Casting volcano ash or dirt

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Have not done ash or dirt but I would say that ground up 78rpm record would be close to one of them. Check out this pen I made for a customer incorporating 78rpm record fillings.
 
Penl8the, Branden, is brilliant at applying sand to tubes and then casting in clear resin. You just need to figure out how to glue the gritty stuff to the tube and you are all set. Mixing that kind of stuff with resin and casting makes for a very abrasive to drill pen blank.
 
Curly beat me to it but I've applied sand from Iwo Jima to cigar tubes and cast in resin. Paired it with shell casing and it made a stunning pen. I used spray adhesive and rolled it in the sand. Worried great!

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I think that if you glue to the tube and cast in clear it could look good. But if you just mixed ash or dirt in resin it probably wouldn't look very good. And as Pete said it would be very abrasive on tools.

Mike
 
The answers by Curly, Mike, and Mick of applying spray glue, rolling in the sand, and casting, is propably the best way to use volcanic ash. Volcanic ash is made up of tiny fragments of jagged rock in dust like fragments about 2mm (.08") in size called pyroclasts or tephra. Course is grainy and feels like sand, fine ash is powdery, but unlike ash from burning wood, volcanic ash is hard, abrasive, does not dissolve in water, and when wet will conduct electricty. A few years back, when we were in Hawaii, I collected a jar of Black Sand from the beach and mixed it with clear PR and cast several blanks. They turned out looking great with the black crystal like sand grains reflecting lite. However drilling and turning was another story !! The sand is very hard on tools and drill bits. Even though I used my Mini Metal Lathe and HSS tooling, I had to resharpen my bits and tooling several times to complete the task of rounding and drilling. I would say it ranks with using True Stone, only more abrasive. Makes a very nice pen with gold or silver fittings and a glass-like finish. Jim S
 
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