Dear James,
Just what I have been looking for, and probably other members of the archaeometallurgy committee and wider community. Archaeometallurgy has its own particular demands on sample prep, most often because of the small size of the samples,: 3mm is a big one. Other issues are that sample surfaces are usually corroded and there is a need to produce a good cross-section through the corrosion to display all the layers. Particle retention is important: inclusions range from soft (lead, copper sulphide) to hard (slag, hard oxides). Etching can be challenging as well since there is a lot of surface relative to the volume of metal and over-etching round the edges can be troublesome.
These issues are also of interest to the Historical Metallurgy Society where I am a council member. We are looking at establishing a small number of special interest groups, and one for physical metallurgy and metallography will undoubtedly include discussions on sample prep. It is good to know that there is another group we will be able to talk to.
Regards,
Peter Northover
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Peter Northover
Retired
University of Oxford
+44 1865 820543
peter.northover@retired.ox.ac.uk------------------------------
Original Message:
Sent: 11-03-2021 04:33
From: James Colvin
Subject: Sample Prep Users Group
Hi All,
Welcome to the Sample Prep users group. We had about 40 attendees here in Phoenix and a lively conversation. This is a forum to keep the conversation going. As Chair of this group along with our co chairs Cecile, Nathan, and Kah Chin, we want to invite you to ask questions and share answers with other users. This is your forum but we have some ground rules. In brief, this is a professional forum so please avoid shameless vendor advertising or conduct not in keeping with the intent of the forum.
Thanks,
Jim
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James Colvin
CEO
F A Instruments
Newark CA
(510) 851-5555
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