Rookie Question. V-Mat on Flair?

[oidium45]

I have seen some people adding V matting on their flair. Anyone seen a benefit to this? Worth spending the $5-10 for the matting?

 

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[arizau]

Probably the main reason some people add it is so it acts as an indicator mat. Some of the gold will stop or at least slow down in the gaps so the operator knows he is "on the gold". On another forum one person actually installed some with the ribs facing down the sluice rather than crosswise. He claimed it helped to create laminar flow. That makes sense to me but I have no idea if and how that would actually benefit the sluice performance.

 

[Goldwasher]

My opinion is that any sluice needs a decent amount of slick plate before the recovery section.

If your flare is the only slick plate don't put vmat on it

 

[Reed Lukens]

V-mat all the way works fine for me

 

[GrizzlyGoldTrap]

Agree with Goldwasher... Two of a flair's functions are to funnel stream flow from wide to narrow to enhance velocity and move material through the sluice, and second its helps in the separating/stratifying material fed, giving the heavy's time to begin stratifying before hitting the riffles or matting.

 

[Reed Lukens]

You're still funnelling the stream flow with the v-mat at the bottom, but it's also giving you a lower velocity area in the beginning to start the separation and a place for the fines to immediately drop right in and get caught. Yes, it's not exactly an empty slick plate, but it is still classifying by weight and by giving the heavier then sand, fine gold a place to settle out in a slow current in the beginning. Then after each bucket or whatever, you can quickly clean the gold out of the vmat with a sucker bottle and put it right into a vial instead of letting it get all mixed in with the rest of the heavies that collect farther down the sluice. A slick plate without v-mat is an empty waste of space. I've ran it both ways many times and having the vmat from the top, down to the riffles really makes a difference in the gold recovery and immediate separation in every flared sluice.

 

[Golden_Crab]

I have seen some people adding V matting on their flair. Anyone seen a benefit to this? Worth spending the $5-10 for the matting?

Being able to see the gold is nice and all... but a slick plate IS important to recovery. I wouldn't be sluicing before sample panning anyway... so kind of just a quality of life thing I guess?