rolleyholeman1
having dreams about rocks
Member since November 2023
Posts: 55
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Post by rolleyholeman1 on Mar 16, 2024 23:56:18 GMT -5
Hey all, some may remember me for talking about marbles and looking for material to use as marbles.
Here’s the deal. The other day I put a 10” blade on my saw, and grabbed a reject rock from my scrap pile to give it a go before potentially messing up my nicer material. I grabbed a nodule and cut off the end, and was met with what I think is Tennessee Agate. What’s funny is I drive all over this state looking for marble material and have been searching all over for Tennessee Agate, and have no solid idea where this material came from.
I also have some other pieces here I’ll show off. The yellowish material is what I think is agate, and the colorful material I’m not sure on, but the family farm is filled with it. Usually the colorful material just can’t be slabbed or cut well since it’s filled with fractures. This time it actually held together and slabbed up pretty darn nice. It won’t make a playing marble but might make something.
I can’t seem to find how to attach photos so I’ll send a link to this thread of a shared photo album deal.
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rolleyholeman1
having dreams about rocks
Member since November 2023
Posts: 55
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Post by rolleyholeman1 on Mar 16, 2024 23:58:25 GMT -5
Hey all, some may remember me for talking about marbles and looking for material to use as marbles. Here’s the deal. The other day I put a 10” blade on my saw, and grabbed a reject rock from my scrap pile to give it a go before potentially messing up my nicer material. I grabbed a nodule and cut off the end, and was met with what I think is Tennessee Agate. What’s funny is I drive all over this state looking for marble material and have been searching all over for Tennessee Agate, and have no solid idea where this material came from. I also have some other pieces here I’ll show off. The yellowish material is what I think is agate, and the colorful material I’m not sure on, but the family farm is filled with it. Usually the colorful material just can’t be slabbed or cut well since it’s filled with fractures. This time it actually held together and slabbed up pretty darn nice. It won’t make a playing marble but might make something. I can’t seem to find how to attach photos so I’ll send a link to this thread of a shared photo album deal. imgur.com/a/3qQtlh7
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rockbrain
Cave Dweller
Member since January 2022
Posts: 2,535
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Post by rockbrain on Mar 17, 2024 9:46:55 GMT -5
The yellow stuff is pretty.
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Post by hummingbirdstones on Mar 17, 2024 10:10:10 GMT -5
Agree the yellow stuff is pretty. Can't help on the ID, though. To post pictures on the forum, you need to have a Cloudinary account (free). Here is the tutorial on how to do that: forum.rocktumblinghobby.com/page/using-cloudinaryIt's a little time consuming and you need to follow each step in the tutorial exactly, but once it's done it works a treat!
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chris1956
fully equipped rock polisher
Member since July 2022
Posts: 1,249
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Post by chris1956 on Mar 17, 2024 10:18:37 GMT -5
Those certainly look like they will polish nicely.
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rolleyholeman1
having dreams about rocks
Member since November 2023
Posts: 55
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Post by rolleyholeman1 on Mar 17, 2024 23:13:21 GMT -5
Unfortunately I’ve tried many times to get photos to work here. It seems like I have an internet issue here since the official Tennessee website I need for work doesn’t work here either. When I join a video call for the state, they expect trouble haha. Anyways, I did travel all over town today looking for rocks to try and figure out where on earth this material came from, so I have more rocks to share. Where I live I am a few minutes from the clinch, Emory, and Tennessee rivers. In 20 minutes I can be up on the Cumberland plateau or Crab Orchard where the famous crab orchard sandstone is mined. There’s even old coal mines around. It’s a great area for rocks with some streams looking like they’re filled with sugar rock candy. Here’s a link to some rocks from today. Tomorrow if I remember I’ll use the computers at work to try and get the photo issues sorted. imgur.com/a/R8cK8JUThe very colorful material is from the family farm. As a kid I’d go around back there busting open rocks looking at all the colors. The material is often heavily fractured though I do find a bit of odd nodules which are usually a Jasper looking material. Around the county nowhere has rocks as colorful as a little patch in the woods on the family farm. If the local rock hunters in Knoxville knew about it they’d be beating down my door to take a look. Also included in the album was a good joke someone pulled down there at the river. They placed a movie prop $100 bill next to a rock and man, gave me some excitement. I’ve lived through tornados so finding money in the woods isn’t all that rare but still, gave me a shock for a moment.
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Post by rmf on Mar 18, 2024 19:57:49 GMT -5
rolleyholeman1 looked at you images. #1, 2, and 4 are not what I would call TN Agate (a.k.a Paintrock Agate) They have agate and quartz but do not match the typical material. Image #3 is calfkiller agate. the top stone on image 5 is a chert with fossil bits the dark color from organic carbon. The lower two I would put in the chert category but may also be calfkiller agate.
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rolleyholeman1
having dreams about rocks
Member since November 2023
Posts: 55
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Post by rolleyholeman1 on Mar 18, 2024 23:48:08 GMT -5
rolleyholeman1 looked at you images. #1, 2, and 4 are not what I would call TN Agate (a.k.a Paintrock Agate) They have agate and quartz but do not match the typical material. Image #3 is calfkiller agate. the top stone on image 5 is a chert with fossil bits the dark color from organic carbon. The lower two I would put in the chert category but may also be calfkiller agate. Thank you! Unfortunately I think the images in Imgur may be out of order. So the cube is from the piece that has the “geode” pit in it. Is that the calf killer agate? The material that’s very red and purple is not calf killer? I sure see why I need to mess more with the image settings. I’ll try to play with it again for clarification. None of the material came from the calf killer river or around Sparta if that matters. I keep driving through there but haven’t stopped. All material is almost certainly from Roane County Tennessee. All colorful material (like red/purple) is from the family farm on highway 58 “midway” Tennessee. I suspect the pieces that may be “calf killer” are from the city of Harriman. The chert with fossils is from the Tims Ford reservoir.
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rolleyholeman1
having dreams about rocks
Member since November 2023
Posts: 55
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Post by rolleyholeman1 on Mar 19, 2024 23:42:02 GMT -5
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wargrafix
Cave Dweller
Member since June 2023
Posts: 558
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Post by wargrafix on Mar 20, 2024 9:30:01 GMT -5
Agate 2 and 4 are out of the gate winners.
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rolleyholeman1
having dreams about rocks
Member since November 2023
Posts: 55
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Post by rolleyholeman1 on Mar 20, 2024 20:07:30 GMT -5
Agate 2 and 4 are out of the gate winners. Thank you! Now I have to figure out where this came from. I remember grabbing it during a day where I went to 3 locations in town looking for rocks. Maybe Friday I will try again to hunt down the origins before the water rises again. What sets it apart (besides the pattern) is that all material I have found in this area was horribly fractured. This stuff is much more solid for the most part, though it does have some sand pits. Hopefully it'll make two nice marbles. That's a big part of the fun. If you went around finding agate every day, it wouldn't be all that fun or special.
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twitchmcgee
off to a rocking start
Member since March 2024
Posts: 1
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Post by twitchmcgee on Mar 22, 2024 23:43:50 GMT -5
I found some material really similar to #4 in south central TN (Elkton); I wouldn't call it agate, really, more like a really nice, silicated, colorful chert. There was a bunch of it at a truck stop there and it was all very blocky - like that's just how it tends to break. I don't know, but I wish I had more spots like that here in Athens, TN.
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rolleyholeman1
having dreams about rocks
Member since November 2023
Posts: 55
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Post by rolleyholeman1 on Mar 23, 2024 1:45:58 GMT -5
I found some material really similar to #4 in south central TN (Elkton); I wouldn't call it agate, really, more like a really nice, silicated, colorful chert. There was a bunch of it at a truck stop there and it was all very blocky - like that's just how it tends to break. I don't know, but I wish I had more spots like that here in Athens, TN. Interesting. #4 for me wasn’t very blocky if I understand what you mean. It was a much more solid piece of material than most of the vibrant color material I find. Where I have been finding the colorful material is about 45 mins north of Athens, on the outskirts of Midway Tennessee. The whole area doesn’t seem to be any good for solid material for what I’m doing, though it’s at least pretty material. Out of all the places in Tennessee I’ve worked, Overton county has been the best for good solid material. If you’ve heard of Rolley Hole marbles in that area, that’s what I’m looking for this material for. I work Tennessee State Parks and am always looking at all the geology everywhere I travel and so far Overton seems to be the best.
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