Today I set up an impromptu melt bench in the back yard to melt some tin sticks due to potential contamination issues.  This was a largely successful enterprise which produced many slugs for me to work with.  One slug dribbled off the bit of wood I was pouring it into and landed on the corrugation – gladly it peeled right off. Tin melts really quickly but it takes longer to cool down than silver.

The slugs are very shiny.  Shininess is not a good thing in my opinion.  I will have to research ways to matt them down or oxidise them.

Next I might melt some zinc or aluminium or some other fun stuff that I find at the metal scrap yard this week.

A few days later: I took these slugs to a crit session with Raewyn, SWH and Renee – the general consensus was that the shininess is good actually – not something to be blackened. It speaks of their fluidity. Hmmm. Can I venture from the dark side.

Can I manipulate/bash/roll them when they are wet? Can I lathe some wood bowls to melt them into to manipulate the puddles?