jamesp
Cave Dweller
Member since October 2012
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Post by jamesp on Jan 7, 2022 2:21:15 GMT -5
This thing is heavy. Hardball size, 1 pound 12 ounces. ***Not magnetic. Basically pyramid shaped, so 3 sides and a 'top'. Has a hematite patina/color. Meteorite expert says not a meteorite. If I toss it in the air while typing can I call it a meteor rockpickerforever ? Found way back in remote forest. But there was a blacksmith 1/4 mile away 100+ years ago but I don't think he smelted/melted. Side 1. To left is smooth 'top'. Note crystalline looking structure ?#$% Top, looks as if it was a liquid that cooled(slag) Side 2 similar to side 1. Left is 'top' Side 3. Back side is 'top' View of side 1 and 2. Left side is 'top'. Note patina/crystallization delineation line wrapping around it. Looks like a big bubble cavity at lower left
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victor1941
fully equipped rock polisher
Member since November 2011
Posts: 1,978
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Post by victor1941 on Jan 7, 2022 10:01:54 GMT -5
I would contact a place like Arizona State University Center for Meteorite Studies and see if they would look at the pictures or specimen.
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Post by Starguy on Jan 7, 2022 11:39:44 GMT -5
jamespThat thing is cool! How did you check magnetism? I have a piece of chromite that a magnet will not stick to. It will affect a sensitive compass needle though. Have you tried a streak test? No I don’t mean streaking through your neighborhood with it in your hand. Let us know what you figure out. Hematite should streak red.
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Post by rmf on Jan 7, 2022 20:40:15 GMT -5
jamesp North GA has/had a lot of iron mining. They mined limonite/geothite which was altered from a thick layer originally of pyrite/marcasite. The streak should be brown to reddish. the crystals on Images 1 & 3 look very much like a piece I have from GA. The top however looks melted as does some of the bottom. GA, TN, AL all had little blast furnaces where they made pig Iron from small deposits you can't afford to mine today. In TN they used the brow Iron ore Limonite. I am thinking you have more Geothite in yours. It also may have been in a furnace but not fully melted.
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jamesp
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Member since October 2012
Posts: 36,155
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Post by jamesp on Jan 7, 2022 22:22:29 GMT -5
I would contact a place like Arizona State University Center for Meteorite Studies and see if they would look at the pictures or specimen. I had sent detailed photos to a renowned meteorite analysis operation Victor. They were certain it was not a meteorite. It has porosity in the form of tiny bubbles, one big bubble, and no heat erosion streaks on it. The top side was the other sign, it looks like a fluid that cooled down. All pointing toward slag. I was bummed, I was certain I found a meteorite. I need to grind a flat on it and and polish it. It may show metallic crystallization.
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jamesp
Cave Dweller
Member since October 2012
Posts: 36,155
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Post by jamesp on Jan 7, 2022 22:25:27 GMT -5
jamespThat thing is cool! How did you check magnetism? I have a piece of chromite that a magnet will not stick to. It will affect a sensitive compass needle though. Have you tried a streak test? No I don’t mean streaking through your neighborhood with it in your hand. Let us know what you figure out. Hematite should streak red. I did test magnetism with a compass. Seem totally magnetically inactive. I do need to do a streak test - he he , rubbing it on a piece of unglazed tile .
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jamesp
Cave Dweller
Member since October 2012
Posts: 36,155
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Post by jamesp on Jan 8, 2022 8:25:42 GMT -5
jamesp North GA has/had a lot of iron mining. They mined limonite/geothite which was altered from a thick layer originally of pyrite/marcasite. The streak should be brown to reddish. the crystals on Images 1 & 3 look very much like a piece I have from GA. The top however looks melted as does some of the bottom. GA, TN, AL all had little blast furnaces where they made pig Iron from small deposits you can't afford to mine today. In TN they used the brow Iron ore Limonite. I am thinking you have more Geothite in yours. It also may have been in a furnace but not fully melted. Thanks rmf. I think you are drawing close to it's composition. The old timers in my 2 mile radius neighborhood had a preponderance of backyard blacksmiths. These guys were around up to less than a century ago. They may have been more advanced that I would know and had a furnace. I do need to grind a small path on it and polish it. I was curious about an acid test too.
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Post by rmf on Jan 9, 2022 11:36:49 GMT -5
jamesp I would knock off a small piece and see if a torch would melt it. If it is mostly Iron ore then it may drive off some of the water and become magnetic. If it melts you may get a glass and see that it is slag or partly so. It may depend where on the specimen where you get your piece. Use a single drop of 10% hydrochloric acid (1 drop of acid to 9 drops distilled water) onto the brown material and dab dry with tissue. Dab only once so that the acid + some brown material is in one spot. Leave to dry for an hour and look for yellow/green colour, which is a positive id for iron oxide. However, no color does not indicate the absence of iron oxide, just that for some reason the test has not worked. HCl is muratic acid it is just a purity issue. I am thinking you make the fire pits so fusion test may be easiest for you since you probably have a torch.
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Post by rmf on Jan 9, 2022 11:43:30 GMT -5
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jamesp
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Member since October 2012
Posts: 36,155
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Post by jamesp on Jan 9, 2022 13:20:26 GMT -5
jamesp I would knock off a small piece and see if a torch would melt it. If it is mostly Iron ore then it may drive off some of the water and become magnetic. If it melts you may get a glass and see that it is slag or partly so. It may depend where on the specimen where you get your piece. Use a single drop of 10% hydrochloric acid (1 drop of acid to 9 drops distilled water) onto the brown material and dab dry with tissue. Dab only once so that the acid + some brown material is in one spot. Leave to dry for an hour and look for yellow/green colour, which is a positive id for iron oxide. However, no color does not indicate the absence of iron oxide, just that for some reason the test has not worked. HCl is muratic acid it is just a purity issue. I am thinking you make the fire pits so fusion test may be easiest for you since you probably have a torch. Ok. Thanks for the direction. I have Muriatic and a torch and hammer. The chunk appears to have a different composition(or crystallization pattern) starting from the 'top' and moving down to the bottom. The 'top' appearing to be the surface of a bowl of molten metal that cooled. OK rmf, wow the torch converted some of the material to be attracted by a magnet. The melted particles and melt blobs that were created my the heat are very much magnetic. It took a super high heat to get it to melt though, way more heat than that required to burn a hole thru mild steel. Why did this make it magnetic ? Was it some kind of a phase change to carbon steel ? Starguy, heat made it magnetic go figure. Just for kicks I tried the 40 grit high speed grinder on it. It is very hard, like grinding a rock or concrete with an aluminum oxide grinding wheel. The new surface looks like a metal when sunlight is reflected off the ground surface. The piece broke of with a hammer as if brittle. Like it may shatter if hit with a sledge. Note the newly exposed bubbles, telling that it is not meteorite..
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Post by rockpickerforever on Jan 9, 2022 20:55:31 GMT -5
jamesp, a few pics of some slag I have. The biggest piece. Sorry, I didn't weigh any of these, but they are above average heavy. Interesting bubble holes and lattices. Same rock, close up Same rock, farther away, looking more straight on it. Back side. Looks like someone went through it with a cutting torch! More lattice Next piece. Reminds me of cement that hardens in its bag, except not concrete. Another Back side. Lumpy, melty, dirt chunks/impurities. Same rock, another face. This one, too. Side view of the divot. Pretty neat how the slag just steamrolled those little rocks/chunks, and sucked them into its mass. Last and smallest one. More lattice on back. All four of them together. There's some slag for you. I can't honestly say I remember where this stuff came from. But I do know we picked up some slag out at Swansea, in AZ. That was actually a copper mine.
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Post by Pat on Jan 9, 2022 21:17:49 GMT -5
I can’t add anything worthwhile, but I think they are all neat, and I learn something from the comments. Thanks.
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jamesp
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Member since October 2012
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Post by jamesp on Jan 10, 2022 8:29:32 GMT -5
This looks exactly like my sample Jean rockpickerforever. And yours is above average heavy too. No copper mines here, certain of that. That lattice crystallization is wild. We must be slaggers lol. Slagger - def (don't look up urban definitions) One who is both a slacker and a loligagger Jean's jamesp's
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Post by rockjunquie on Jan 10, 2022 8:36:29 GMT -5
My cousin found one in Maine that I posted about. A magnet sticks to it.
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quartzilla
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Member since April 2020
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Post by quartzilla on Jan 10, 2022 8:40:14 GMT -5
It looks like slag to me. Still neat though.
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Post by rockpickerforever on Jan 10, 2022 10:00:01 GMT -5
This looks exactly like my sample Jean rockpickerforever . And yours is above average heavy too. No copper mines here, certain of that. That lattice crystallization is wild. We must be slaggers lol. Slagger - def (don't look up urban definitions) One who is both a slacker and a loligagger Jean's jamesp's jamesp , yes, yours and mine look much alike. I think mine are all iron slag, which I probably did not capture in the wild (rock show/sale, swap meet, garage sale, etc.). I mentioned Swansea, because I remember some slag we picked up there, but not sure where I put it. Copper and iron slag look pretty much alike. I misspoke about Swansea. It is ghost town now, but I should have said it was not aa min. They smelted copper for mines in the surrounding area, it was not actually mined at their location, but the copper ore was brought there to be smelted. Google Swansea in AZ for more info. For grins, I googled composition of slag. Primary composition of both iron and steel slag are Limestone (CaO) and Silica (SiO 2), plus a few other things.
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Post by rmf on Jan 14, 2022 20:48:54 GMT -5
jamesp If you got magnetic you probably converted the Geothite/limonite to hematite/Magnetite or just cooked off to Iron. My guess is that since you are N. GA it is probably a piece of high grade or like they mined in the civil war to the 1930 to make Iron. Thanks for experimenting and reporting the results. Slag would have made a glassy blob after your heating and not magnetic typically.
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fuss
spending too much on rocks
Member since October 2018
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Post by fuss on Jan 24, 2022 10:14:13 GMT -5
Has a streak test been done yet? it has the appearance of Goethite/Limonite.
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Post by rmf on Jan 29, 2022 3:36:12 GMT -5
jamesp Had a thought on the slag composition. there is a guy in Ft. Oglethorpe, GA that does coins and precious metals. He has an XRF gun for testing gold and silver. This XRF handheld is tuned for precious metal but also does a range of other elements. If you can find one close to you this is a 30 second test and could give you an elemental analysis. People that do scrap metal recycling use them for sorting even non-precious metals.
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jamesp
Cave Dweller
Member since October 2012
Posts: 36,155
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Post by jamesp on Jan 29, 2022 6:23:51 GMT -5
Has a streak test been done yet? it has the appearance of Goethite/Limonite. Don't tell fuss, I pulled the toilet reservoir cap to do the streak test on the unglazed underside. Never mention such activity to wife... It came out dark grey/black. jamespHave you tried a streak test? No I don’t mean streaking through your neighborhood with it in your hand. Let us know what you figure out. Hematite should streak red.
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