gemfeller
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Post by gemfeller on May 2, 2024 1:40:30 GMT -5
I'd love to cut some cabs from that material. I think it's terrific. Reminds me a bit of Chinese Pietersite with the whirly reds and yellows.
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gemfeller
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Post by gemfeller on May 1, 2024 21:22:47 GMT -5
titaniumkid If you want a laugh and can find a copy, read "A Sunburned Country" by Bill Bryson. He's a very good writer and takes full advantage of the humor to be found in Americans' paranoia about the spiders, snakes, crocs and other beasties to be found on a trip to OZ. My personal concern is snakes, and in the Outback where the opals and many other gems are to be found, there seem to be a great many venomous types. At least our Western rattlers give you warning -- most of the time. But you're right about our large predators. A man was killed by a bear 2-3 miles from my house about a year ago. The poor guy was taking a break from building his cabin, drinking a cup of coffee and reading. I grew up near Yellowstone Park and my hometown had the closest hospital to the Park's Western side. During tourist season it was filled with Park visitors who were missing hands or other body parts from feeding the bears. Bears don't know where the snack ends and food begins -- it's all food to them. Currrently, the biggest threat to tourists seems to be bison/buffalo. Or I should say, dumb tourist s who think wild animals are all friendly, lovable Disney creatures. Bison are huge, powerful, nasty-tempered animals, to be respected and avoided. On a visit there a few years ago one blocked our car on the roadway. It was in a really foul mood with fire in its huge dark eyes. My wife was driving. and it finally decided to walk by the car. But it paused next to her window and for a moment it appeared it would attack with its big horns that were very close to her head. It finally decided to walk on, to our mutual relief. But many tourists deliberately try to approach and pet them, often with injurious or deadly results.
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gemfeller
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Post by gemfeller on May 1, 2024 20:38:18 GMT -5
No undercutting at all. Took a great polish, better than I can capture in an image. Nice to curt.
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gemfeller
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Post by gemfeller on May 1, 2024 18:11:19 GMT -5
Here's a couple of shots of the Crappy Cab of Today. Less colorful than the last two but color depends on the minerals available when the poop agatized. Speaking of Depends....did they come in Dino sizes?
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gemfeller
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Post by gemfeller on Apr 29, 2024 20:07:43 GMT -5
Here's today's coprolite cab. It's the remainder of the slab I used to cut the cab posted above. They say you can't polish a turd but both of them polished up pretty nicely. I have a few more in process.
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gemfeller
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Post by gemfeller on Apr 28, 2024 14:30:56 GMT -5
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gemfeller
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Post by gemfeller on Apr 28, 2024 14:26:39 GMT -5
realrockhound Were you cabbing Bumblebee "Jasper" by any chance? Maybe the hornet was simply coming to the defense of a presumed relative.
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gemfeller
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Post by gemfeller on Apr 27, 2024 22:00:57 GMT -5
Today's crappy cab. I kinda' like it. Kinda? That's magnificent and look at that shine! Doesn't look like it undercut too badly. Yeah, my comment was a deliberate understatement. It's a bit undercut at 10X magnification and I'm thinking of giving it a HXTAL treatment to smooth it out. Haven't decided yet.
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gemfeller
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Post by gemfeller on Apr 27, 2024 20:30:27 GMT -5
Today's crappy cab. I kinda' like it.
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gemfeller
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Post by gemfeller on Apr 27, 2024 12:59:20 GMT -5
I've gone a hinting for that rock those are legit specimens how did you acquire did you hound them? gemfellerToo old for hounding, knees are gone. A fellow on another rock forum offered some rough Olympic several years ago. It's very fractured, like most Coastal poppy jaspers, but I was able to cut some usable slabs. I've lost track of the supplier but he seemed to have quite a bit of rough. I'll post his name if I run across it.
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gemfeller
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Post by gemfeller on Apr 26, 2024 20:10:38 GMT -5
His response, "It was found in a washout and split in two". LOL! That's what the guys on the Gembone Forum told me, and I argued with them! Occam's Razor rules: the simplest explanation is usually the right one. I'll go to my corner now.
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gemfeller
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Post by gemfeller on Apr 25, 2024 18:49:39 GMT -5
Bingo. Hxtal is a 100 year clear glass epoxy that is used to stabilize gem bone, it adds to the wearability and enhances polish. You can completely remove if you like simply by soaking in acetone. Since all of my bone is intended as lapidary rough. I sometimes treat pieces prior to them being sold to aid in the cutting process once received. If you just want the hxtal off the surface, You can scrape it off with a warm razor blade. Either way if you polish these bones this will help them more than harm them. Yep. Use it often, especially on gembone.
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gemfeller
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Post by gemfeller on Apr 25, 2024 17:29:28 GMT -5
Just guessing here. In opal terminology a "split" is generally a piece of boulder opal that's been split along a seam of precious opal, yielding two matching opal surfaces. I found a few examples of dino bone that looked like they'd been sawed (split) to yield two matching faces but I have no idea what the term "washed" refers to.
ETA: I think I've figured it out (I hate mysteries!!) In a gembone ad on Ebay I noticed the term "HXTAL Washed Split." I take that to mean that matching sawed "splits" of gembone have been "washed" with HXTAL. Ready to be corrected if I'm wrong.
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gemfeller
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Post by gemfeller on Apr 24, 2024 14:16:35 GMT -5
wargrafix It's hard to beat John Sinkankas's 3-book series "Gemstones of North America." At least one is in print on Amazon and one is better than none. Others may be available used.
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gemfeller
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Post by gemfeller on Apr 24, 2024 13:47:39 GMT -5
I am fan of the geology series by John McPhee. He's a great writer and makes reading geology a pleasure. Assembling California is a good one. LOVE McPhee's geology books. I've read all of them, some 2 or 3 times. He's an awesome writer too. I'll never forget his description of seeing Winnemucca at night from a distance: "Nevada looks good in neon." It does!
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gemfeller
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Post by gemfeller on Apr 24, 2024 13:40:27 GMT -5
An amazing and lovely task ahead of you! There are some real beauties in that group. Makes me a bit jealous!
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gemfeller
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Post by gemfeller on Apr 23, 2024 19:30:52 GMT -5
Some folks are terrified by the fact Tiger's Eye is silicified asbestos. They mask up. If that's a concern, do it. Some material does have loose fibers as realrockhound mentions. I avoid that type, and it's pretty easy to identify. Meanwhile, I've cut dozens upon dozens of TE cabs easily and with no problems at all. I must be unlucky because probably half of the ones I've cut tended to pull fibers. I have two preformed (one marra mamba) and I hope that they are problem free. Usae a 10-X loupe to inspect the rough. You can usually tell if it's "problem" material. Marrra Mamba's a little different than South African TE. It does tend to have looser fibers in some instances I've found.
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gemfeller
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Post by gemfeller on Apr 23, 2024 14:18:13 GMT -5
Some folks are terrified by the fact Tiger's Eye is silicified asbestos. They mask up. If that's a concern, do it. Some material does have loose fibers as realrockhound mentions. I avoid that type, and it's pretty easy to identify. Meanwhile, I've cut dozens upon dozens of TE cabs easily and with no problems at all.
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gemfeller
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Post by gemfeller on Apr 23, 2024 1:23:58 GMT -5
The whole stone just "flows" from one end to the other. That was my hope with that unusual pattern. The rest of the slab was blah.
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gemfeller
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Post by gemfeller on Apr 22, 2024 10:56:56 GMT -5
I really like the first two. It's pretty hard to find PNW poppy jasper without any fractures, great looking cabs. The black must be hematite? Thanks for sharing. Thanks for looking. Yes, fractures are almost always a problem with them. But I have one large slab that's entirely fracture-free. Haven 't started cabbing it yet. Not sure what the black is but it doesn't seem to be hematite -- it cuts far too cleanly!
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