vermiculite

[bpsj]

does anyone know where to buy vermiculite i can,t find it anywhere. want to use it to soak blade in to anneal. thanks

[Jamey Saunders]

Garden stores usually have it, and I remember that the company that put in my parents' pool used vermiculite in the bottom. You may be able to find it at a pool installer.

Another thing that will work is to heat up two large pieces of steel (thick ones) along with the steel you wish to anneal. Sandwich your steel between the large pieces of steel and bury the whole thing in sand.

[DiamondG Knives]

Somthing I learned from MS Jim Crowell is to use lime. General Purpouse Agricultural lime. Got 100# for $11 at the Co-Op, put it in an old ice chest. Works great! seems to actually cool slower than vermiculite. Ice chest still has lid, so can be closed when not in use.

God Bless
Mike

[SteveS]

Plan B:

I give my wife a piece of steel to hold. Then I tell her I'm going to another knife show. By the time she cools back down, the blade is annealled.

Steve

[Lawrence Kemp]

Hi bpsj,
I have been using lime with good success for a while now. Not being as efficient as Mike, I put mine in an old refrigerator drawer on my messy shop floor.

Hey SteveS!! That's great! Ha Ha!!!

[Exude]

Home improvement stores (Menards, Home Depot, Lowes) should all have it. I just got mine at menards. It's in the insulation section in big bags. 3 cubic feet I think for less than $9.

[millironknives]

same here menards $9

[jonwelder]

I used vermiculite in a tall 6" tube with the bottom end welded shut. As I used it, the material in the bottom turned to a solid, soon after placing many knife blanks into it, I could not get the blades even half way in. I made a new tube, this time out of 12" tube, and filled it with "perlite",, available at Walmart, garden center, very lite, like styrofoam, but it takes heat good. I also made a top for it when not in use, to try to seal out moisture and keep wind from blowing the stuff out! I dumped out the old vermiculite tube, only to find the stuff was a solid on the bottom, about 8" thick! I like the lime idea, I wonder if you can "stab" a hot blade into it (in a tube) as easy as the perlite? ---jon

[AwP]

Wood ash is another good material for annealing.