Post by spokanetim on Dec 16, 2009 20:33:54 GMT -5
I found this 9.5 lb rock a few months ago off the northwest part of the Columbia River and picked it up because it sort of had this funky green sheen about it. I took it home and hacked off a small piece of its side with the tile saw. The piece looked very dull and boring so I just tossed it aside wondering why I lugged it back.
Today I was surfing the web looking for places to go rock hounding and found some sites saying Washington has both green and black jade in the northern part of the state. The jade was most likely dropped here out of Canada in the last ice age. Looking at the black jade rough online I remembered that ugly rock and thought hmmmm, looks similar. I went out and found it under the snow, including part of the piece I sawed, still thinking it was probably nothing and started doing some of the tests for jade I read online.
It was cold, snow will do that, but it did hold the cold longer than I expected. I tried to scratch it with several knives and it wouldn't scratch no matter how hard I tried. Hitting the two pieces together it did make a nice "clinking" tone like beer bottles toasting. The rock is very dense and heaver than it looks. Then I took the little piece to my Genie and polished up the faces. The diamond grinding wheels put out a very dark green "mud" and then it easily polished to a glass finish on the 14,000 wheel. It doesn't really show in the pictures but there is a very slight green sheen in the polished piece. Finally there's no crystal structure to be seen, even with a 20x loop.
I've never seen jade rough and know nothing other than what I've read on the internet. So far it seems to be passing all the tests I read about. If it's black jade than from what little I could find online it could be very valuable rock and I'll kick myself for the cuts I've made in it's side.
If anyone has any opinions, one way or the other let me know! I know a guy here who could ID it but I don't want to make the 45 min. drive to his place until I'm a little more sure.
Today I was surfing the web looking for places to go rock hounding and found some sites saying Washington has both green and black jade in the northern part of the state. The jade was most likely dropped here out of Canada in the last ice age. Looking at the black jade rough online I remembered that ugly rock and thought hmmmm, looks similar. I went out and found it under the snow, including part of the piece I sawed, still thinking it was probably nothing and started doing some of the tests for jade I read online.
It was cold, snow will do that, but it did hold the cold longer than I expected. I tried to scratch it with several knives and it wouldn't scratch no matter how hard I tried. Hitting the two pieces together it did make a nice "clinking" tone like beer bottles toasting. The rock is very dense and heaver than it looks. Then I took the little piece to my Genie and polished up the faces. The diamond grinding wheels put out a very dark green "mud" and then it easily polished to a glass finish on the 14,000 wheel. It doesn't really show in the pictures but there is a very slight green sheen in the polished piece. Finally there's no crystal structure to be seen, even with a 20x loop.
I've never seen jade rough and know nothing other than what I've read on the internet. So far it seems to be passing all the tests I read about. If it's black jade than from what little I could find online it could be very valuable rock and I'll kick myself for the cuts I've made in it's side.
If anyone has any opinions, one way or the other let me know! I know a guy here who could ID it but I don't want to make the 45 min. drive to his place until I'm a little more sure.