USMC15
Cave Dweller 
I feel like I just came out of the tumbler ...
Member since March 2021
Posts: 273
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Post by USMC15 on Mar 25, 2021 0:05:22 GMT -5
I hope I can find some Jasper as nice as those. Finding anything worthwhile would be a positive. Not around these parts you won't...  What? No Jasper? ONLY AGATE!? |
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Post by jasoninsd on Mar 25, 2021 1:37:10 GMT -5
Not around these parts you won't... What? No Jasper? ONLY AGATE!? Not THAT kind of jasper! |
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Post by hummingbirdstones on May 7, 2021 21:09:24 GMT -5
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Post by jasoninsd on May 7, 2021 21:16:33 GMT -5
Here's what I think: I need to figure out how to make a trip out to California and meet up with you and stephan and go out hounding for some material like this!  I absolutely love all the healed fracture lines in this piece! In fact, I love everything about this particular piece! There's something so breathtaking about brecciated material. To my absolutely untrained eye, it looks like a hybrid between Stoney Creek and Stone Canyon Brecciated Jasper. I recently cut slabs for another member on the forum. He bought the piece being told it was Stone Canyon. I had never seen opaque greyish brown chalcedony in any other Stone Canyon (again, I'm not that experienced - but I've looked at tons of pics! LOL). I think what was in his material looks wickedly similar as to what's in yours. Of course, it's probably NOT the same stuff...but it sure does look similar! Here's some pics of what I cut:      |
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Post by stephan on May 7, 2021 21:53:04 GMT -5
Ok, fine, jasoninsd, I’ll come up for air. I also have a hunk that was labeled as “Stone Canyon Jasper,” which has that black/gray material. Maybe even some of the brown. I’d been hoping it was surface oxidation, but maybe not. Not all SCJ is above average (or it would be Lake Wobegon jasper...). That type of breccia also occurs along much of the coast range, as the yellow jasper started out as radiolarian chert, and then geology happened (the Continental Plate sat on the Pacific Plate, as our shop foreman used to say [although, technically, it’s probably more accurate to say that the Pacific Plate tunneled under the Continental Plate like a wiener dog under a blanket]). I have found small pieces of very similar looking jasper at Lake Berryessa, about 300 miles North. There are differences in locales, but they aren’t 100% distinctive, so it can often be hard to tell. Anyway, a road-trip with you and @jadedvision sounds great. Tommy is really pretty nearby as well. So are a few other folks. |
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Tommy
Administrator 
Member since January 2013
Posts: 12,957
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Post by Tommy on May 7, 2021 22:18:41 GMT -5
jasoninsd ... Anyway, a road-trip with you and @jadedvision sounds great. Tommy is really pretty nearby as well. So are a few other folks. Work permitting I'm always up for a run up to Stoney Creek. We were up there a few weeks ago and only brought home a handful of rocks that look worth cutting. I cut this one today - had high hopes for the breccia and ended up with a weird yellow mossy agate/quartz in the center - and fractured badly. Oh well.   |
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Post by stephan on May 7, 2021 22:38:40 GMT -5
I hate it when that happens.  I bet the trip was still fun, though. |
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Post by jasoninsd on May 7, 2021 23:42:26 GMT -5
Here's what I think: I need to figure out how to make a trip out to California and meet up with you and stephan and go out hounding for some material like this! I absolutely love all the healed fracture lines in this piece! In fact, I love everything about this particular piece! There's something so breathtaking about brecciated material. To my absolutely untrained eye, it looks like a hybrid between Stoney Creek and Stone Canyon Brecciated Jasper. I recently cut slabs for another member on the forum. He bought the piece being told it was Stone Canyon. I had never seen opaque greyish brown chalcedony in any other Stone Canyon (again, I'm not that experienced - but I've looked at tons of pics! LOL). I think what was in his material looks wickedly similar as to what's in yours. Of course, it's probably NOT the same stuff...but it sure does look similar! Here's some pics of what I cut: I’m always up for an adventure! The grey in those brecciated pieces are similar to mine, and I agree with your description of it as Stoney/Stone Canyon mix. There’s a big deposit being sold out of India marketed as stone canyon. Funny you mention the India reference. I was cutting some other material for the same member...before this piece. He told me what he bought, and I told him it came from Pakistan. He didn't believe me at first, until he did some checking. I tried to cut the stuff from Pakistan and ended up with shattered pieces all over the saw. I tried two cuts and quit. It was so fractured it was beyond being able to be cut. Thankfully he paid less than $20 for the piece...a rather inexpensive lesson in the long run. |
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Post by jasoninsd on May 8, 2021 0:24:24 GMT -5
I’m not a seller, but the flood of low price finished cabs is what gets me. It’s hard to be ambitious about cutting designer cabochons of brecciated, nipomo agate, or royal imperial jasper while there are so many cheap cabs on the market. I totally understand what you're saying. It's one of the things that makes me apprehensive about selling any of my wire-wrapping just yet... Although, there must be a market out there... It reminds me of pool cues. I used to collect/sell/trade all kinds of pool cues. I quickly learned the difference between production pool cues and custom made pool cues. The exponential price margin between the two is similar to that of cabs (kind of). Production pool cues were a dime a dozen - figuratively of course. There was a "limited" market for the more expensive custom cues, but there were still buyers... I assume it has to be similar with handmade cabs and wire-wrapped projects. |
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Brian
fully equipped rock polisher
Member since July 2020
Posts: 1,512
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Post by Brian on May 8, 2021 5:54:12 GMT -5
You got some beautiful slabs off that one! 👍
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Post by stephan on May 8, 2021 10:08:46 GMT -5
That’s interesting. Not sure why, but some brecciated can be extremely unstable. I have cut slabs that looked amazing only to find them riddled with fractures a couple months later. Could be healed with opal, some of which crazes as dehydrates out when it’s exposed to air. |
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Post by stephan on May 8, 2021 21:24:33 GMT -5
Ok, I have to go grammar cop on myself. “Dehydrates out”? WTF?
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Post by stephan on May 9, 2021 1:52:24 GMT -5
Could be healed with opal, some of which crazes as dehydrates out when it’s exposed to air. I haven’t found any verifiable opal in any coastal range jasper myself, but I suspect water still might play a role in the unstable brecciated I’ve collected. I can say that there is a huge range of quartz that holds the breccia together, from opaque white quartz with a large crystal structure, to fine banded agate, to jasper of a different color. The stones that appear the most homogeneous seem to be the most stable. I’m curious if age has something to do with quartz versus chalcedony holding it together. Yup, I haven’t heard of definitive opal either. I almost called it “opalish material.” Just something about hydrated silica dehydrating makes sense to me. |
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Post by hummingbirdstones on May 9, 2021 9:53:46 GMT -5
Ok, I have to go grammar cop on myself. “Dehydrates out”? WTF?
I have to admit I thought the same thing last night when I read that.  |
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Brian
fully equipped rock polisher
Member since July 2020
Posts: 1,512
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Post by Brian on May 12, 2021 12:39:31 GMT -5
That is one incredible garden rock! It’s amazing how the one side looks so different from the other side. It must have led an interesting life!
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Post by Rockindad on May 12, 2021 17:09:26 GMT -5
Don't mind me, I just come to this thread occasionally to drool. I hope that last one is solid for you, looks fantastic!
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Post by jasoninsd on May 12, 2021 22:53:55 GMT -5
That last garden rock is just stunning. I'd definitely be up in the air on what to do with that one...slab it or leave it. I suppose I'd leave it for quite awhile, stare at, and wonder what's on the inside. My guess would be a lot of the same that's on the outside, so I might be inclined to leave that one and look for the rest of the family. |
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Post by jasoninsd on May 13, 2021 14:34:27 GMT -5
That last garden rock is just stunning. I'd definitely be up in the air on what to do with that one...slab it or leave it. I suppose I'd leave it for quite awhile, stare at, and wonder what's on the inside. My guess would be a lot of the same that's on the outside, so I might be inclined to leave that one and look for the rest of the family. Thanks. You guessed right, any jasper coming from lower river systems in the coast ranges generally has no rind so what you see is what you get. I like to look for jade in these areas because only the hardest pieces survive the journey from the source, where most the nice jasper has been collected because their bright colors stand out pretty well. I lucked out on this piece looking on an ancient alluvial bench on a hillside above the waterway I was searching for jade. I'm gonna start looking for jade if that's the kind of cool things you find jade hunting! (I don't believe there's any jade out in my neck of the woods...but if I "say" I'm jade hunting, maybe the Fairburns won't see me coming! LOL) |
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Post by Rockindad on May 13, 2021 17:34:51 GMT -5
Don't mind me, I just come to this thread occasionally to drool. I hope that last one is solid for you, looks fantastic! lol thanks! It’s solid, but I like the rock the way it is so I probably won’t cut the thing. Glad to know I’m not the only person who starts drooling when looking at potential slab saw food. Don't blame you. We have the "Maybe Someday" shelf of rocks and slabs that we just enjoy looking at and are not ready to process, but....maybe someday. |
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Post by jasoninsd on May 18, 2021 20:53:27 GMT -5
I thought I commented on these slabs! What the heck!?! I love this material! There's something so beautiful because of the brecciation, the healed fractures, the colors...and I like the differing "zones" which show differing levels of everything I just mentioned within these slabs. So cool!  |
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