Post by tntmom on Aug 28, 2012 22:39:57 GMT -5
About a week and a half ago the girls and I took a trip to a southern Western WA Island to visit a custom knife making friend that I have never met before in person. It was the highlight of my summer!!! He has a two story rock workshop, every piece of equipment you can imagine, cool dogs and a gravel driveway made up of slabbettes (including turquoise)!!!
He recently went on a secret trip with a 70 year old rock hound that wanted to pass on a secret site that has been hidden for around 40 years so that it wouldn't be lost (I guess only a small handful of people know of this site as of today...) My friend offered me a few slabs of this secret material as well as a bunch of other stuff. My daughters spent the day rockhounding his driveway while I learned things from my mentor!!!
First... some of my daughter's driveway finds (+ some stuff that he gave them directly from a scrap box)
Thulite, Brenda Agate, WA Zoisite, Cripple Creek, Australian Rainforest Jasper, Leopard Skin Jasper, Some kind of killer red jasper, Indonesian purple chalcedony, Shattuckite, India bloodstone and parts of it are the real deal with blood and plasma only! I don't have a clue what the scale at the bottom of the picture is (these are just some of my favorite pieces out of the Country Fresh Fruits & Vegetable box they brought home!).
And some of mine:
Dumorterite, Cassiar Nephrite BC, Powell River Porphyry (sp?), Burro Creek Pastelite, Morrisonite, Nacazari Turquoise, Larsonite, Rhodonite and Chrysocolla in Chalcocite.
Here's a close up of the Nacazari Turquoise along side a cab I did not too long ago of the same material. Takes a KILLER shine!!!
And here's the KILLER RARE stuff (The Paiute is from Oregon and the Blue Hill is from Nevada)! The purple stuff is McDermitt Purple Jasper that I haven't preformed yet.
This is Paiute Jasper and Blue Hill Jasper. The Paiute looks like Morrisonite and the Blue Hill is named after blue agates that will compete with Ellensburg, but my stone is the orange "Rooster Tail" looking jasper found on the same hill!
Here's the etchings of the Paiute and the Blue Hill (excuse my feet... I took these pictures on our glass patio table in a hurry, didn't realize my ugly toes were showing through :blush: (DRY slabs):
Here's the preforms after shaping on 180 grit. A little more shaping to do but this is the jist of it and I think they are going to come out killer! Avoided fractures and the only pit I have to fill is a small druzy on the back of the Paiute.... might not even fill it because it's centered and cute. These pics are taken WET with flash at 6:30pm in the evening outside. The Blue Hill looks mostly accurate in color but the Paiute is much darker green in person, the flash seemed to wash it out a bit...
I can't wait to finish these!!!
He recently went on a secret trip with a 70 year old rock hound that wanted to pass on a secret site that has been hidden for around 40 years so that it wouldn't be lost (I guess only a small handful of people know of this site as of today...) My friend offered me a few slabs of this secret material as well as a bunch of other stuff. My daughters spent the day rockhounding his driveway while I learned things from my mentor!!!
First... some of my daughter's driveway finds (+ some stuff that he gave them directly from a scrap box)
Thulite, Brenda Agate, WA Zoisite, Cripple Creek, Australian Rainforest Jasper, Leopard Skin Jasper, Some kind of killer red jasper, Indonesian purple chalcedony, Shattuckite, India bloodstone and parts of it are the real deal with blood and plasma only! I don't have a clue what the scale at the bottom of the picture is (these are just some of my favorite pieces out of the Country Fresh Fruits & Vegetable box they brought home!).
And some of mine:
Dumorterite, Cassiar Nephrite BC, Powell River Porphyry (sp?), Burro Creek Pastelite, Morrisonite, Nacazari Turquoise, Larsonite, Rhodonite and Chrysocolla in Chalcocite.
Here's a close up of the Nacazari Turquoise along side a cab I did not too long ago of the same material. Takes a KILLER shine!!!
And here's the KILLER RARE stuff (The Paiute is from Oregon and the Blue Hill is from Nevada)! The purple stuff is McDermitt Purple Jasper that I haven't preformed yet.
This is Paiute Jasper and Blue Hill Jasper. The Paiute looks like Morrisonite and the Blue Hill is named after blue agates that will compete with Ellensburg, but my stone is the orange "Rooster Tail" looking jasper found on the same hill!
Here's the etchings of the Paiute and the Blue Hill (excuse my feet... I took these pictures on our glass patio table in a hurry, didn't realize my ugly toes were showing through :blush: (DRY slabs):
Here's the preforms after shaping on 180 grit. A little more shaping to do but this is the jist of it and I think they are going to come out killer! Avoided fractures and the only pit I have to fill is a small druzy on the back of the Paiute.... might not even fill it because it's centered and cute. These pics are taken WET with flash at 6:30pm in the evening outside. The Blue Hill looks mostly accurate in color but the Paiute is much darker green in person, the flash seemed to wash it out a bit...
I can't wait to finish these!!!