- Joined
- Feb 12, 2014
- Messages
- 1
Hello everyone, I have been on these forums for years & finally have something worth posting, so hello! & here it goes:
I am an arts teacher & artist who does a lot of metalwork & I am writing because I am in possession of a large amount of black sand from Ocean Beach in San Francisco, CA. This sand is from a landslide that exposed & concentrated the heavy particles that are present in the sand. Ocean Beach was mined for gold until about 1940 when any mining, panning or collection was totally banned. This sand predates that & has just been sitting in a basement this entire time (I believe the collection date predates WW2, so early 1940's). I do have a large amount graded in to various micron sizes as well as with only the ferrous magnetite & other iron particles present. I believe this would make some amazing steel & have been contacting various metalsmiths & powdered metal specialists in the hopes of doing something cool with this material. While sorting, I have found various other materials in the sand, including gold, quartz, garnets, olivine & possibly spinel, tourmaline & diamonds, all microscopic of course. Really hoping to use this stuff for some projects & I would like to know if there is anyone on the forum that is interested in working with this material. While I would be open to selling it, I'd rather trade it for some finished work of the material (I am in the market for a short sword, tomahawk & field knife, as well as open to other suggestions) or give it away if you have a neat scientific or educational use for it. I'd love to try & render some tamahagane or dendritic/wootz or other fine grade steel with it but that's totally out of my league...Is there anything that would prevent that? when iron is at a pure, native, or powdered form, is there anyway to gauge the quality/usability of it? Anyway, just thought this might make for some interesting conversation about steel creation, alloy mixes, etc, at the least.
I also have in my possession 100+ year old materials from a historic windmill site in SF. This includes slate tiles, wood planks (I believe it is pine, but it is EXTREMELY dense due to age & weathering) & the original copper from the dome with amazing patina/verdigris. These could all make for some very cool projects if anyone has some interest & I'd imagine that anything you create would be pretty damn marketable due to the fact that these are extremely rare & finite materials. Please PM me for more details & if you have any general comments/observations/questions, please feel free to post a reply to this thread. Thanks everyone & have a great day.
I am an arts teacher & artist who does a lot of metalwork & I am writing because I am in possession of a large amount of black sand from Ocean Beach in San Francisco, CA. This sand is from a landslide that exposed & concentrated the heavy particles that are present in the sand. Ocean Beach was mined for gold until about 1940 when any mining, panning or collection was totally banned. This sand predates that & has just been sitting in a basement this entire time (I believe the collection date predates WW2, so early 1940's). I do have a large amount graded in to various micron sizes as well as with only the ferrous magnetite & other iron particles present. I believe this would make some amazing steel & have been contacting various metalsmiths & powdered metal specialists in the hopes of doing something cool with this material. While sorting, I have found various other materials in the sand, including gold, quartz, garnets, olivine & possibly spinel, tourmaline & diamonds, all microscopic of course. Really hoping to use this stuff for some projects & I would like to know if there is anyone on the forum that is interested in working with this material. While I would be open to selling it, I'd rather trade it for some finished work of the material (I am in the market for a short sword, tomahawk & field knife, as well as open to other suggestions) or give it away if you have a neat scientific or educational use for it. I'd love to try & render some tamahagane or dendritic/wootz or other fine grade steel with it but that's totally out of my league...Is there anything that would prevent that? when iron is at a pure, native, or powdered form, is there anyway to gauge the quality/usability of it? Anyway, just thought this might make for some interesting conversation about steel creation, alloy mixes, etc, at the least.
I also have in my possession 100+ year old materials from a historic windmill site in SF. This includes slate tiles, wood planks (I believe it is pine, but it is EXTREMELY dense due to age & weathering) & the original copper from the dome with amazing patina/verdigris. These could all make for some very cool projects if anyone has some interest & I'd imagine that anything you create would be pretty damn marketable due to the fact that these are extremely rare & finite materials. Please PM me for more details & if you have any general comments/observations/questions, please feel free to post a reply to this thread. Thanks everyone & have a great day.
