At 10:53 AM 11/5/2004 +0000, you wrote:
>        In your discussion I was surprised to see no mention of hammer-scale.
>This is a mixture of flat flakes of iron oxide shed from the metal as it
>is heated and cooled, and spherical particles formed by  the
>solidification during flight of the spray of molten iron oxide (plus
>flux if used) formed when the work piece is struck by the hammer.

Yes, I noticed that too.  I recall asking around about what kind of
analysis could be conducted on the debris, which was really massed into a
solid block and almost impossible to break free.  It was suggested that I
have some metalurgical and microscopic analysis done to determine what
kinds of metals, and if there were scale, filings, flakes, cut-offs,
etc.  "Unfortunately" this excellent site was avoided by NYSDOT and no
further work or analysis was done, and it was therefore not recommended in
the report.

         Dan W.