Make Magic Sand yourself

That is hydrophobic sand

Magic sand is also offered under the name of hydrophobic sand or space sand. If you look closely at the product, you will notice the following:

• When you pour the sand into water, it is not soaked, but rather surrounded by a silvery skin of water. This makes it appear lumpy and kneadable in the water.
• When you get it out of the water, you'll find that it actually hasn't gotten wet. Once it's above the surface of the water, you'll have dry powder again.
• Under a microscope you can see that the individual grains are not rough and porous like normal grains of sand, but rather smooth. Therefore, the grains cannot bind water. You have to start with this coating if you want to make the product yourself.

As mentioned, the product is not just a gag item. Since it only repels water, but not oil, it can bind oil to water. It is also well suited to fill sacks that are supposed to contain floods.

Make magic granules yourself

You will get a limited effect if you use a normal waterproofing agent for textiles. Magic sand is usually created when you use normal sand with trimethylsilanol, i.e. (CH₃)₃SiOH, also called C₃H₁₀OSi known to steam. This impregnating agent is used to treat silicates. You can hardly imitate this procedure yourself.

• You can soak sand with the agent and then let it dry up. It is important that the grains do not clump together. You should let the soaked sand dry on a flat, warm surface, stirring constantly to prevent the grains from sticking together.
• Another way is that you put the sand in a fine sieve and heat trimethylsilanol underneath. The vapors penetrate the sand in this way. In this case, too, you must be careful when drying that nothing clumps.

Since these procedures always remain unaffected or If the coatings are removed again, the Magic Sand that you make yourself will not be of the quality that a professionally produced Space Sand has.