SAND

Miscellaneous

Family: None
Region: None
Mined At: Unspecified
Raw Mineral: Yes
Generic: No

Notes

(Richard Willis)

Typically SiO₂ + debris, sand is essentially of quartz crystals, plus just about everything, especially if it is an urban beach sand. Mountain sand (which has not had so much washing as do sands of oceans, lakes, rivers, and so forth) is usually closer to its origins (i.e., pulverized rocks) and thereby still contains a greater variety of minerals associated with granites than do the high quartz content sands of beaches et al. In one sense, beach sands are older than mountain sands in that the former have had more time to be washed as well as more washings in the time they have had, ergo a higher content of remaining quartz crystals. Practical tests in dating and thereby analyzing the mineral content of sands can be done vis a vis firings — the higher the temperature to melt, or to fuse (in fluxed mixes), the older, i.e., cleaner (i.e., the “quartzier”) it is. "Washed sand", as called for in recipes, usually refers to beach sand, desert sand, mountain sa nd, etceteras cleaned of as much debris as possible. The usual “studio” method of washing sand begins with running a magnet through it (or pouring it over a magnet) to remove the normally abundant iron, then sieving it to the desired grain size, then slurry-ing it with rain water until there’s more water than sand, stirring, letting it sit, filtering off the floating debris, stirring, sitting, filtering, repeatedly, until the excess water looks clean, then letting it dry before weighing into a recipe. “Potter’s sand”, by contrast, usually refers to granulated flintstone.
“Quartz crystals” are not to be confused with “glass crystals”: the former are in their morphic, orderly, uniformly structured crystalline state — well bonded and strong and virtually pure SiO₂;while the latter are amorphic, disorderly, dis-uniformly structured pseudo-crystalline state — weakly bonded and delicate and loaded with impurities (like lead, zinc, tin or whatever was used to flux, opacify, color and etceteras the glass with when it was formulated). Glass crystals are more crispal than crystal. see crystal, glass,obsidian, etc.

Authors

Richard Willis (Owner)

XML

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<material name="SAND" descrip="" generic="0" rawmineral="1" searchkey="" loi="0.00">
<notes>
<note>Typically SiO2 + debris, sand is essentially of quartz crystals, plus just about everything, especially if it is an urban beach sand. Mountain sand (which has not had so much washing as do sands of oceans, lakes, rivers, and so forth) is usually closer to its origins (i.e., pulverized rocks) and thereby still contains a greater variety of minerals associated with granites than do the high quartz content sands of beaches et al. In one sense, beach sands are older than mountain
sands in that the former have had more time to be washed as well as more washings in the time they have had, ergo a higher content of remaining quartz crystals. Practical tests in dating and thereby analyzing the mineral content of sands can be done vis a vis firings &#151; the higher the temperature to melt, or to fuse (in fluxed mixes), the older, i.e., cleaner (i.e., the &#147;quartzier&#148;) it is. &quot;Washed sand&quot;, as called for in recipes, usually refers to beach sand, desert sand, mountain sa
nd, etceteras cleaned of as much debris as possible. The usual &#147;studio&#148; method of washing sand begins with running a magnet through it (or pouring it over a magnet) to remove the normally abundant iron, then sieving it to the desired grain size, then slurry-ing it with rain water until there&#146;s more water than sand, stirring, letting it sit, filtering off the floating debris, stirring, sitting, filtering, repeatedly, until the excess water looks clean, then letting it dry before weighing into
a recipe. &#147;Potter&#146;s sand&#148;, by contrast, usually refers to granulated flintstone. 
&#147;Quartz crystals&#148; are not to be confused with &#147;glass crystals&#148;: the former are in their morphic, orderly, uniformly structured crystalline state &#151; well bonded and strong and virtually pure SiO2; while the latter are amorphic, disorderly, dis-uniformly structured pseudo-crystalline state &#151; weakly bonded and delicate and loaded with impurities (like lead, zinc, tin or whatever was used to flux, opacify, color and etceteras the glass with
when it was formulated). Glass crystals are more crispal than crystal. see crystal, glass,obsidian, etc. 

</note>
</notes>
</material>

Much more information with complete interlinking to many related
databases can be found by logging into the www.ceramicmaterials.info database

INSIGHT is ceramic chemistry
calculation software that runs on
Windows, Mac and Linux and talks
to this web site.

Ceramic Materials Database

SAND

Miscellaneous

Notes

(Richard Willis)

Authors

XML