Brian Gray
Posts: 339
Joined: 2004-01-21
Location: Sandusky, OH
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I think that your cast iron skillet is the way to go. The temperatures needed for sand-shading are a lot more demanding than cooking, so sturdy and one solid piece is what you want. I used to shade with an old skillet that I stole from my wife. It was a nice brand name, but the bottom of the skillet was layered with two kinds of metals. The extreme and constant heat made the bottom layer of metal seperate. Not a big deal, it still works, but my wife was a little PO'ed.
The other piece of advise is to make sure that your source of heat can get very hot, and is adjustable.
As far as the actual process of shading goes, I've worked with two different marqueters that showed my two different approaches (well, three, but two of them use the same method).
Paul Schurch sets his heat to what I would call "medium heat" for shading, and dips into about two inches of sand directly in the pan.
Julie Godfrey and Silas Kopf use the same amount of sand in the skillet, but they heat the sand much hotter, and they don't dip directly into the skillet. They use a large carving gouge to scoop up the sand, and dip the piece directly into the sand-containing gouge.
I think that the gouge method may be my preference.
Two things. Whether or not you are using a gas or electric burner, there can be hot spots where you won't shade consistently at different locations throughout the skillet. When scooping sand with the gouge, stir a little, and scoop from various locations to dissipate and even out the uneven heat.
Also, I've noticed that if I'm not careful, my piece can accidently rest on the bottom of the skillet, causing a quick and bad burn on the edge, rather than a burn that is gradual and fades nicely to the edge. The gouge is not left in the hot sand with not in use, so there's no hot metal to cause this.
The upside to Paul's method is that you can work almost like an assembly line. Paul will work 5-10 pieces at a time...dropping one after the other, and then removing them in the same order that they went in, so they all get about the same time in the skillet. I think that this is a big reason that Paul will use less heat. He'll shade 10 pieces in 30 seconds, and not really risk burning anything, because of the lower heat. Personally, I'm not that pressed for time in the shop, so I don't need the stress of having 10 pieces in the sand!
The only other piece of equipment that I didn't mention is some tongs. I prefer Paul's "V" tongs. If you take some 100 grit sandpaper and lightly scuff the outside edges of them, you create little burrs on the inside edge that make holding pieces much more secure. If this isn't clear, let me know...there's a little process to properly hone those tongs, and it makes a big difference.
Last thing...very fine sand. I think that we discussed this on another thread here, but the finer the sand, the better. I use sand-blasting sand.
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