Crocus, Emery and Glue

[RichardB]

200 years ago there was a lot of buying of Crocus, emery and glue; the last two I can understand, abrasive and sticky respectively, what is Crocus all about, anyone know ? Also, was it enormously expensive ??

Leaders documents mention Crocus a lot, Tsavo's the man to provide the link, I've lost the plot again lol

[knightstemplar]

Found this in claims from Sheffield flood the first one

47 hundredweights 3 quarters 2 pounds Crocus at cost @£19 2s 2d

1½ hundredweights Crocus weighed in Paper @ 14/~ £1 1s

and what about these ????500 Bath Bricks @ 40/~ £1

and these 6 Bushels Blue Peas @ 6/~ £1 16s

Sue

(why do pound sign always turn into ? ???)

[RichardB]

Found this in claims from Sheffield flood the first one

47 hundredweights 3 quarters 2 pounds Crocus at cost @�19 2s 2d

1½ hundredweights Crocus weighed in Paper @ 14/~ �1 1s

and what about these ????500 Bath Bricks @ 40/~ �1

and these 6 Bushels Blue Peas @ 6/~ �1 16s

Sue

Them Blue Peas were damned expensive, never mind about the World's most expensive-thingie, saffron, made, I believe from Crocus leaves and tripe; them blue peas were hand painted and removed, gently, from Choir Boys I believe - OoOoOoO

Hang on, 47 hundredweights is less than a quid

but 1.5 hundredweights is 14/~ 1 shilling

for those too young to remember, Bless You, thats

47 of Crocus for about 92.5 pence

or 1.5 of Crocus (in Paper) for 75 pence

and I thought Hallmark were a rip-off !

[Guest Smiling-Knife]

Given the context of emery and glue, I hypothesise that crocus refers to a paste containing fine powdered iron oxide used with a polishing wheel in the process of finishing knife blades and other shiny things in days of yor.

[Guest tsavo]

200 years ago there was a lot of buying of Crocus, emery and glue; the last two I can understand, abrasive and sticky respectively, what is Crocus all about, anyone know ? Also, was it enormously expensive ??

Leaders documents mention Crocus a lot, Tsavo's the man to provide the link, I've lost the plot again

Sorry it took so long to get round too, but here's the answer. Strangly enough I remember Crocus Paper from my first job, but didn't make the connection till now!

^{For the crocus finish, the abrasive on the final wheel was crocus of iron, an extremely fine-powdered iron oxide. A crocus polish is known as a mirror finish. It's smooth and shiny and shows undistorted reflections. By contrast, a rag wheel polish yields a wavy surface and distorted reflections}

This site might be of interest to knife collectors.

http://www.abcarticledirectory.com/Article...t-Knives/117352

(working intermittently)

PS Smiling-Knife was right. Well done Sir.

[Guest Smiling-Knife]

Thanks very much for posting that link tsavo.

[Guest tsavo]

Glad to be of help.

[tozzin]

200 years ago there was a lot of buying of Crocus, emery and glue; the last two I can understand, abrasive and sticky respectively, what is Crocus all about, anyone know ? Also, was it enormously expensive ??

Leaders documents mention Crocus a lot, Tsavo's the man to provide the link, I've lost the plot again

Crocus was a very fine emery the same colour as cement, and it was used as the final operation prior to polishing Cutlery, in fact when I used it, it was put on 24" felt wheels and the operation of working on these wheels was Flowering (Crocus Flower)

[tozzin]

Sorry it took so long to get round too, but here's the answer. Strangly enough I remember Crocus Paper from my first job, but didn't make the connection till now!

^{For the crocus finish, the abrasive on the final wheel was crocus of iron, an extremely fine-powdered iron oxide. A crocus polish is known as a mirror finish. It's smooth and shiny and shows undistorted reflections. By contrast, a rag wheel polish yields a wavy surface and distorted reflections}

This site might be of interest to knife collectors.

http://www.abcarticledirectory.com/Article...t-Knives/117352

(working intermittently)

PS Smiling-Knife was right. Well done Sir.

The Iron Oxide thats used in putting the fine polish on Gold and Silver is known as "ROUGE" in the trade,Its mixed with Parafin and it gives silver a fantastic dark polish. Ive never heard it called Crocus, in fact its the same Rouge that ladys wore as make up.

[DaveH]

The Iron Oxide thats used in putting the fine polish on Gold and Silver is known as "ROUGE" in the trade,Its mixed with Parafin and it gives silver a fantastic dark polish. Ive never heard it called Crocus, in fact its the same Rouge that ladys wore as make up.

There are 3 oxides of iron, the most common one, iron (III) oxide, formerly called ferric oxide has several different structural forms, the main one being the substance we call rust. One of them though is the substance known and used as "Jewelers Rouge", a fine red powder, mildly abrasive and ideal for putting the finishing polish on precious metals like gold and silver.

The word "rouge" simply means "red" (French) and I don't think Jewelers Rouge is the same thing as Cosmetic Rouge which is much softer and a different shade of red. I think the cosmetic rouge is based on talcum powder which is a magensium silicate, and on the Mohr scale of hardness is the softest of all natural rocks (Mohr =1) so will not "scratch" anything. The hardest natuaral rock is diamond (Mohr = 10) which will scratch everything.

[tozzin]

There are 3 oxides of iron, the most common one, iron (III) oxide, formerly called ferric oxide has several different structural forms, the main one being the substance we call rust. One of them though is the substance known and used as "Jewelers Rouge", a fine red powder, mildly abrasive and ideal for putting the finishing polish on precious metals like gold and silver.

The word "rouge" simply means "red" (French) and I don't think Jewelers Rouge is the same thing as Cosmetic Rouge which is much softer and a different shade of red. I think the cosmetic rouge is based on talcum powder which is a magensium silicate, and on the Mohr scale of hardness is the softest of all natural rocks (Mohr =1) so will not "scratch" anything. The hardest natuaral rock is diamond (Mohr = 10) which will scratch everything.

[tozzin]

I thought everyone knew that ROUGE is the French for red and Talc being the softest mineral

[DaveH]

I thought everyone knew that ROUGE is the French for red and Talc being the softest mineral

Talc is soft enough to brush onto a ladies face, with just enough rouge to highlight the cheeks

Not that I know anything about ladies make-up, it's all a mystery to me