Slag specimens

Slag specimens

Slag is an industrial byproduct of various industries, including metal smelting and glass working. These slag specimens are sold for students and geology classes, etc - as study pieces. They are also ideal for reenactors living history displays, and museums of various kinds - especially museums dedicated to mining or metalwork.

We currently have two types in stock, a common black type found across much of the UK, and a more interesting blue glassy type found in Germany.

Black specimens: These pieces come from a range of locations, as slag is found all over the UK. It was widely used as hardcore for train track and road building, so is found in some really unlikely places!
Most of the pieces we sell actually come from my garden. I live alongside a road built between a city and a major colliery, within a few hundred meters of a railway line and canal - go figure!

Blue specimens: This is smelting slag from Germanys Harz mountains, and is hundreds of years old. It is likely to be copper smelting slag. A similar material is sometimes known as "Sieber Agate", after the Sieber river in the Harz mountains - however, it is not an Agate. This material is occasionally sold polished or tumbled. Expect blues, greens, greys, purples.