barclay
has rocks in the head
Lowly Padawan of rocks
Member since November 2011
Posts: 510
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Post by barclay on Mar 26, 2013 9:08:52 GMT -5
Beautiful opal!
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barclay
has rocks in the head
Lowly Padawan of rocks
Member since November 2011
Posts: 510
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Post by barclay on Mar 20, 2013 20:24:55 GMT -5
I think the "something dendritic" looks like the silver lace onyx they pull out of Calico. Nice bunch of cabs.
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barclay
has rocks in the head
Lowly Padawan of rocks
Member since November 2011
Posts: 510
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Post by barclay on Mar 20, 2013 20:21:27 GMT -5
Here are some recent cabs I made: Montana agate Poppy jasper Blue jasper Agatized wood Banded rhyolite More banded rhyolite Have a rocking day :)
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barclay
has rocks in the head
Lowly Padawan of rocks
Member since November 2011
Posts: 510
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Post by barclay on Feb 27, 2013 22:24:25 GMT -5
Does the blue material look fiberous? If it does it could be tremolite (asbestos) which would be bad especially if you grind it. I also found some blue brecciated material up at Area 54. The collective minds here have not been able to Id it either.
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barclay
has rocks in the head
Lowly Padawan of rocks
Member since November 2011
Posts: 510
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Post by barclay on Feb 22, 2013 10:38:50 GMT -5
How about Underground River
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barclay
has rocks in the head
Lowly Padawan of rocks
Member since November 2011
Posts: 510
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Post by barclay on Feb 18, 2013 15:04:44 GMT -5
let's try this again.
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barclay
has rocks in the head
Lowly Padawan of rocks
Member since November 2011
Posts: 510
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Post by barclay on Feb 18, 2013 15:03:29 GMT -5
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barclay
has rocks in the head
Lowly Padawan of rocks
Member since November 2011
Posts: 510
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Post by barclay on Feb 18, 2013 15:00:21 GMT -5
Easter is coming soon so I decided to make a cab that reminded me of an Easter Egg. The squiggly lines also remind me of Charlie Brown's sweater.
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barclay
has rocks in the head
Lowly Padawan of rocks
Member since November 2011
Posts: 510
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Post by barclay on Feb 15, 2013 9:38:48 GMT -5
Don't work fiberous minerals. If possible cut and grind in a well ventilated area to dissipate the dust. Fans and suction devices can help. One thing regulators hate to hear, but has a lot of truth, is the saying "Dilution is the solution to pollution".
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barclay
has rocks in the head
Lowly Padawan of rocks
Member since November 2011
Posts: 510
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Post by barclay on Feb 14, 2013 23:54:46 GMT -5
This is a subject I have been hesitant to bring up, but since someone has already brought it up (even though it was while ago) I will jump right in. I used to work for a group that regulates asbestos. Blue tiger eye is tremolite asbestos. California's state rock, serpentine, is another form of asbestos. Cutting and grinding asbestos releases fibers and I think all of you have seen the ads on TV where lawyers are looking for people who have been exposed to asbestos who now have asbestosis and cancers. All forms of asbestos are known carcinogens. There is no known safe exposure limit to asbestos. The reason there are so many different regulations about asbestos is because of the hundreds of thousands of people who have died prematurely because they were exposed. When asbestos is removed from a building they do air sampling. The acceptance criteria is 0.1 fiber per cubic centimeter of air as verified using a microscope. You can fail the test and still not be able to see the asbestos fibers.
Current scientific research is showing that other chemical resistant minerals that have fine fibers also may cause similar health effects as asbestos. Google erionite to read for yourself. In short areas where this mineral occurs naturally and where they spread rocks containing it for roads and other uses they are seeing increases in diseases typically associated with asbestos exposure. The common denominator is fine mineral fibers that are resistant to the body's mechanisms to get rid of it. When tremolite is exposed to heat and pressure it turns to golden tiger eye. Are the fibers from gold tiger eye as bad as from tremolite, I don't know. The chatoyance in tiger eye is caused by the microscopic fiberous nature of the mineral and they are discovering more and more that microscopic fibers cause disease.
All of us who make cabs have dust on our equipment. Using water minimizes the dust, it does not make the dust go away. Dust masks offer marginal protection for particles that are relatively large "nuisance" particles. They don't seal against your face so they can't protect you from the microscopic particles that make it deep in to your lungs. Those of you who are in respiratory protection programs at work have seen this first hand. A dust mask will not protect you at all from asbestos.
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barclay
has rocks in the head
Lowly Padawan of rocks
Member since November 2011
Posts: 510
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Post by barclay on Feb 12, 2013 22:01:29 GMT -5
Ok, let me try this again with the photos of the slab and the cab I made from it. I hope I do this right. To answer the questions: This was hard to cut. It felt like I was trying to cut something as hard as an agate. The only thing that saved me was that the stone was only about 6" long and 4" wide at most. I fed it by hand because it was small. My good old 10" Harbor Freight brick saw did the deed. Like a lot of the rocks I picked up in the area (Panoche Hills of the Blue G/Lawsonite discussions) it looks like the blue material was broken up under ground and reformed. I have some killer pieces that are rust brown with white quartz gluing them back together. I wish I found more pieces of this blue material. There has also been talk of blue schist in the area. Thanks for help in figuring this out.
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barclay
has rocks in the head
Lowly Padawan of rocks
Member since November 2011
Posts: 510
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Post by barclay on Feb 11, 2013 21:18:10 GMT -5
Roy,
What a beautiful piece! The plumes remind me of sea fans swaying in the ocean.
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barclay
has rocks in the head
Lowly Padawan of rocks
Member since November 2011
Posts: 510
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Post by barclay on Feb 10, 2013 18:59:16 GMT -5
Last April I went with a group (CFMS I think) and we paid to dig at the Dugway claim. As I recall it was $99 for two 5-gallon pails of geodes (pick your own) plus a couple of bigger ones. I know that some people enjoyed this area before the claim was enforced. We all had a great time with these folks. They operated the excavator and kept digging until we all had our fill. It did not take long. Next they moved the excavator to the area where the "big" geodes are and again they dug until we all had a couple of trophy geodes. I came away with two basketball sized geodes. Later a couple of us who did not have access to slab saws asked if they would cut our larger geodes for us and they did it for free. One of the guys had two solid geodes and the claim owners wanted all of us to go home with good ones so they let him choose two more and cut them open. We all left there very satisfied with our treasures. A couple families with kids showed up during our paid digs and the owners let them go through the tailings. They were not ogres about it, they were polite. Yea it is strange that the State has signs showing the way to what is now a private claim. Yes it sucks that this is now a private claim. The holes they dug are a lot deeper than what most of the rest of us could dig safely. My point is that these folks were very nice and for those of you who want to sell stuff you can still make a healthy profit from what they will sell you. Maybe they were on their best behavior since this was a rock group trip, but everyone at the Bug House we met was great to deal with. They have many 55-gallon drums of other material at their shop so more than geodes are available, and no- I am not a paid endorser.
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barclay
has rocks in the head
Lowly Padawan of rocks
Member since November 2011
Posts: 510
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Post by barclay on Feb 10, 2013 18:38:09 GMT -5
Thanks Carleton. It was one of those lonely rocks we drive by every day It had that white coating all over the surface so it did not look like much until I knocked a piece off the corner. I thought the colored streaks were a surface thing. At best I thought I had a boring black rhyolite or something similar. I hope I can find the rest of the big rock in my garage. I just checked the slabs I cut off of the second small piece and they have cracks all over.
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barclay
has rocks in the head
Lowly Padawan of rocks
Member since November 2011
Posts: 510
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Post by barclay on Feb 9, 2013 19:43:50 GMT -5
Finished product. Attachments:
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barclay
has rocks in the head
Lowly Padawan of rocks
Member since November 2011
Posts: 510
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Post by barclay on Feb 9, 2013 19:43:33 GMT -5
preform Attachments:
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barclay
has rocks in the head
Lowly Padawan of rocks
Member since November 2011
Posts: 510
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Post by barclay on Feb 9, 2013 19:43:02 GMT -5
Second shot of slab. Attachments:
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barclay
has rocks in the head
Lowly Padawan of rocks
Member since November 2011
Posts: 510
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Post by barclay on Feb 9, 2013 19:42:35 GMT -5
Here is my first attempt at competing. This is a rock I found on the side of the road on the way to Delta Utah to dig for topaz. I believe it is obsidian. Attachments:
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barclay
has rocks in the head
Lowly Padawan of rocks
Member since November 2011
Posts: 510
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Post by barclay on Jan 20, 2013 10:29:12 GMT -5
If I could partake of the collective wisdom of the group for some Id help. I found only one piece of this material on my last trip up to Panoche Hills. I love the fractured and healed look of rocks from that area. The body is midnight blue and the jumbled pieces inside are a slightly lighter shade. These pictures are wet. I found some dumorturite in the area, but this has a much finer grain. Attachments:
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barclay
has rocks in the head
Lowly Padawan of rocks
Member since November 2011
Posts: 510
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Post by barclay on Dec 24, 2012 14:18:57 GMT -5
Howdy, I am Paul and I am feeding my rock addiction. It started innocently enough in 1991 when my fiancé asked me to pick up some opal for her when my ship pulled in to Australia. I have been playing with rocks on an off since then. I joined a local rock club around 1992 and mostly make jewelry out of cabs. Recently I found an ancient automatic slabbing saw at a rock sale. It was in bad shape, but I figured for $30 I would take a chance. After about $500 for a new box and powder coating I can now take on cobblestones. I do need to get a new blade for it and I am told someone here sells saw blades. I had fun doing a trip to the Big Pile in April, even though I sprained my ankle. Here are some photos of the cabs I made from Panoche material. I look forward to going back and finding more cool rocks. Attachments:
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