|
Post by adam on Mar 23, 2018 16:49:21 GMT -5
I'm so mesmerized by that splay of color. Nice stuff.
|
|
|
Post by adam on Mar 17, 2018 21:48:46 GMT -5
God has spoken... let there be agates, beautiful ones at that.
|
|
|
Post by adam on Mar 13, 2018 11:09:51 GMT -5
toiv0 Here are a couple more pictures. This slab was a hair under 3/16" thick. Center groove then fully tumbled in the lot-o. This is the backs on the 10 cabs above. Chuck I would like to send you some samples of Kentucky material and see what you could make out of it. Seriously. If I had a saw, I'd be getting to work on my bunch of stones. lol but nah, I just have so much rough rock, some of which is already slabbed, but only a couple tumblers to polish rocks. I still haven't figured out what to do with it all.
|
|
|
Post by adam on Mar 10, 2018 7:04:21 GMT -5
These little gems almost cost me my life! All rockhounds PLEASE read on. I was on my way to Arizona when I decided to follow the New Mexico gem trails book and make a pit stop in Bernardo ( south of Albuquerque) and try to find some Agates and Jasper. I found the location and pulled off the road near a well used cattle gate and cattle crossing area. I parked my van geared up and only walked by the road and no place into private property. After a short search, I was walking down the pavement toward my van when I heard a vehicle pull into the same situation as I was. As I came up the hill I saw the rear end of a truck parked so close to my van that I was pinned in. I slowly came around my van and saw a man fumbling near the front of the bench seat in the truck. I quietly got within six feet of the gentleman when I said" can I help you?" At that moment I noticed the butt of a rifle he was trying to grab, he was startled and the gun barrel got snagged on the steering wheel. When he finally turned with the gun, I had already dropped my pack and he was looking down the barrel of my 45 semi auto pistol. I ordered him to freeze or I would defend myself. He stopped and started shaking. I told him to slowly put the weapon back or I would blow his f#@&ing brains out. He turned and put his hand on his head. I asked him why would he pull a gun and he stated that people were trespassing and stealing cattle. I laughed and said " do I look like I could put a cow in my f#@&ing van. He shook his head No. I said " all I was doing was looking for rocks on the road and not on his property. He apologized at that point. I said " well we both live today, get in your truck, drive away, and don't look back or I will finish what he tried to start" He thanked me jumped in the truck slowly and drove away fast. I jumped in the van and took off the other direction to head out of New Mexico. ALL ROCKHOUND PLEASE REMEMBER WHO YOU ARE. I made three mistakes today that could have cost me the ultimate sacrifice. #1. I went alone #2 I didn't know the area #3 no cell service. NO ROCKS ARE WORTH DIEING OVER!!!!!!! Much love to you all Frank Lodholtz Aka The American Psycho I'm just glad you had a gun, in case the other guy thought about shooting.
|
|
|
Post by adam on Mar 9, 2018 11:35:14 GMT -5
Awesome post! I have an uncle AND a cousin who both have the typical KY geodes on their farms - now this has made me want to go and gather as many of them as I can looking for the 1 in 100 with agate inside. You would think a person could tell by the weight maybe - yes? Thanks tommy. Overall, I'd say that odds of finding an agate in the average KY geode zones are more like 1 in 300 or so, if you just pick up any promising solid geode or nodule. 1st trick is differentiating geodes from nodules. Nodules or agates will be solid chalcedony. Most nodules are bleh looking. After developing a good eye for recognizing which ones are solid chalcedony nodules in the field, then your odds are more like 1:100 or maybe 1:50 to find a decent agate. Depends on where in the state. More rocks will have some little bit of banded chalcedony inside, but a true agate is that rare. The weight is pretty misleading since a lot of the geodes have heavy minerals like calcite, lead etc. The way to increase your odds is to look for certain skin/rind textures & translucency. Chipping the surface can help, but sometimes you'd have to chip pretty deep, & it's likely to break the rock. You can also try tapping with rock hammer & listening for the chalcedony 'ring', but that's never worked for me as the solid/ingrown quartz crystal geodes sound just like nodules to me. Also, many KY geodes are beautiful, & of course in that case, you want the hollow ones. In various parts of the state, I've found nice calcite (pink, orange), decent fluorite, lead, millerite, fine quartz crystals including citrine, smoky & raspberry, & what I think is smithsonite in brown, red & bluish. Always wanted to find a celestite geode, & have seen several from old KY collections, but still eludes me. If you mention the county names where your family has land, I could give you a better idea of the odds & what you might find. Feel free to PM if that's better. & very cool that your family owns land in geode country! Wish mine did, I'm always begging &/or bribing for access 😅. One of my new tricks is 'hey, saw the dead ash tree about to fall on your driveway, barn etc, I'll cut it for ya if I can look for rocks on your property'😉. I only ask permission, if I have to. I agree, having no family that owns not even a sliver of land in geode country in Kentucky is frustrating. I don't have much trust for strangers, I lend it sparingly. How did you learn about smithsonite and celestite? I don't have my own transportation. I should purchase a car. Which would require ungodly effort, and selling of many boxes of good-premium rocks and minerals, etc. It would be an honor to 'hound with you. Also, you have your own saw? Man oh man, I'm jelly. I haven't had any rocks sawed in many a month. Their piling up. Help. S.O.S.
|
|
|
Post by adam on Mar 7, 2018 19:38:40 GMT -5
Hi everyone, my kids got their very first tumbler and so have been a little rock crazy while we're out and about. We picked up some cool rocks while in Mendocino a few weeks ago and I thought I'd try to figure out what they are before the kids drop them into the tumbler. I'm pretty new to this so bear with me...photos attached. I'm guessing most of them are some kind of jasper, but the one on the top left (#1) is a really interesting shade of aqua, and the one on the middle right (#7) has some translucence when held to the light. The one with the perfect polka dots I was thinking was some sort of obsidian, but doesn't look like anything I have seen in other images... HELP! Hey mate, #6 looks to me like rounded quartz, more like blue quartz. Tumble that sh*t up. I promise it would look good. Maybe you got some rhyolite and jasper in the mix. Who knows what else.
|
|
|
Post by adam on Jan 30, 2018 12:22:28 GMT -5
The noreena jasper takes the cake. Nice job.
|
|
|
Post by adam on Jan 29, 2018 9:03:12 GMT -5
Just pulled these out of the polish cycle before the great blizzard of Jan-2017 hit us here in Houston. Collected all of these last June. The pictures are still not where they need to be. Ran them through 46/70 rotary about 8 days with one re-charge, 80AO rotary for about 8 days then 48 hours in AO polish. Used lots of pebbles to get down into the valleys. Henry www.flickr.com/photos/67823965@N02/albums/72157691560509384What a fine shine. Eye candy.
|
|
|
Post by adam on Jan 27, 2018 19:51:23 GMT -5
I see how Pre-Cambrian rocks with topaz rhyolite lavas could be discovered in southern California? Seems like a longshot, but I suppose this theory can't be disproven. Maybe someone will hit the jackpot? Haha... what do you think? I doubt it. the required fluorite appears to have originally been released in the NAM Precambrian Crust. California came much later. You mean there ain't no fluorite in the area of southern California? shucks. that blows.
|
|
|
Post by adam on Jan 26, 2018 15:32:51 GMT -5
I see how Pre-Cambrian rocks with topaz rhyolite lavas could be discovered in southern California? Seems like a longshot, but I suppose this theory can't be disproven. Maybe someone will hit the jackpot? Haha... what do you think?
|
|
|
Post by adam on Jan 22, 2018 15:34:20 GMT -5
Good quality wonderstone. I like.
|
|
|
Post by adam on Jan 15, 2018 15:21:02 GMT -5
Hey, nice shine.
|
|
|
Post by adam on Jan 14, 2018 19:38:19 GMT -5
Perfect replies 😂😂😂 Eh, one side might just be older than the other. Kewlio.
|
|
|
Post by adam on Jan 13, 2018 10:49:04 GMT -5
|
|
|
Post by adam on Jan 11, 2018 9:33:42 GMT -5
So, what are people hoping/planning to do for rock related activities in 2018?
Here's my list: Now that I've got the parts for the Gy-roc, figure the thing out and get some nice rocks out of it. Win the Worldwide Tumbling Competition. Hahaha! Go back to VA and get me some nice shark teeth. Send some rocks to the people I owe some to.
And, for the really wild goal... Organize the collection! HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA (take a breath) HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHHA! When you don't have a car, you must rely on the kindness of others to travel. Thus, rock related activities look to be slim this year, at least for me. Ya'll have different situations, though.
|
|
|
Post by adam on Jan 10, 2018 20:09:50 GMT -5
Welcome from southern Kentucky, newcomer.
|
|
|
Post by adam on Jan 9, 2018 18:59:24 GMT -5
Huge amounts of copper have been swept up from the Pacific Ocean floor as the Andes Mountains were formed in Chile and Peru. Have you noticed most copper mines are bowl shaped? Why that configuration? Why such concentration in that place AND unusual combinations of other normally scarce metals? www.thebalance.com/the-world-s-20-largest-copper-mines-2014-23397451. At present the world’s largest copper producer, the Escondida mine in Chile's Atacama desert accounts for 5 percent of total global copper mine production. Gold and silver are extracted as by-products from the ore. 2. The Grasberg mine, located in the highlands of Indonesia's Papua province, is the world's largest gold mine and second-largest copper mine. Operated by PT Freeport Indonesia Co., the mine is a joint venture between Freeport McMoRan (90.64 percent) and the Indonesian government (9.36 percent). 3. The Morenci mine in Arizona is the largest copper mine in North America. Operated by Freeport McMoRan, the mine is jointly owned by the company (85 percent) and Sumitomo Affiliates (15 percent). Morenci opened for operation in 1872 and now made up of three mining pits 4. Buenavista, also known as Cananea copper mine, located in Sonora, Mexico, is the world’s second-biggest copper mine by reserve. The open-pit mine contains 27 million metric tons of copper reserve. Opened in 1899, Cananea is one of the oldest open-pit mines in North America and is currently owned and operated by the Southern Copper Corporation (SCC), a subsidiary of Grupo Mexico. 5. Cerro Verde copper mine, located 20 miles southwest of Arequipa in Peru, is the seventh-largest copper mine in the world. The open-pit mine contains an estimated 12.9 million metric tons of recoverable copper. Cerro Verde has been operational since 1976. 6. Chile's second-largest copper mine, Collahuasi, is a owned by a consortium of Anglo American (44 percent), Glencore (44 percent), and Mitsui + Nippon (12 percent). Collahuasi mine produces copper concentrate and cathodes as well as molybdenum concentrate. Most of the concentrate produced at Collahuasi is sold to smelters in China for further refining.0. 7. The Antamina copper-zinc mine is located 170 miles north of Lima. Silver, bismuth, molybdenum, and lead are also separated from the ore produced at Antamina. Jointly owned by BHP Billiton (33.75 percent), Teck (22.5 percent), Glencore (33.75 percent), and Mitsubishi Corp. (10 percent), the mine is scheduled to cease production in 2019. 8. Las Bambas Peru has Bambas has mineral reserves of 7.2 million metric tons of copper and mineral resources of 12.6 million metric tons. The mine's operators estimate that in coming years, more than 2 million metric tons of copper will be produced in concentrate. Mine operators had to move 75 million tons of material in 2014 before commencing mining operations. They estimate that the Las Bambas operation will last more than 20 years since its exploration potential is considerable; only 10 percent of the property has been explored so far. 9. Polar Division (Norilsk/Talnakh Mills) - Russia The mine is operated as part of the Polar Division of MMC Norilsk Nickel. Located in Siberia, you wouldn't want to work here unless you really like the cold. The underground nickel mine began production in the 1930s and is a source of cobalt, gold, silver, and platinum group metals, as well as copper. 10. El Teniente, The world's largest underground mine, is located in the Andes of central Chile. Owned and operated by Chilean state copper miner Codelco, El Teniente has been mined since the 19th century and is now comprised of more than 1,500 miles of tunnels Those open pit mines look terrible. But, I'm glad we have copper....
|
|
|
Post by adam on Jan 9, 2018 18:54:14 GMT -5
If I ever make it to the U.P., I'll have to meet one of ya' Michiganers. Giggity giggity.
|
|
|
Post by adam on Jan 9, 2018 15:46:30 GMT -5
Tumbled to perfection, mate.
|
|
|
Post by adam on Jan 7, 2018 14:18:19 GMT -5
I doubt very few people pay attention to the tiny details in wire wraps. Some flaws don't look as bad as some think. As long as the frame is sound and sturdy, it's all cool.
Nice job.
|
|