[meteorite-list] RE: POLL: rustiest most unstable known

[Impactika at aol.com]

In a message dated 5/30/2006 9:35:13 P.M. Mountain Standard Time,  
rhartman04 at earthlink.net writes:
Our experience:

You will not remove  all the moisture that gets deep into fissures and at the
boundaries of the  inclusions in an iron meteorite simply by any method if
the meteorite is  treated at room temperatures.  We heat the iron meteorite
in an oven to  a high temperature in a protecting oil which expands the
cracks and allows a  protecting oil to replace the moisture.  The protecting
oil prevents  discoloration and damage to the iron which would occur if
heated  otherwise.  It works perfectly.  None of my iron meteorites  rust.
The protecting oil is then swabbed over the surface and allowed to  evaporate
for a few days, then the remainder is removed and the surface  allowed to
fully dry, protecting the meteorite from absorbing additional  external
moisture.  Such an oil is ordinary ATF as used in modern  automobile
transmissions.  (And it is cheap!)  The method was  developed by my son, Jim,
and has been partially described in one of my  previous articles in METEORITE
TIMES (November 2002) in which we described  proper preparation of the
surface of an iron.  The details using the AFT  was not discussed there as it
is a bit tricky and I am not suggesting that  anyone try this as I don't want
anyone to burn down their kitchens or blow  their heads off, but with careful
experimentation someone experienced in lab  techniques can achieve much
success.  Heating carefully as described in  the article should give good
results.

Other techniques have been  described by various preparers and some of them
seem to be successful as  well.  But each iron is unique and no method works
exactly the same for  any two.

Ron Hartman
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ok, folks what it is? let's see the TOP 10 sweatiest,
crappiest,  rustiest, hear-it-crackle- as it falls
apart in your hands 5 seconds after  sawing, skyrox.
i'll start with: tsarev, brahin, campo. what have  YOU
got?!

MT. DIEU... PEEEE-UUUUU !

Nearly impossible to  cure.

Steve  Schoner/AMS
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Yes, Jim and Ron's method does work.
Regardless of what Steve Schoner said, I have a very nice full slice of  
Montdieu Jim prepared some 3 or 4 years ago, and it is still in perfect  condition.
It works!!

Anne M.  Black
www.IMPACTIKA.com
IMPACTIKA at aol.com
President, I.M.C.A.  Inc.
www.IMCA.cc