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Post by jamesp on Feb 22, 2017 7:52:26 GMT -5
Basic camp fire heat treatment. Basically bury rocks under 2-3 inches of sandy soil and build a slow camp fire over them. Walk away. Come back in two days to uncover. Toga outfit optional. Now this I can do, hopefully the leather boxers are also optional. Serious case of what you metal guys call galded I plum forgot about putting rocks in a coffee can and putting them on the wood stove. It does a great job. Maybe gets hot too fast. You can put a spacer under the can for the first 4-6 hours to slow ramp up. remember The Gimp
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Post by orrum on Feb 22, 2017 8:33:36 GMT -5
I have seen where you can use a gas grill to heat treat too! I started with ssnd and a electric skillet that was found all groddy! Yuck but it berne clean. Caution use device in a fire proof area and beware of cord failure. Also wind blowing can lower temps a lot.
Campfire heating can be increased temp by dig hole build fire and then cover hot coals with sand and put rocks on sand then cover rocks with sand then build another fire.
Ancient man mined knapping stone by building fires and when rock was hot throwing wster on it to open up cracks. They then prized and wedged cracks open to get chunks. This also created unwanted fractures but what else can you do??? LOL. A lot of turquoise was mined by a meridians this way.
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jamesp
Cave Dweller
Member since October 2012
Posts: 36,165
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Post by jamesp on Feb 22, 2017 9:58:33 GMT -5
I have seen where you can use a gas grill to heat treat too! I started with ssnd and a electric skillet that was found all groddy! Yuck but it berne clean. Caution use device in a fire proof area and beware of cord failure. Also wind blowing can lower temps a lot. Campfire heating can be increased temp by dig hole build fire and then cover hot coals with sand and put rocks on sand then cover rocks with sand then build another fire. Ancient man mined knapping stone by building fires and when rock was hot throwing wster on it to open up cracks. They then prized and wedged cracks open to get chunks. This also created unwanted fractures but what else can you do??? LOL. A lot of turquoise was mined by a meridians this way. There is a 20 mile circle of heat treated Savannah River chert near Girard Georgia. I think those rascals set the woods on fire and cooked all the surface material. Savannah River site is on of the largest chert mines. The dirt roads are full of cooked rock. Dig down a foot and the chert is all yellow, white and brown with bits of purple. Not cooked. Collect on the surface and this is what you get, all heated and famous for after heat colors: www.flickr.com/photos/67205364@N06/sets/72157632569773602
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Post by orrum on Feb 22, 2017 16:25:44 GMT -5
I wanna get some of that Jim!!!
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jamesp
Cave Dweller
Member since October 2012
Posts: 36,165
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Post by jamesp on Feb 22, 2017 17:19:24 GMT -5
I wanna get some of that Jim!!! Ha, I got there after they timbered a section due to forest fire and ran a deep disc. The fire cooked all the arrowheads and shattered them. The disc turned up deeper material that was cooked just right. Great timing. Could have broke the axels with rock, instead I collected 5 gallons of those perfect tumbles. The blackberry's then ran me off the next year, took over and prevented collecting. Used to break 1000 pound chunks up till they posted the area. Back 25 years ago. Me and Denise waded out and picked up a 5 gallon bucket of scrapers back then. Hard to find any knapping material anymore. The roads still has smaller material in it. Most of it heat treated. Strange. Need permission
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Post by toiv0 on Feb 23, 2017 7:49:29 GMT -5
Mr. jamesp Here is my experiment I will do today. I have my rocket stove, going to try and keep it at 500 degrees for a few hrs. Have dry sand and going to put 3 to 5 inches in bottom of steel 5 gal pail. then cover 3 to 5 inches of sand. Oh the material will be lake superior agates and mary ellen jasper. with time restraints and haveing to babysit the temp how long do you think on time at the 500 degree. What do you think if it goes higher, the top generates enough heat to turn the top of a barrel red, I think 1000 plus degrees. here is what the material will look like, i will take actual before and after pics, any guesses. The ones i heat won't be polished
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Post by captbob on Feb 23, 2017 8:02:28 GMT -5
I gotta ask, why would you heat Mary Ellen jasper? What are you expecting?
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Post by toiv0 on Feb 23, 2017 8:26:08 GMT -5
I gotta ask, why would you heat Mary Ellen jasper? What are you expecting? Dont really know what I am expecting, a brighter red would be nice, sometimes the reds are dark. Maybe purpleish (is this a word), I find nodules in the gravel pits sometime that are purple and look pretty nice. The other reason is I have it and sounds like a new toy to heat treat, it snowed last night and cooler today so it will give me an exuse to burn wood...haha
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Post by captbob on Feb 23, 2017 8:31:55 GMT -5
That is some good looking Mary Ellen. Looking forward to seeing the results.
Don't forget the marshmallows!
ETA: how big of pieces of Mary Ellen do you find?
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jamesp
Cave Dweller
Member since October 2012
Posts: 36,165
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Post by jamesp on Feb 23, 2017 8:32:59 GMT -5
I gotta ask, why would you heat Mary Ellen jasper? What are you expecting? I have to agree with Bob toiv0. That rock is deep red. Red usually goes to brown, yucko. Especially dark red. Yellow, orange, light browns, light reds, pinks are the colors that change well. Yellow goes to orange then to red at hottest. Betting $4.32 that these will go red. I call that a light iron rust color. Great candidate color for cooking. The brown bands will turn red, the white bands stay white, making for striking banding. This brown can go purple but purple is rare. For a high grade glassy agate(not grainy) usually 500F is about right. The knappers don't cook Lake Superior cause it is expensive and too small for arrowheads. so there is probably no info on a recipe for cooking it. If you are firing up your stove regular just stick a couple of Superiors in a metal can full of sand and give it a go. Do not set can on cherry red steel. Shim an inch or two off the cherry red. You know wood stoves. Average wood stove will evaporate a 4 gallon pot full of water in 24 hours, good temp for heating rock in a can of sand direct contact. Like this Billy, and the rocks that have lighter brown in the white rings may go yellow and orange. Could be a show.
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Post by captbob on Feb 23, 2017 8:43:13 GMT -5
Mary Ellen jasper is one of my regular (daily) searches on eBay. Would love to find chunks of material as nice as those slabs. May cry if it goes brown!
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Post by toiv0 on Feb 23, 2017 8:43:19 GMT -5
That is some good looking Mary Ellen. Looking forward to seeing the results. Don't forget the marshmallows! ETA: how big of pieces of Mary Ellen do you find? I trade for pieces 100 pounds plus, they are out of the iron mines to the north east of me a little bit. Green is hard to find but depending on the mine the reds can be blah. In the gravel pits pieces run from small to 1 pound, they are usually fractured like the lakers. Tumbled by glaciers, freeze and thaw. The massive pieces can be fractured also as the mines blast the rock.
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Post by toiv0 on Feb 23, 2017 8:44:04 GMT -5
Mary Ellen jasper is one of my regular (daily) searches on eBay. Would love to find chunks of material as nice as those slabs. May cry if it goes brown! send me a pm with your address and I will send you some.
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Post by captbob on Feb 23, 2017 8:46:23 GMT -5
Interesting. Thank you. They have the banded iron (jasper & hematite) in your area as well?
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jamesp
Cave Dweller
Member since October 2012
Posts: 36,165
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Post by jamesp on Feb 23, 2017 8:47:37 GMT -5
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Post by toiv0 on Feb 23, 2017 9:39:40 GMT -5
Interesting. Thank you. They have the banded iron (jasper & hematite) in your area as well? yes, I just talked to a guy that works at the mines and he is suppose to bring a sample. I have a quest out after the posts I seen this week. Will also source my guy for the mary ellen
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