Flattening or Squaring

Hi there,

What is the difference in result when squaring a button vs just flattening. After flattening there is still a tiny bit of slag stuck to the button and i am wondering whether that can attack the crucible enough to matter (its only a small amount). The flip side is squaring it and bruising my thumbs too many times.

Look forward to any feedback!

Cheers

Berrie

I assume you are talking about the lead cone from an assay fusion?

Flattening it tends to imbed the slag and squaring it tends to knock off more of the slag as you hammer all 6 faces.

If you have a particularly nasty assay and have not scorified, the slag may prevent a nice bead formation when cupelling. Once you have hammered all 6 sides,any remaining flux usually brushes right off.

I would consider squaring over flattening and invest in a long pair of tweezers. I have a few pair that come from jewelers that use them to hold jewelry when they steam clean it. I guess they don't like to burn their thumbs either.

And thanks for that one too,

Yes i was talking about the lead cone. Thanks for confirming what i hoped would be right!

berrie

I always pounded out the lead button into the shape of a cube and then carefully brushed off the powdered slag with a toothbrush-sized wire brush before cupelling. I first flattened the lead cone a little on an anvil using a hammer. Then, using long tweezers or lab tongs, I held the flattened button on edge and pounded it down. Finally, I rotated it 90 degrees, still on edge, and pounded that down. The result, with practice, was a nearly perfect cube. Only takes about 30 seconds from start to finish.

When initially flattening the lead cone, don't flatten it too much or it will tend to fold over on itself when you then pound it on edge. This can trap slag between the fold.

Thanks GSPro. This is how i do it too, but it was recently suggested that flattening is "just fine also" during an audit and i disagree. It's hard to measure the impact, other than assaying a whole bunch of CRM's