vermiculite or pearlite

[pike3e]

I can purchase either locally for similiar money for enough to fill a five gallon bucket. I would be using them to anneal (hopefully something close to the speriodal anneal (sp) process after forging but without the oven (I will get one eventually). Is there a differance between the two annealing media. Good, bad, no differance?

Thanks

John

 

[James_Terrio]

Vermiculite and pearlite in equal measure are among the best additives you can put in gardening soil. Which of course, doesn't seem to mean much in terms of annealing...

I don't know how well either material insulates, but I do know that vermiculite is quite good at dispersing moisture evenly. It will darn near eliminate any dry/damp spots. I suspect that's a good thing for annealing.

Pearlite is normally used to keep soil "loose" for drainage and to allow air to the roots of whatever you're growing. I don't think that's a good thing when you want to cool something slowly.

 

[JTknives]

I have seen them both used, but let me do some searching and see what i can come up with. here read these links thy should help you out quite a bit

http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=621027&highlight=Vermiculite
http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=349222&highlight=Vermiculite

 

[safta]

Vermiculite should work better than perlite, its more commonly used in insulation than perlite.

 

[polish avenger]

Buy vermiculite. If at all possible, try to find some that is guaranteed to be asbestos-free.
-Mark

 

[JTknives]

Buy vermiculite. If at all possible, try to find some that is guaranteed to be asbestos-free.
-Mark

ya that's a good idea. i think thy pulled all the bags of the contaminated stuff but good to keep an eye out.

 

[WadeH]

It also comes in different sizes. Try to get the small size, you will more consistent sized pieces that way.

James you are right about using it in the Garden. I did a garden by using the "Gardening by the Square Foot" method and vermiculite is one of the main ingrediants for the soil that you make for it.

 

[clemsonreeder]

Perlite is commonly used in roofing insulation boards, it does have a decent R-value.

 

[Sweany]

http://www.perlite.net/ r value approximate 2.7

http://www.matweb.com/search/datasheet.aspx?matguid=e6c6fdd5acb04900a8a654c8b59051ca&ckck=1 r-value approximate 2.08

 

[James_Terrio]

It also comes in different sizes. Try to get the small size, you will more consistent sized pieces that way.

James you are right about using it in the Garden. I did a garden by using the "Gardening by the Square Foot" method and vermiculite is one of the main ingrediants for the soil that you make for it.

You could also go soiless and just[/] use vermiculite as your growing medium, with a constant but weak liquid fertilizer... holy thread drift, Batman!

The warnings about dust and possible asbestos contamination are valid. Thanks guys.