[meteorite-list] first attempt to etch

From: Michael Murray <mmurray_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Sat, 27 Jan 2007 20:33:34 -0700
Message-ID: <CDEC6A6F-626D-4664-8105-7520C0A05E57_at_montrose.net>

Some ramblings from a newbie

Tonight, I attempted to etch my small suspect iron. I used ferric
chloride. I polished a spot to a mirror finish and then cleaned it
with alcohol, then applied the etchant. I left it on a few minutes
then cleaned it off and reapplied it. did this 3 times. I brought
it in to the mscope and looked at what I had done. No pattern. The
surface looked dimply. I cleaned it more, then buffed it with cotton
wheel. Nothing of a pattern. I had a piece of terrestrial iron so I
applied etchant to it to see what it did. Here is what I found out
from that.

The iron shows a granular appearance. It is not the same as the
little suspect stone. Its hard to explain but the suspect stone
almost looks like bright silver/platinum. No granular appearance at
all. And here is the real weird thing. It appears when turned
just right in the light to have very small very bright round things
that reflect the light with an amplification of the light. They are
scattered all over the surface and the brightest white I have seen.
In the right light and tilted away just so, it looks kinda like the
night sky.

It was fun to try the etching process. I either have something other
than a meteorite, or possibly (dare I say) an ataxite. Next I will
try a nickel test on it.

Rockbiter
Received on Sat 27 Jan 2007 10:33:34 PM PST