[meteorite-list] Polished Butts - Toliet humor aside, what exactly are th...

From: Jeff Grossman <jgrossman_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Tue, 29 Mar 2011 09:37:52 -0400
Message-ID: <000001cbee16$80e76290$82b627b0$_at_gov>

The actual term commonly found in the scientific literature is "potted
butt". It refers to a small specimen embedded in some kind of supporting
medium, usually epoxy, acrylic, or the like, prior to sample processing.
These samples then may be sliced for thin section preparation or other
purposes, or, for tiny samples, just ground down to expose the sample
surface. If one wishes to do microscopic examination of the sample
remaining in a potted butt, the surface (sample plus supporting medium) is
commonly polished. This is what Cascadia is calling a "polished butt."

Jeff

> -----Original Message-----
> From: meteorite-list-bounces at meteoritecentral.com [mailto:meteorite-
> list-bounces at meteoritecentral.com] On Behalf Of Jimski47 at aol.com
> Sent: Monday, March 28, 2011 4:59 PM
> To: meteoritemike at gmail.com; meteorite-list at meteoritecentral.com
> Subject: Re: [meteorite-list] Polished Butts - Toliet humor aside, what
> exactly are th...
>
> My guess would be that it's a polished endcut.
>
> Jim K
>
>
> In a message dated 3/28/2011 3:54:41 P.M. Central Daylight Time,
> meteoritemike at gmail.com writes:
> Hi Folks,
>
> I have seen several references to "polished butts" in the Met
> Bulletin. For example, from this recent entry (NWA 6580) approved
> yesterday -
>
> "Type specimens available at Cascadia include 1 piece originally 20.0
> g, from which one polished thin section and one polished butt were
> made. Thompson holds the main mass."
>
> I did the usual Google Search ("polished butt") to find out what this
> was, and you don't want to know what the results of that search were.
> Let's just say, that is has nothing to do with meteorites or thin
> sections.
>
> So I have to ask the List - what is a polished butt?
>
> Best regards,
>
> MikeG
>
> --
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
> Mike Gilmer - Galactic Stone & Ironworks Meteorites
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Received on Tue 29 Mar 2011 09:37:52 AM PDT