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High-Performance Blades Sharing ideas for getting the most out of our steel.

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  #1  
Old 12-05-2006, 12:37 AM
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Brett Holmes Brett Holmes is offline
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black sand?

hey guys, im not planning on doing any smelting soon but i do usually read whats going on here and i have seen black sand mentioned a few times. Is any black sand the right stuff? back where i lived up antill a few days ago was called rainbow beach due to a number of different coloured sands found in the area, and prior to that it was known as black beach beause black sand is very common, i found a pile about 40meters by 15 by about 2m tall i would think thats a smelters wet dream. the area used to be only used by sand miners who extracted the black sand and sold it for its mineral contents one of which im told is titanium but im not sure how acurate my info is.

Brett


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Old 12-05-2006, 07:50 AM
Jeff Pringle Jeff Pringle is offline
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Quote:
Is any black sand the right stuff?
No, and I've seen some beaches that were called "Black Sand Beach" that were just black rocks. You want the black sand that is very fine and very magnetic, AKA magnetite. Your beach sounds promising, since titanium ore AKA ilmenite usually associates with magnetite. They look the same, but ilmenite is not very magnetic, so take a magnet the next time you go and see how the sand reacts.
Once you know it's iron ore, you might find yourself wanting to smelt some of it!
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Old 12-05-2006, 07:14 PM
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B.Finnigan B.Finnigan is offline
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Brett, if you send a sample I can look at it under a microscope and you can get a good idea of how many impurities are in it.

It may look black but under magnification you can see all sorts of non iron grains.

http://www.knifenetwork.com/forum/sh...ad.php?t=38372

If anyone else wants thier sands looked at let me know, I do it just for my own learning curve and never charge. I can also post them so everyone can get an idea of just what is in random samples from around the country (or world). I am looking at something almost everyday now since a digital microscope is whole lot easier to use and take pics with.

Last edited by B.Finnigan; 12-05-2006 at 07:19 PM.
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Old 12-06-2006, 12:26 AM
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Brett Holmes Brett Holmes is offline
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cant do any tests guys i moved out of there on friday, the sand was very fine and had a metalic kind of sparcle but that could be quartz i guess. i was told that tourists would take a compass down to the mound and marvel at how it spun in circles so i guess it was at least a bit magnetic.

brett


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