List, This is very interesting. I recently sent a metal axe object to Dr. Pierre Rochette at the university in Marseilles france . My specimen tested positive for nickel but come to find out it actually had none and this is what he had to say.;
The chemical Ni test is a problem, but you have to know that pure Fe > also give a strong red color on that test, the presence of Ni just > alter a bit the tone. > > regards > -- > Pierre So, I guess the color matters too. Carl -- Carl or Debbie Esparza Meteoritemax ---- Michael Murray <mmur...@montrose.net> wrote: > For what they are worth, here are a couple suggestions... > If you place the suspect iron on a strong magnet, then remove the > magnet, the suspect iron should not retain magnetism (if it's a > meteorite) but should to some extent if man-made iron. Kind of like > magnetizing the tip of a screwdriver. You can test the once > magnetized suspect iron to see if it will attract fine particles of > magnetite, Not very scientific I know but it is a good indicator I > think. > > Another thing you can try if the suspect iron is not very big is to > place it on a strong magnet (super magnet if you have one) and if the > iron piece wants to orient itself up on one of it's ends on the > magnet, I would rule out meteorite. If your suspect iron is large, > you'd probably have to remove a small piece of it to do this test. If > the small piece lays down on any of it's sides on the magnet and > doesn't want to orient itself, I'd put it in my 'it's a keeper for > more testing' pile. > > I bought a couple nickel test kits. I have tried to be as careful as > possible to do a clean uncontaminated test on several suspect irons. > After doing quite a few, I still don't trust the results. It's not > that I don't get positives, I do. It's that I've learned not trust > the positive tests all that much. If I find a big enough suspect iron > someday with enough other indicators that it could be a meteorite then > I will let a lab do the testing so I can rest assured the results are > going to be more trustworthy than mine. Meanwhile, my 'it's a keeper > for more testing' pile continues to grow. > > Mike in CO > > On Sep 23, 2009, at 12:27 PM, Mike Hankey wrote: > > > I've done some nickel tests on some of the slag/meteor wrongs we > > have found. > > > > It tests positive for nickel. > > > > Does this sound normal? > > > > So I guess the only way to confirm slag (if you can't do it visually) > > is to cut it open and if there are holes / bubbles then it is slag. Or > > if the slice doesn't look like a meteorite slice it is slag. > > > > For the record, I am personally looking for west like fusion crusted > > stones and this is what I am training people to look for. At the same > > time when I get reports about weird rocks I have to follow up and take > > a look. Not all slag looks the same, there are a lot of different > > types. I'm getting pretty good at identifying / ruling things out, but > > the nickel test threw me for a loop. > > ______________________________________________ > > http://www.meteoritecentral.com > > Meteorite-list mailing list > > Meteorite-list@meteoritecentral.com > > http://six.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/meteorite-list > > ______________________________________________ > http://www.meteoritecentral.com > Meteorite-list mailing list > Meteorite-list@meteoritecentral.com > http://six.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/meteorite-list ______________________________________________ http://www.meteoritecentral.com Meteorite-list mailing list Meteorite-list@meteoritecentral.com http://six.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/meteorite-list
