Sabre52
Cave Dweller
Me and my gal, Rosie
Member since August 2005
Posts: 20,466
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Post by Sabre52 on Nov 22, 2010 11:40:36 GMT -5
Howdy folks, Am feeling a bit better this morning so I went out and snapped a few pics of some of the finds I made at the big rock sale I went to on the weekend. Definitely going back in the future as it was a ball going through all those fifty year old piles. Anyway, here are some pics and thanks for looking....Mel A few Rio Grande moss agates. A couple of these are really nice ones. A big hunk of Live Oak county paint wood ( Matt Dillon's name for this stuff) Couple more of the brightly colored woods. The upper one showing some brecciated shrinkwood patterns. Shrink wood is the name ole Matt uses for the wood that has been cracked and later rehealed. Very cool patterns in this stuff. Another nice shrinkwood: This one is a close up shot of a Rio Grande Plume. if you look real close you can see the red and gold plumes showing where they are etched out of the exterior of the nodule. Another big block of shrink wood but this one is some kind of palm. Don't know how I'm gonna get it in my little saw but I'm really wanting to see inside this one. Mics agate nodules. Some from Woodward, others from all over west Texas. Couple of black nodules of the sort found at Marfa and Lake Balmoreah, TX More nice wood. Some of this is shrinkwood and some is almost moss agate inside. Colorful palm on left and shrinkwood on right showing checkered exterior. And my favorite of the day, some kind of palm root type stuff. I have a feeling this one is gonna be spectacular when slabbed as the etched pattern on the exterior is really nice.
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Post by Toad on Nov 22, 2010 11:48:32 GMT -5
Great stuff. Really like that brecciated(?) shrinkwood.
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dbrealityrocks
fully equipped rock polisher
Member since February 2010
Posts: 1,084
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Post by dbrealityrocks on Nov 22, 2010 12:42:26 GMT -5
beautiful stuff, if you ever want to trade any rock for cutting let me know. I have a 24" saw
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Post by gr on Nov 22, 2010 12:45:54 GMT -5
Mel, Thanks for the education. I had never heard of shrink wood, but I can see what you are talking about. Looking forward to your slab n cab pics. I know you'll find a way to get the big block to a saw friendly size. Would kinda like to see inside that one myself.
Gary
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Post by 150FromFundy on Nov 22, 2010 17:58:02 GMT -5
I like the shrikwood in the 4th pic. Looks like petrified snakeskin.
Darryl.
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Post by texaswoodie on Nov 23, 2010 12:07:00 GMT -5
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Sabre52
Cave Dweller
Me and my gal, Rosie
Member since August 2005
Posts: 20,466
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Post by Sabre52 on Nov 23, 2010 12:32:49 GMT -5
Wow great article Curt. Thanks a lot for posting it. I definitely picked up several examples of this stuff and can't wait to cut and polish some of it.....Mel
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Post by tandl on Nov 23, 2010 15:40:24 GMT -5
Mel , You know the age of these woods . Last pick looks kinda like fern ?
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Sabre52
Cave Dweller
Me and my gal, Rosie
Member since August 2005
Posts: 20,466
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Post by Sabre52 on Nov 23, 2010 16:25:01 GMT -5
Tandl: I'm far from an expert but so far as I know, most the Texas wood from the area in question is either Eocene or Oligocene material. The palm I believe, is Oligocene ( approx 25-35 million years old) while some of the other woods are a bit older, Eocene ( approx 35-50 million years old). I thought I was pretty good at wood ID until I got into this stuff. Huge variety of types represented and almost none in any of my books. I guess in the olden days Texas had huge numbers of plant species just as it does now. That last example, being a hunk of root, could very well be some kind of fern or cycad root. I have a similar example from La grange, Tx and both have eyes much smaller than I'm used to seeing in palmoxylon from either Texas or California. However, they don't look anything like my Tempskya fern from Oregon or the Brazilian fern I have...Mel
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Post by tandl on Nov 23, 2010 17:06:25 GMT -5
I was thinking it has some similarity to , Psaronius Fern , like I find here in Illinois, It is 300 mil , old . I have seen alot of "palm root" that looks like psaronius to me . Psaronius is to have had outer roots that came down the outside of the pith/trunk of the tree . I have found specimens with the pith and root mantle . The outer roots , are most of the trunk , the pith is small compared to the amount of root around it . Hmmm.
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Post by frane on Nov 23, 2010 21:31:38 GMT -5
Those are so pretty! I am really looking forward to seeing the slabs! Fran
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Post by Tonyterner on Nov 24, 2010 10:42:25 GMT -5
The shrinkwood is pretty cool. Curt, that was an interesting read. Only thing I don't understand is why so many trees would have broken apart in the same manner. The pattern reminds me of the way wood gets on the outside as it burns.
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riverbendlapidary
fully equipped rock polisher
Member since September 2006
Posts: 1,058
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Post by riverbendlapidary on Nov 27, 2010 16:42:59 GMT -5
That's some really nice wood!
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Post by beefjello on Nov 28, 2010 15:48:52 GMT -5
Great finds Mel, I'd be curious to see what those black nodules hold inside. I've got a few pieces of that honey comb wood, neat stuff.. looking forward to reading the article Curt posted!
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