Blacksburg Glass

[colorshapetexture]

OK here is a new one for you.
A customer sent me a piece of slag from a forge that was operated before the revolutionary war. ( Iron smelting ceased in this area around this time mainly from lack of charcoal. All of the steel smelting went to Penn. because they had plenty of coal to fire the forges. The steel from there is some of the best ever found though. Just no fuel for the forges close by.). But from what he tells me it is found in a field across from his plant. Kinda cool stuff.

[timh]

This looks like some slag I collected ~ 15 years ago in Kings Creek. The creek was full of it and I was able to get a couple of buckets full in a short time. Most of it was blue & white and there was some green and some purple also. Most of it had a lot of swirls sort of like agate. A lot of it had air bubbles but some of it was good & solid. I have long since lost directions to the collecting site but do believe it was close to Blacksburg SC.

[timh]

OK, I got curious and did some digging around to try and find the reference to Kings Creek slag that I used some years ago. I got lucky and found it in an article that was published in "Rock & Gem" magazine, it is the November, 1988 issue. It gives good directions to the site, but who knows what's there today, might make for an interesting trip one day.
Also ran across an article in the July/August, 1979 , issue of "Rocks & Minerals" that describes a barite mining history in the same area & says barite crystals can be collected in the area as well.

[CrossfireBusiness]

I personally love looking up old rock mags and books for locations ... The best thing is if its still there they are not overcollected anymore and there should be fresh materials from erosion ,rain , etc ... If its not too far I"ll take a drive ...

[tanyafrench]

Ohhhh, I love that cab. The swirls in the beautiful blue are just awesome.

Tanya