Post by tims on Jun 30, 2018 7:18:46 GMT -5
I like hunting buffalo stones ... individual baculite segments that in profile resemble a bison. They're usually muddy gray, but I've found what I think are calcite replacement in consistent light and medium tans and a darker brown, plus a few I believe are chalcedony in translucent gray, a couple with just a hint of purple hue. On my latest hunt earlier this Spring I found my first white specimen, and an artifact which I will always regret not photographing in situ.
Here is the haul ... mostly muddy grays and a few each of the tan / brown calcites. You might spot the teaser selenite which at first glance was to be my first ever arrowhead spotted in the wild ...
Closeup of the elusive white buffalo ... haven't acid tested but am guessing calcite.
And now skip to the pic to avoid story time. I always wear a molle vest when hounding, with 4 big front pockets for rocks, a canteen pouch on the left hip and hammer loop on the right. It was a warm day so I had my canteen topped up, which when full balances the rig nicely with my estwing hammer opposite. That day I'd been walking maybe half an hour when my vest started irritating my shoulder, hanging to the left, and that's when I realized I'd left my hammer in the truck. I was far enough away from the vehicle, and the baculite segments always being surface finds atop soft shale, that I couldn't bring myself to plod back to the truck. The area also has many shalestone outcroppings that often hold more intact, nacred baculite specimens, but I was hunting buffalo. I don't need no stinking hammer. And so for the next hour or so every time I knelt to flip or pick a rock, or took a few steps through the sagebrush, I'd feel my off-kilter rig digging deeper into my shoulder, and I'd cuss myself for the empty hammer loop. It was finally getting irritating enough that I started back for the truck, and topping a little hill there was a shattered pile of gray slatestone, and laying atop it was this hammer. I don't know if it was left behind on accident, or if the temper of its previous owner and the wooden handle decided to break at the same time, but it slotted fine into my hammer loop and had me grinning the rest of the afternoon. My one remaining regret for the day was also leaving my phone in the truck and not having a photo of this abandoned tool as it lay.
This is arid country, and while the exposed side is worn and pitted, the underside is still smooth iron. Still I couldn't see any sign of a maker's mark. No idea of age or how to estimate it. Pic sadly not as found: