Things I Learned Over the Last Few Days

[gfish]

• Pangea was not the first supercontinent. There was one before it called Rodinia, and probably others before that one. They form every ~600 million years. Which makes sense -- being on a sphere, continents can only tectonically drift so far apart before they start coming back together again at the antipodes. At that point the thermal insulation effect causes a whole news series of rifts to form and the process begins again.


• You cannot cast silicon rubber onto untreated investment/plaster. Being porous it soaks up one of the components, leaving an unset mess at the boundary.


• Very few places that sell pewter quote prices on their website or want to deal with individuals at all.


• One of the best sources of obsidian in the country is a 6 hour drive away in Oregon. It's BLM land and you can take 100 pounds a day. I really want to learn how to flintknap now. 'Flintknap' is a relatively new word, only a few hundred years old. The entire art of lithic tool formation was reinvented in the western world upon the invention of the flintlock rifle.


• At least one teenage couple seems to think the small park across the street is a good place to have sex.


• Con audiences are far more receptive to The Grace of Tears than the average group of people. They even appreciated the commentary on the 5th postulate!

Comments

[randomdreams.livejournal.com]

Maybe try dipping the plaster mold in very hot wax (to get a thin coating) for sealant, or spray with mold release compound like people use for putting fiberglass over a concrete mold?

I want to learn to flintknap, too. In Leadville, where I partly grew up, there were arrowheads all over the place, and still are many flintknapping sites where there are deep piles of tiny flint shards, mostly on top of ridges where they sat, watching the valley below for game.

That's one very small park, if I'm recalling it correctly, for any sense of privacy whatsoever.

[gfish.livejournal.com]

I think sealants are recommended, which I'll try next. Using the silicon to make a negative in which to duplicate wax positives works. I'm now experimenting with making a silicon postive, on which I'd cast investment negatives. That way I could skip the burnout process -- convenient, and it removes leftover wax volatiles from the list of unknowns that could be messing up the casts.

The fancy-schmancy term for the pile of shards is debitage. Flintknapping, like bicycles, picked up a bunch of French terms. You don't hit it with a stick, you hit it with a baton.

Yes, the park is very small and very open. It wasn't very subtle. Nor, unfortunately, particularly interesting to watch.

[randomdreams.livejournal.com]

Well, teenage sex, if I recall correctly, wasn't even particularly interesting to participate in, so I can't imagine it would be any too great to watch.

Next time I come out, I'll bring some flint and we can play around. There's a place in Moab where the ground is solidly covered in it, like ankle-deep, just huge gigantic chunks everywhere.

[boojum.livejournal.com]

Where is the obsidian place? Rocks are nifty.

[corivax.livejournal.com]

It is apparently called "Glass Butte" and is on tribal land somewhere, but gathering 100 pounds a day or less of Obsidian is kosher.

[plantae.livejournal.com]

Next time I come out, I'll bring some flint and we can play around.

Ooooooo. Me too! Me too!

You'd think I'd be interested in picking up useful skills, wouldn't you? But no, I seem to be preparing for some massive time-machine accident(s). I've wanted to learn to do that since I learned such a thing exists.

[gfish.livejournal.com]

Yes, Glass Butte. It's outside Bend. If we do come down this summer, you could drive over for a day of rock-hounding, flint-knapping and glass splinters.

[vixyish.livejournal.com]

I rather enjoy the thought of a flint-knapping party on my balcony.

Just try not to hit the car with any shards.