jamesp
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Post by jamesp on Mar 30, 2022 8:22:45 GMT -5
Quartzite from south east Alabama is a product of ancient beach sands being compressed at high temperatures. The sand that is fused together varies in particle size. If a face is exposed by a hammer strike exposes an internal surface that can vary from the feel of 200 grit sandpaper to fine emery cloth depending on the size of the sand particles. Quartzite is the predominant rock in this section of Alabama. Bear in mind that quartzite is compressed sand meaning it is homogenous and lacking crystalline cleavage/lattices of crystalline quartz. Much of the material is translucent and fracture free and exhibits conchoidal fracturing making it useful for spear points. This is 3 pieces starting with the finest grain at the top of stack, medium grain in middle and coarsest grain at the bottom.
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Post by jasoninsd on Mar 30, 2022 8:56:21 GMT -5
That's actually really fascinating! I know squat about rocks...but it's posts like this that allow me to start learning enough to become a little dangerous! LOL
Thanks for posting this...it likely wouldn't have occurred to me there were different "grits" in the same type of material!
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Post by Peruano on Mar 30, 2022 9:51:55 GMT -5
Its probably the super fine stuff that is called sugar quartz. I have found that some polishes much more easily than others (probably the finer the grit size, the easier it is to get a shine). Reportedly it is less subject to fractures than unmetamorphosed quartz. Its all those little quartz grains holding hands (fused).
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jamesp
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Post by jamesp on Mar 30, 2022 14:28:40 GMT -5
That's actually really fascinating! I know squat about rocks...but it's posts like this that allow me to start learning enough to become a little dangerous! LOL Thanks for posting this...it likely wouldn't have occurred to me there were different "grits" in the same type of material! well that is exactly what has happened Jason. You can feel and see 60, 120, 200 grit sized sand. The real fine stuff must me the top layer and it is always in plates less than an inch thick where the coarser stuff is in thicker plates like 4 to 8 inches thick. The super fine grain has been a pursuit of mine for years; the Native guys found it to make the coolest clear small arrowheads. During fusion many chemicals can soak into it and make cool colors and patterns.
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jamesp
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Post by jamesp on Mar 30, 2022 14:54:29 GMT -5
Its probably the super fine stuff that is called sugar quartz. I have found that some polishes much more easily than others (probably the finer the grit size, the easier it is to get a shine). Reportedly it is less subject to fractures than unmetamorphosed quartz. Its all those little quartz grains holding hands (fused). It is called sugar quartz here too Tom. I think the ocean floor was swept back and forth by currents and tides which settled the larger particles to the bottom and the finer particles to the top. The really super fine particles fused to near glass like material with a shiny fracture face. 40 to 50 miles upstream the creeks are stair stepped with layers of quartzite where the original seafloor was compressed by some type of tectonic forces and energies. The top layers are thinner and finer grained, as moving to the lower layers the plate thickness gets thicker and coarser grained. All grain sized quartzites are in these massive rock bars. They all originated from plates upstream that were eroded or broken from their original formation in rectangular sharp edged blocks. The finer the grain the sharper the edge is on these 'blocks' telling that the fine grained material was slower to abrade than the coarser grained material. Not many rocks are more resistant to breaking with a hammer. The micro crystalline lattices of each sand particle is running in all directions making a very resilient homogeneous formation. These were collected about 20 miles from the formation source and are only partially rounded making it easier to discriminate the squarer super fine grained material. After 20 more miles downstream they are about totally rounded. Various creeks yield different quartzites. Some have streaks, particular colors and markings, some have mica glitters and some even have tourmaline needles and dendritic inclusions. The surfaces are bruised and not near as revealing of color and patterns. I hope to tumble a batch of these. 20-30 miles downstream further where they have rounded to balls and eggs
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Post by HankRocks on Mar 30, 2022 20:06:50 GMT -5
Its probably the super fine stuff that is called sugar quartz. I have found that some polishes much more easily than others (probably the finer the grit size, the easier it is to get a shine). Reportedly it is less subject to fractures than unmetamorphosed quartz. Its all those little quartz grains holding hands (fused). It is called sugar quartz here too Tom. I think the ocean floor was swept back and forth by currents and tides which settled the larger particles to the bottom and the finer particles to the top. The really super fine particles fused to near glass like material with a shiny fracture face. 40 to 50 miles upstream the creeks are stair stepped with layers of quartzite where the original seafloor was compressed by some type of tectonic forces and energies. The top layers are thinner and finer grained, as moving to the lower layers the plate thickness gets thicker and coarser grained. All grain sized quartzites are in these massive rock bars. They all originated from plates upstream that were eroded or broken from their original formation in rectangular sharp edged blocks. The finer the grain the sharper the edge is on these 'blocks' telling that the fine grained material was slower to abrade than the coarser grained material. Not many rocks are more resistant to breaking with a hammer. The micro crystalline lattices of each sand particle is running in all directions making a very resilient homogeneous formation. These were collected about 20 miles from the formation source and are only partially rounded making it easier to discriminate the squarer super fine grained material. After 20 more miles downstream they are about totally rounded. Various creeks yield different quartzites. Some have streaks, particular colors and markings, some have mica glitters and some even have tourmaline needles and dendritic inclusions. The surfaces are bruised and not near as revealing of color and patterns. I hope to tumble a batch of these. 20-30 miles downstream further where they have rounded to balls and eggs A couple of good friends of mine have a 7 acre place about 40 miles NW of me. They have a decent amount of gravel that includes lots of Quartzite. Most of it is well rounded with a nice selection of color. I have been picking up 2 or 3 pounds of the smaller well rounded ones as filler for some of batches. Included in the gravel is two types of small petrified wood pieces(of course there is, this is Texas!). One type is river tumbled well agatized and mostly smooth, the other is not river tumbled and has the caliche coating with not so well agatized underneath. The gravel must have had 3 or 4 rock moving trips to get this combination. The gentleman with 60 plus acres adjacent to their property has given them(and me) permission to collect on his place. We can see more rock exposed on his place. He also mentioned a couple of deeper gullies in the back with lots of gravel. I am eager to check it all out. If I get time tomorrow I will post a pic of the tumbled Quartzite from one of my batches earlier this week. Busy, with Show on Sat and Fantasy Baseball draft on Sun. Doc wants me to do a Cardiac MRI, scheduled for Monday, see him on Tuesday.
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Post by perkins17 on Mar 30, 2022 20:11:45 GMT -5
Nice finds James! I have tumbled a little quartzite of the Washington variety and it turned out nice. I'm sure yours will turn out way better than mine though. You're an awesome tumbler.
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jamesp
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Post by jamesp on Mar 30, 2022 20:29:51 GMT -5
"A couple of good friends of mine have a 7 acre place about 40 miles NW of me. They have a decent amount of gravel that includes lots of Quartzite. Most of it is well rounded with a nice selection of color. I have been picking up 2 or 3 pounds of the smaller well rounded ones as filler for some of batches. Included in the gravel is two types of small petrified wood pieces(of course there is, this is Texas!). One type is river tumbled well agatized and mostly smooth, the other is not river tumbled and has the caliche coating with not so well agatized underneath. The gravel must have had 3 or 4 rock moving trips to get this combination.
The gentleman with 60 plus acres adjacent to their property has given them(and me) permission to collect on his place. We can see more rock exposed on his place. He also mentioned a couple of deeper gullies in the back with lots of gravel. I am eager to check it all out.
If I get time tomorrow I will post a pic of the tumbled Quartzite from one of my batches earlier this week.
Busy, with Show on Sat and Fantasy Baseball draft on Sun. Doc wants me to do a Cardiac MRI, scheduled for Monday, see him on Tuesday. There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio,"
Please post your quartzite tumbles Henry. Bring a good score home from the heart Doc too Please. You got 60 acres to work over !
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jamesp
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Post by jamesp on Mar 30, 2022 20:37:03 GMT -5
Nice finds James! I have tumbled a little quartzite of the Washington variety and it turned out nice. I'm sure yours will turn out way better than mine though. You're an awesome tumbler. It's a great tumble perkins17, hard enough to take a great polish yet it shapes twice as fast as a hard agate. Feel free to post your quartzite photos. I must say this section or Alabama has many creeks with many varieties of quartzite patterns and colors. At first I thought it was all similar but after collecting in a dozen different creeks the variety is wide. I picked up incredible quartzites along the Rio. The big problem is they were rare there. Thanks for the words.
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Post by perkins17 on Mar 30, 2022 22:38:34 GMT -5
Nice finds James! I have tumbled a little quartzite of the Washington variety and it turned out nice. I'm sure yours will turn out way better than mine though. You're an awesome tumbler. It's a great tumble perkins17, hard enough to take a great polish yet it shapes twice as fast as a hard agate. Feel free to post your quartzite photos. I must say this section or Alabama has many creeks with many varieties of quartzite patterns and colors. At first I thought it was all similar but after collecting in a dozen different creeks the variety is wide. I picked up incredible quartzites along the Rio. The big problem is they were rare there. Thanks for the words. Thank you! Maybe I'll go dig through the tumble bin real quick and pull them out. I'm going to step up my hounding game this year, and try to get half as good as what you experienced people pull out of the ground.
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jamesp
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Post by jamesp on Mar 31, 2022 4:37:09 GMT -5
It's a great tumble perkins17, hard enough to take a great polish yet it shapes twice as fast as a hard agate. Feel free to post your quartzite photos. I must say this section or Alabama has many creeks with many varieties of quartzite patterns and colors. At first I thought it was all similar but after collecting in a dozen different creeks the variety is wide. I picked up incredible quartzites along the Rio. The big problem is they were rare there. Thanks for the words. Thank you! Maybe I'll go dig through the tumble bin real quick and pull them out. I'm going to step up my hounding game this year, and try to get half as good as what you experienced people pull out of the ground. Collecting is the ultimate pleasure of this hobby perkins17. Even if you don't score well it is a great way to experience the outdoors. Plus there is other treasures laying on the ground besides rocks to be found like arrowheads and old bottles. And you never know what you might find in a river bed. The geology within 2 hours drive of home does not yield the most desirable stones. Let's see what a hammer, grinder, saw and tumbler can do for these lowly quartzites.
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jamesp
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Post by jamesp on Mar 31, 2022 8:14:58 GMT -5
Return trip on Tuesday allowed samples from 5 more rivers and creeks. The variety increases with each sampling. Upstream in Auburn Alabama the creeks are all stepped ledges of quartzite from 1/2" to over 8 inches thick. A sledge hammer will be needed for that collection trip. Guessing there are many more variations to tap. Will break these up into tumble-able chips and see how they look. Great tumbling fodder. Occasional arrowhead finds are a side benefit.
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Post by perkins17 on Mar 31, 2022 9:11:50 GMT -5
Thank you! Maybe I'll go dig through the tumble bin real quick and pull them out. I'm going to step up my hounding game this year, and try to get half as good as what you experienced people pull out of the ground. Collecting is the ultimate pleasure of this hobby perkins17. Even if you don't score well it is a great way to experience the outdoors. Plus there is other treasures laying on the ground besides rocks to be found like arrowheads and old bottles. And you never know what you might find in a river bed. The geology within 2 hours drive of home does not yield the most desirable stones. Let's see what a hammer, grinder, saw and tumbler can do for these lowly quartzites. I totally agree. I'm going on a trip to the Pacific coast next week, passing through a ton of great collecting locations, so maybe I'll find some stuff out of the normal for me. I love what changes we can make to rocks, no matter how common they are.
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jamesp
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Post by jamesp on Apr 1, 2022 5:06:11 GMT -5
Collecting is the ultimate pleasure of this hobby perkins17. Even if you don't score well it is a great way to experience the outdoors. Plus there is other treasures laying on the ground besides rocks to be found like arrowheads and old bottles. And you never know what you might find in a river bed. The geology within 2 hours drive of home does not yield the most desirable stones. Let's see what a hammer, grinder, saw and tumbler can do for these lowly quartzites. I totally agree. I'm going on a trip to the Pacific coast next week, passing through a ton of great collecting locations, so maybe I'll find some stuff out of the normal for me. I love what changes we can make to rocks, no matter how common they are. Great opportunity. I hope you score well. You are headed to a great collecting place for sure.
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jamesp
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Post by jamesp on Apr 1, 2022 5:51:41 GMT -5
Hammered/cut/ground some tumbles out of a few of the quartzite cobbles. More colors and patterns to go. There is a high waste factor as it does not break easily without divots and fractures. Most culled. Not a problem since it is so common. 50 pounds of rock may yield 4 pounds of tumbles. Nice to have tumble-able shapes without cracks. You get what you put in ! Shapes fast yet takes a high polish.
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