Heat Treating

[skippy1]

Hi all , Iv been dabbling in heat treating and up until now it has gone pretty smoothly. I am cooking them in a electric roaster at 450 degrees, I think this last batch was in for 36hrs. I let the whole thing cool on its own. When I opened it up, most of the flint was ok but ALL of the beautiful root beer flint had exploded .  How can I keep this from happening?? I spent alot of time and energy collecting that root beer and now its all ruined Any help would be great!
Ryan

P.S. Is anyone going to make it to ozona, tx to join Patrick and myself for the knappin?

[skippy1]

Or maybe root beer flint dosent need any heat?

[JackCrafty]

Spall it into flakes first then heat it at lower temp...maybe 350 degrees.  The rootbeer that you gave me turned out fine at 400 but I spalled it first.  Also, only leave it heating for one night and turn it off in the morning.

[skippy1]

Cool Patrick, thanks for the tip   I have another batch cooking as we speak.  I want to make sure that we have enough cooked rock for this saturday .  I had alot of really pretty pieces that came out of this last batch too, they will make some awesome points. Do you still want to meet at the same time in ozona? 11am?
Ryan

[mullet]

All the Root beer I've used doesn't need heat treating.

[JackCrafty]

Do you still want to meet at the same time in ozona? 11am?

Yep.  I'm looking forward to it. 

[skippy1]

Cool see you there Patrick 

[cowboy]

I'd like to meet you guys in Ozona . Anyway, rootbeer in the ground turned out nice for me - spalled or worked down thin like Patrick said. Ya'll have fun..

[JackCrafty]

Paul, if you're out that way, please stop by!