Wooferhound
Cave Dweller
Lortone QT66 and 3A
Member since December 2016
Posts: 1,423
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Post by Wooferhound on Sept 24, 2017 20:14:26 GMT -5
On Christmas I got my first rock polisher/tumbler, then in February I got a dual tumbler adding up to my ability to polish 15 pounds of rocks at the same time. I decided to only polish rocks that I found and collected personally. Good rocks to polish are glassy, hard, colorful and are hard to find here in North Alabama. The best place I found so far is the Flint River running through North Alabama and into the Tennessee River. Even there, only about 1 in 5000 rocks are worth trying to shine up and look pretty. A friend of mine has a couple of canoes and there is no better way to Rockhound than a peaceful float down the river and stopping occasionally on a rockbank to sort through a few thousand rocks. The water was a little low today so we had to drag the canoes through some shallow places sometimes but it was great overall. The Flint is closer to a Large Creek than a River in the areas that we went floating but does eventually get very large before dumping into the Tennessee River A typical rockbank here never looks promising but on getting a closer look there are a lot of Flint related rocks which are glassy enough to polish but breakup in the tumbler very easily. There is also a Lot of Slate in this river. I brought a small 6-pack cooler to collect my rocks in, but I had it filled up halfway through the 5 hour trip. My friend Bill also collected One rock, about a 70 pound slab of slate that he got from under 1 foot of water in the middle of the river. This is one of the smaller pieces of slate that we saw. He gets a couple of slate slabs everytime he goes canoeing. He uses them in his flower beds. I think the best rocks that I found were in this picture, located in the RipRap under this bridge. Some black rocks mixed in with the granite. So I ended up with two small coolers full of rocks, or about 50 pounds worth. The Slate is mostly on the left side. looking forward to our next trip. Roll On
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Fossilman
Cave Dweller
Member since January 2009
Posts: 20,685
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Post by Fossilman on Sept 24, 2017 21:30:02 GMT -5
Nice photos,liking the story.. Great scores!!
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Deleted
Deleted Member
Member since January 1970
Posts: 0
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Post by Deleted on Sept 24, 2017 22:01:14 GMT -5
Low water and short portages are part and parcel for the hobby. They represent better hounding in general.
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Post by rockpickerforever on Sept 25, 2017 0:09:48 GMT -5
Sounds like a fun time was had by all! Great rock report. Looks like you got you some goodies to keep you busy for a while.
I learned how to waterski on the Tennessee River, somewhere near Decatur, AL. That would've been over 40 years ago... Dang, when did I get so old? Lol. Jean
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Wooferhound
Cave Dweller
Lortone QT66 and 3A
Member since December 2016
Posts: 1,423
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Post by Wooferhound on Sept 25, 2017 8:49:40 GMT -5
I learned how to waterski on the Tennessee River, somewhere near Decatur, AL. That would've been over 40 years ago... Dang, when did I get so old? Lol. Jean Too cool I was at Decatur in the Tennessee River a few days ago playing with my 3 dogs...
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Post by rockpickerforever on Sept 25, 2017 9:01:23 GMT -5
Lived there for a year, way back when I was an innocent, naive teen. 1976 to 1977. A nice place to visit, but I wouldn't want to live there, lol. The winter I spent there it was too cold to snow. Too cold for this California native. Very pretty country, however. Unfortunate that I wasn't into rocks at the time....
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jamesp
Cave Dweller
Member since October 2012
Posts: 36,159
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Post by jamesp on Oct 9, 2017 7:07:40 GMT -5
Looking forward to you doing a trip to the Elk River. The bridge west of Decatur. Lots of hard waxy chert there. You will have to work to find good color. the artifacts are spectacular.
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Post by fantastic5 on Oct 9, 2017 9:13:42 GMT -5
The Flint is a pretty float. I've only done it once years ago with some caving friends. We had a great time.
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Wooferhound
Cave Dweller
Lortone QT66 and 3A
Member since December 2016
Posts: 1,423
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Post by Wooferhound on Nov 20, 2017 11:36:18 GMT -5
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Deleted
Deleted Member
Member since January 1970
Posts: 0
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Post by Deleted on Nov 20, 2017 12:00:31 GMT -5
Anyone ever come up with any "Star Blue Quartz" along the Flint or Tennessee (or a bit south into Cullman County)? It's Alabama's "State Gemstone" and according to the state it is "common" and from those parts. However common it may be, I've yet to come across anyone who has ever seen, let alone found, any pieces. One of those nagging questions that has been bothering me for years.
The only blue macrocrystalline quartz of any size I've seen has come from elsewhere (plus treated stuff and glass from China).
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Post by broseph82 on Dec 2, 2017 18:38:13 GMT -5
Anyone ever come up with any "Star Blue Quartz" along the Flint or Tennessee (or a bit south into Cullman County)? It's Alabama's "State Gemstone" and according to the state it is "common" and from those parts. However common it may be, I've yet to come across anyone who has ever seen, let alone found, any pieces. One of those nagging questions that has been bothering me for years. The only blue macrocrystalline quartz of any size I've seen has come from elsewhere (plus treated stuff and glass from China). No I’ve never found it in AL, but it’s quite abundant at Allatoona Lake in GA Edit: haven’t seen it star, but it is blue quartz in host quartz. Also there’s blue quartz in Granite in Cartersville, Georgia
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Deleted
Deleted Member
Member since January 1970
Posts: 0
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Post by Deleted on Dec 2, 2017 22:27:31 GMT -5
No I’ve never found it in AL, but it’s quite abundant at Allatoona Lake in GA Edit: haven’t seen it star, but it is blue quartz in host quartz. Also there’s blue quartz in Granite in Cartersville, Georgia Thanks. I've seen some massive quartz from GA and VA with small blue crystals in white, but nothing blue from AL. Closest I've come is a gray quartz arrowhead that showed a slight bit of chatoyance. Nothing like the pieces the state website has shown (both cabbed with stars and raw xtls). Recall a club that went looking a decade ago and were skunked. The guides say Cullman County, Madison County, Lauderdale County, etc., but none seems to relate any experiences of actually finding a piece. For something that is supposedly "common" and "cheap" and so widespread, it is weird that no one seems to have any. I'm thinking the guy who suggested it be renamed "Unicorn Quartz" may be onto something.
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Post by broseph82 on Dec 3, 2017 11:08:14 GMT -5
No I’ve never found it in AL, but it’s quite abundant at Allatoona Lake in GA Edit: haven’t seen it star, but it is blue quartz in host quartz. Also there’s blue quartz in Granite in Cartersville, Georgia Thanks. I've seen some massive quartz from GA and VA with small blue crystals in white, but nothing blue from AL. Closest I've come is a gray quartz arrowhead that showed a slight bit of chatoyance. Nothing like the pieces the state website has shown (both cabbed with stars and raw xtls). Recall a club that went looking a decade ago and were skunked. The guides say Cullman County, Madison County, Lauderdale County, etc., but none seems to relate any experiences of actually finding a piece. For something that is supposedly "common" and "cheap" and so widespread, it is weird that no one seems to have any. I'm thinking the guy who suggested it be renamed "Unicorn Quartz" may be onto something. Ha ha. Yeah Bill Friday within the club said some guy found a small deposit near Florence(?) and nobody has found any openly since.
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floridatom
off to a rocking start
Member since April 2023
Posts: 2
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Post by floridatom on Apr 22, 2023 22:16:08 GMT -5
Anyone ever come up with any "Star Blue Quartz" along the Flint or Tennessee (or a bit south into Cullman County)? It's Alabama's "State Gemstone" and according to the state it is "common" and from those parts. However common it may be, I've yet to come across anyone who has ever seen, let alone found, any pieces. One of those nagging questions that has been bothering me for years. The only blue macrocrystalline quartz of any size I've seen has come from elsewhere (plus treated stuff and glass from China). No I’ve never found it in AL, but it’s quite abundant at Allatoona Lake in GA Edit: haven’t seen it star, but it is blue quartz in host quartz. Also there’s blue quartz in Granite in Cartersville, Georgia
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floridatom
off to a rocking start
Member since April 2023
Posts: 2
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Post by floridatom on Apr 22, 2023 22:18:46 GMT -5
Anyone ever come up with any "Star Blue Quartz" along the Flint or Tennessee (or a bit south into Cullman County)? It's Alabama's "State Gemstone" and according to the state it is "common" and from those parts. However common it may be, I've yet to come across anyone who has ever seen, let alone found, any pieces. One of those nagging questions that has been bothering me for years. The only blue macrocrystalline quartz of any size I've seen has come from elsewhere (plus treated stuff and glass from China). No I’ve never found it in AL, but it’s quite abundant at Allatoona Lake in GA Edit: haven’t seen it star, but it is blue quartz in host quartz. Also there’s blue quartz in Granite in Cartersville, Georgia You won't find it along the flint river. You will find blue flint though. I have found it in Jackson's gap, tallapoosa county weathered out of a road cut on 280.
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