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Post by Starguy on Aug 29, 2022 12:34:36 GMT -5
Good progress penguinrocksIt looks like you are working on some nice material. Looking forward to seeing some photos of shiny rocks. Welcome to RTH from Idaho.
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Post by Starguy on Aug 29, 2022 12:28:28 GMT -5
gemfellerI’m guessing there are a lot of us that are lucky to be alive after our youths. That gut feel you describe has likely saved a few.
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Post by Starguy on Aug 28, 2022 18:28:52 GMT -5
realrockhoundYour garnets look like they would tumble nicely. If they aren’t from Emerald Creek near Clarkia, Id, they likely won’t exhibit stars.
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Post by Starguy on Aug 28, 2022 18:19:18 GMT -5
Starguy That looks like it was a interesting day Brent! Did you get to keep any garnet? What’s the background history here? Why did they contact you? Prior work for them, or did they know you love rocks lol? Any pictures of you doing the work? I hope you were able to keep a few pieces. It was an interesting three days Ashley. I wasn’t there during the clearing operation. My job was to help identify the garnet bearing gravel layers. There was a foot or two of topsoil/duff, then 4-10 feet of overburden with little to no useable garnets. The overburden contained a gray colored silty layer that was full of garnet sand. In places the contractor would hit pockets of purple sand that was pretty amazing to see. Below the overburden was a 6” to 3’ layer of oxidized, partially cemented gravel, cobbles and small boulders. This was the garnet bearing layer. I didn’t keep much. Most of what I found went into the stockpile or to the FS geologist. I honestly didn’t see any pieces that I got too excited about. gemfeller. Rick. Garnet gulch is the only gulch being actively mined. All other garnet bearing gulches are withdrawn from exploration. It’s been that way as long as I can remember. The Forest Service mines and stockpiles the garnet bearing gravel for the public to dig through. It reduces resource damage and mitigates some serious safety issues. Back when I was digging, it wasn’t uncommon to see people tunneling into the garnet layer without any shoring or any type of ground support. It was almost impossible to enforce the requirement for a vertical face.
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Post by Starguy on Aug 26, 2022 10:59:52 GMT -5
Which creek is that, Brent? They’re mining in Garnet Gulch Rick. This is the second mechanical mining operation in that gulch. It was mined three years ago a little farther downstream.
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Post by Starguy on Aug 25, 2022 20:42:06 GMT -5
I’ve been looking at my favorite out of the batch. It’s shown in the last two photos. It’s a pretty crazy rock. There’s a clear yellowish agate shell with an orange ghost in the middle. The orange ghost shows nice fortification where it hits the surface of the rock.
It’s pretty cool in the hand. It went in the premium box of rocks. It’s a pretty small box considering how long I’ve been doing this.
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Post by Starguy on Aug 25, 2022 20:18:10 GMT -5
The US Forest Service contacted me about helping mine Idaho Garnet. I thought you guys would appreciate a photo or two. The site is pretty brush covered. The photos show upstream and downstream views after clearing. Here’s the equipment used for hauling and digging. Mining the garnet layer. All of the fish were removed from the creek prior to mining. They caught and relocated some salamanders too. The stream was blocked with nets and the water was moved around the mine site with two 4” pipes. Pretty fun work. I saw a few garnets the size of ping-pong balls.
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Post by Starguy on Aug 25, 2022 19:53:39 GMT -5
sendstoneI have two 12 pound rotaries running coarse grit. I also have an extra barrel so they pretty much run 24/7. They don’t keep up with my 33B running fine through polish. I prefer 46/70 for coarse. Honestly, whatever is cheapest is probably your best bet. I don’t notice a lot of difference between 60/90 and 46/70. There are coarser grits available. They might help you go a couple extra days but then you run into thick slurry issues. My advice is to look for good deals on anything 80 grit or coarser that is a good price. Good luck and always have fun.
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Post by Starguy on Aug 22, 2022 12:56:41 GMT -5
Great looking batch ashley. The bots are my favorite but there are a lot of cool rocks. That batch had a lot of different stuff. Thanks for showing.
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Post by Starguy on Aug 21, 2022 14:48:21 GMT -5
Wow rockbrain. You got better at wrapping fast. Those are outstanding. I’ve tried some wrapping but I don’t seem to have a talent for it. Yours look amazing. Thanks for showing them.
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Post by Starguy on Aug 21, 2022 14:42:03 GMT -5
Hey platypusofdeath If the piece you’re showing is schist, I would say that you got about as good of a polish as possible. That being said, I think the rock looks good. It’s very nicely shaped. The shaping side of rock tumbling is overlooked. It usually takes longer than all of the subsequent stages. welcome to the forum.
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Post by Starguy on Aug 21, 2022 14:31:08 GMT -5
morvisHowdy! Welcome from Idaho.
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Post by Starguy on Aug 21, 2022 14:26:55 GMT -5
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Post by Starguy on Aug 20, 2022 19:40:21 GMT -5
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Post by Starguy on Aug 20, 2022 19:31:57 GMT -5
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Post by Starguy on Aug 20, 2022 17:50:17 GMT -5
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Post by Starguy on Aug 20, 2022 16:41:15 GMT -5
This is my eighth 3 lb barrel finished this year. Here is the whole batch on the obligatory ugly towel. Some bots. A few of the nicer LSAs. A slice of Gambiri and a couple Alimajo agates from Malawi. ashleyMiscellaneous My favorite is this Alimajo.
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Post by Starguy on Aug 19, 2022 18:56:39 GMT -5
Hey shani . It could be a dirty barrel issue. It’s more likely that the rocks are too soft to take a polish. Have you figured out how to post photos yet? Some pictures would help us identify possible problems. Cloudinary works really well but I’m not the best person to ask about setting it up. Glad to have you here participating at RTH. Welcome. Everyone here loves photos. you can always re-tumble batches. My experience tumbling leads me to believe if you start with good quality agate, you have good results. In North Idaho we have garnet but no good agates. I’m not sure where you live but there are people here from almost any part of the USA. We’re glad to have you here. If you have trouble posting photos, just ask. There are a lot of helpful people here. Sincerely, Brent.
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Post by Starguy on Aug 18, 2022 20:15:08 GMT -5
Don’t sweat it jasoninsd. I’ve been super busy too..
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Post by Starguy on Aug 18, 2022 10:38:33 GMT -5
Nice looking batch jasoninsd. There is a lot of diversity in there.
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