Source for brick dust.

[Clark Badgett]

Does anyone know of a source to order some proper brick dust from? I did find some for sale in a search, but it called it baseball diamond brick dust and I'm not sure if this is what is needed.

[HIB]

Clark,    Buy a diamond blade brick saw and about ten bricks from local source.   Set up over large aluminum pot and after reading saw instructions, place a 2 x 6 over pot and saw a few bricks until you have required amount of dust for your gun building project.    You missed about 10 lbs. of dust from my shop by two weeks.

Saw should be available from any hardware outlet. Use the 4" or 5" blade.  And wear safety glasses. Plus avoid drafty location to do your cutting.  Wear old clothes and ear plugs and don't allow wife near your work area.  Stay clear of distractions.

It's the only source of brick dust I know of.   Good luck.

     

[Frozen Run]

What is brick dust used for?

[Clark Badgett]

What is brick dust used for?

To maintain the armory bright finish on muskets, and mixed with oil it can be used to finish a stock.

[Frozen Run]

Thank you!

[Mike Brooks]

Get yourself a hammer and a  brick  and you should be able to make all the dust you want

[Eric Kettenburg]

Get yourself a hammer and a  brick  and you should be able to make all the dust you want

This would seem to be the easiest way.  Probably can pick up plenty for free around Kenosha right now.

[DavidC]

As bricks were commonly a slave made good in the Caribbean they have a strong presence in voodoo, creole, and santeria traditional practices.

Assuming you just want a bit for your kit, Amazon and eBay both sell consistently sized brick dust. Also look at voodoo supply stores. There was a fellow in a reenactment group I was with that kept a tidy amount of the stuff for polishing and as a conversation piece at events. I believe he bought a 2 lb bag on ebay for around 10 bucks shipped.

Try to resist the urge to make any voodoo dolls, not many of the old timers here have much hair left anyway.

[Clark Badgett]

I understand that I can beat a brick into dust, but modern bricks don’t look like old bricks. Mainly wondering if the new kind are made with extra stuff in them. Come to think of it, my dad has an old brick from his long torn down high school and was an old building. He says I can have it.

[far55]

In our area of south central Pa. there are a lot of clay brick that were locally made for houses and even barns 150 to 200 years ago. The softer brick were not fired as hard and were used in the inside courses so I am told. I know from experience that they break and cut easily, and can be very soft compared to modern brick.  They also can be very orange in color depending on the clay used. Old building salvage companies may have some, but scrounging around old demo sites, if accessible, should find some for free. I have also removed chimneys from old houses that were soft. Sawing as mentioned, would give a more consistantly fine powder. Also, wear a dust mask. If you know of any masory contractors who use a wet saw to cut brick on job sites, the sediment in the catch basin would work, but would be from modern hard brick, so I dont know if it will crush finer easily.    I have not heard of this before as a stock stain pigment, would it be suitable for the violin red on Lehigh rifles?  Roland

[t.caster]

Why wouldn't rotten stone mixed in linseed oil work for this?

[Eric Kettenburg]

...would it be suitable for the violin red on Lehigh rifles?  Roland

Not even remotely.  Those were made with either imported resin or a precipitated iron oxide.

[Clark Badgett]

Why wouldn't rotten stone mixed in linseed oil work for this?

Oh I’m sure rottenstone would work the same or maybe better. I just want some brick dust to play around with since I know that the Royal Army issued the stuff.

As far as using it for pigment, it seems to be used more like the rottenstone to fill pores on the stock, just orange instead of gray.

[G. Elsenbeck]

Clark, check the link for what you want.  http://www.avalonforge.com/MainFieldGear.htm
Scroll down the page.

Gary

[fahnenschmied]

Find an old brick - modern ones are fired too hard.  Look around old building for bricks that are weathing apart, or look for chinks in the ground around old historic sites.

[WadePatton]

Find an old brick - modern ones are fired too hard.  Look around old building for bricks that are weathing apart, or look for chinks in the ground around old historic sites.

I know a creek that has lots of tumbled bricks in it.  If I lived nearer I'd try to gather a buch of them for pavers--they're so perfectly softened by the years washing down the stream. Once a found a nearly perfectly round "rock" then realized it was a piece of brick, tumbled into sphere by nature. They are softer. I don't think modern bricks would wear so much.