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Post by akansan on Feb 4, 2007 23:41:44 GMT -5
So you're looking at a Moh's of 5 or 6. That's harder than travertine. I've found some caliche in that hardness range, but not as colorful. I'd think it's a "new" find. It's softer than most of the rocks we play with in the tumbling end of the spectrum, but the local cabbing/jewelry end might have played with it a time or two.
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kbrocks
noticing nice landscape pebbles
Member since September 2006
Posts: 78
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Post by kbrocks on Feb 13, 2007 16:15:44 GMT -5
Okay, so this stone is still bugging me. So I've been looking up everything I can with iron in it, since the dark color almost definitely has iron. Anyway, I found something very similar. This is a link to some Australian opals that are in some kind of banded ironstone. Now my rocks do not have opal in them, but the matrix on those opals looks very close to my rocks. From what I have read, they have about the same hardness also, about 5.5 or so. Any thoughts? www.opalhut.com.au/shop/en-us/dept_8.html
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Sabre52
Cave Dweller
Me and my gal, Rosie
Member since August 2005
Posts: 20,466
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Post by Sabre52 on Feb 13, 2007 17:28:59 GMT -5
Wow! Those are looking real interesting. I have seen ironstone balls in some roadcuts in Texas but I'd think they would really color your slurry red if you tried to tumble them. I think I'd side with some of the other folks and say you've probably got some kind of wonderstone-type rhyolite there. If it's fine grained enough to take a good polish, it looks like you'll have a source for some pretty material....mel
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Post by puppie96 on Feb 14, 2007 3:13:47 GMT -5
They are really beautiful. I hope they polish. Around here I find a lot of limestone/dolomite that grades into flint or mozarkite. Some of it looks soft on the surface and kind of chalky, but will still polish. Sometimes there are soft spots within an otherwise solid stone. If you are in a limey area, I'd think it is possible that there are other layers there that might contain fully agatized material and given the patterns you have there, it would be great stuff. Can't wait to see the final result.
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Post by sbreed on Feb 19, 2007 0:10:56 GMT -5
Where in West/Central Texas? I am curious.......I wonder if it is far from me.
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kbrocks
noticing nice landscape pebbles
Member since September 2006
Posts: 78
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Post by kbrocks on Feb 19, 2007 13:47:09 GMT -5
These were found out in the country near Brownwood, TX. Well....when I say near it's probably 30 miles out in the country on some ranch that my dad has some oil wells on. He said he just got lucky and happened to be looking out the side window of his truck while he was driving by and saw a couple of these. So he got out and said there is one area about half the size of a football field that has this specific rock.
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kbrocks
noticing nice landscape pebbles
Member since September 2006
Posts: 78
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Post by kbrocks on Mar 6, 2007 9:57:18 GMT -5
Okay, so here are some of the newest pictures. I took these out on Sunday. They were in polish for 2 weeks, and honestly they are quite disappointing. Also in the pic is some nice TX iron ore stuff. The swirly new material I have takes a nice shape, and is very smooth to the touch, but it just didn't take the polish at all. Any new ideas on what this stuff could be? Also, any ideas on how to make this stuff take a polish? In the same batch of polish, I had some flints, jaspers, and a variety of other stuff. This new material and a bunch of Mahogany Obsidian just didn't take the polish, not sure why. Clickable.
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Post by akansan on Mar 6, 2007 10:22:22 GMT -5
That would be a hardness issue. You might be able to get a polish on it if that was the only thing running in the batch. Mixed hardnesses don't play nicely together in polish.
It also might just be too soft to polish in a tumbler. Try hand rubbing some of your polish on one of them to see if it will polish at all...
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stefan
Cave Dweller
Member since January 2005
Posts: 14,095
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Post by stefan on Mar 6, 2007 15:31:00 GMT -5
Looks like Ironstone- I would try a run in Tin Oxide Polish-
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