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Post by Deleted on Aug 17, 2014 14:03:46 GMT -5
As you all know snowmom has gone off the deep end and is now rock insane. She sent to me a box of rocks. It arrived in another larger box that would hardly hold the rocks that came out of the medium box. But it got here and I have been playing with them a little. Mostly black, mostly SG in the upper 2.8s to over 3.0, very dense, solid with few fractures. I can not scratch them with a good file so the hardness has to be close to 7. They really want to be nephrite and they may be but I am not sure. When I go through the other amphibole rocks in my book there is always one or more things that rules them out. There is a geology department at the college here so I am going to try to get in touch with the professor and see if she can get me any closer to an ID on this rock and the rocks I find here that I am 100% sure are nephrite but........ Blizzard stone or starry night with the milky way. There is a bit of a green cast to the stone. What the outside looks like. This stone is solid black outside and inside. Same as far as hard and heavy. The stone in the back is the same stone with oil still on it. Not a good photo and the rest of the rock is still in the saw. This rock has swirls in it like the nephrite I find here and it has a green cast which is hard to see. Zero translucence. Suspect is basalt but again too heavy and too hard. Jim
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Post by gingerkid on Aug 17, 2014 14:11:31 GMT -5
As you all know snowmom has gone off the deep end and is now rock insane. She sent to me a box of rocks. It arrived in another larger box that would hardly hold the rocks that came out of the medium box. Kudos to snowmom! Those are very nice, @wampidy. Sure hope they are nephrite. Hope you will please give us an update after you have them id'd. Do you have plans to carve some of it?
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Post by glennz01 on Aug 17, 2014 15:05:03 GMT -5
I can say it is not blizzard stone.. I have tones of that locally (mailing out around 70-120 lbs of it this week) It is also found only in Alaska so they say.
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Post by Deleted on Aug 17, 2014 16:21:31 GMT -5
hahaha Sorry, I just called it blizzard stone because it looks like a night blizzard. I will stick with starry night with milky way.
No plan to carve any of this. I am still a hard rock carver wanna be. Just playing with a little of it now so maybe if I live to be 94. Jim
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Post by glennz01 on Aug 17, 2014 23:05:45 GMT -5
If you do wan blizzard stone i find large chunks of it... i had to break up a 20 lb chunk of it to ft it into boxes.. Its kinda easy to find large stuff... not so easy to find small stuff.
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Post by snowmom on Aug 18, 2014 5:27:50 GMT -5
dang, I've been outed! I know we have basanite here, and perhaps that is what the 'starry" one is...silicated basalt with feldspar porphyry ?. I learned my lesson on packing rocks in those flat rate boxes, thanks Wampidy for the schooling... still a neophyte at so much. my name is snowmom and I am rock crazy. (and Wampidy is an enabler!) (thanks for your advice and counsel, and for your help in so much)
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Post by glennz01 on Aug 18, 2014 10:11:00 GMT -5
dang, I've been outed! I know we have basanite here, and perhaps that is what the 'starry" one is...silicated basalt with feldspar porphyry ?. I learned my lesson on packing rocks in those flat rate boxes, thanks Wampidy for the schooling... still a neophyte at so much. my name is snowmom and I am rock crazy. (and Wampidy is an enabler!) (thanks for your advice and counsel, and for your help in so much) use lots of fiver reenforced tape, it should be fine then
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1nickthegreek
spending too much on rocks
Member since February 2014
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Post by 1nickthegreek on Aug 18, 2014 13:49:04 GMT -5
dang, I've been outed! I know we have basanite here, and perhaps that is what the 'starry" one is...silicated basalt with feldspar porphyry ?. I learned my lesson on packing rocks in those flat rate boxes, thanks Wampidy for the schooling... still a neophyte at so much. my name is snowmom and I am rock crazy. (and Wampidy is an enabler!) (thanks for your advice and counsel, and for your help in so much) use lots of fiver reenforced tape, it should be fine then I ship out all sizes of flat rate boxes stuffed with rocks daily pretty much, on the Medium and large flat rates, be sure to tape the bottom flaps in extremely well, and then I seriously tape the COMPLETE box with a minimum of 2 layers of clear 2.5 inch wide packaging tape, and I have never had a box break open (knock on wood). If I am sending smaller stuff such as tumble sized lakers, I will double bag in ziplocs and then always put bags in small flat rates inside the larger boxes, seems to solve the problems very well.
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Post by braders on Aug 18, 2014 20:17:52 GMT -5
Ha ha I love this post !!! I have noticed snowmom has gone a little wooooooo ...... rock rock rock woooo something shiney !!! I also have some very heavy interesting stones that made there way here so im with you as well on some id action holding on to a few as is and one larger is taking a tumble as we speak the colors are really coming out in it !! Snowmom great lady to talk n trade rock with ....even if she a little ya know .......rock crazy ha ha
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Post by Deleted on Aug 19, 2014 18:52:07 GMT -5
what happens when you whack it hard with a hammer?
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Post by Deleted on Aug 19, 2014 19:25:51 GMT -5
I have never had much luck with the hammer trick. A slab of this has the same sound as a slab of Turkish purple when held with two fingers and hit with a hammer. If I hold the same slabs the same way and hit them against the larger piece of this rock I get a very slight ring. If I hit the large piece of this rock with the hammer it goes thump. I am using a soft hammer because my hard hammer is out in the pickup and I am too lazy to go get it. The face of my hard hammer is coming apart from hitting Wyoming rocks anyway. When I tried to break a piece off of this cobble it told me to go fly a kite. Jim
Edited to say that I am talking about the totally black stone, not the speckled one. I think that one is in the pickup also because I am going to take it and show it to Russ.
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Post by snowmom on Aug 20, 2014 14:53:27 GMT -5
my friend Kirby always said you know the quality of your friends by the harassment you receive. I am beginning to suspect I have some high quality friends here.
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Post by Deleted on Aug 20, 2014 15:13:18 GMT -5
Yea, you don't seem so bad for an old woman either. Jim
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Post by Deleted on Aug 20, 2014 15:24:58 GMT -5
I just spend half an hour fiddling around with the hammer trick. I got a bunch of ringing when I use a string to hold the stone and hit it with a brass hammer but shape and thickness seemed to have a lot to do with it also. One piece of the black stone will sing like a canary and the others will not. Some of the nephrite from here and other places will ring loud and clear and some of them will not. And I am talking about 100% positive nephrite from Washington, California, Alaska and Turkey.
So I am right back to the positive ID of "dunno". One thing I am sure of is if they were agate or chalcedony or jasper they would have shattered so I can 100% positively rule them out, 3000 and ? to go. Jim
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Post by snowmom on Aug 20, 2014 15:40:56 GMT -5
mysteriouser and mysteriouser... I love a good mystery, but I always want to know the answer at the end! looking for a happy ending to the story... eventually. There's more where that came from if anybody wants some to conduct experiments of their own. shoot me a PM and i'll fix you right up!
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Post by braders on Aug 20, 2014 16:25:38 GMT -5
You got friends in low places he he ...I believe this is the same stone you sent me or am I wrong snowmom ? Im very curious for the whats it answer ether way
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Post by Deleted on Aug 20, 2014 17:14:56 GMT -5
I am saying nephrite.
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Post by snowmom on Aug 20, 2014 18:10:05 GMT -5
shotgunner, I hope you are right! Braders, not sure if the stuff I sent was the exact same but some of it was what I hoped was jade, also may have sent you some basanite, usually it has little inclusions of feldspar dancing around in it. hope hope hope some of it turns out to be nephrite.Supposedly according to one article in a Michigan newspaper Dr Greenlee also found jadeite! I may have an opportunity to see Michigan jade collected by Dr Julian Greenlee in the early 1960's soon. The head geologist at the Cranbrook institute is looking into whether the jade referred to in the 1962 Lapidary Journal (april issue) "finding Jade in Michigan" is still in the museum's possession. If so arrangements will be made for me to visit and view/photograph it. I won't find out until after Labor day whether they still have Dr Greenlee's jade. I am so excited I feel like a little kid 2 weeks from Christmas. (Thanks go Peruano for bringing the original article to my attention and for sending me a copy.) forum.rocktumblinghobby.com/thread/66424/jade
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Post by snowmom on Aug 20, 2014 18:10:16 GMT -5
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Post by braders on Aug 20, 2014 18:43:29 GMT -5
Awsome im excited for you !! Take some pics please and the stone mystery continues moo ha ha
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