Rock Hounds Unite

[freeztar]

I had the pleasure of doing an erosion inspection on a mine that is in the process of remediation. It was shut down many years ago after many years of operation (I don't know the exact dates obviously, but this mine area had several relics (old glass medicine bottle [with seam] and light-rail that was decrepit and very simple in appearance) that made us assume 1930's or before.

 

Anyhow, I had my nose in the dirt the whole time, looking for a good specimen of Barite as this area of the mine processed the calcium barite to obtain barium (for rat poison mainly). I found a good specimen (pocket size) and managed to find a couple other nice "take-me-home"s.

 

Without further ado....

 

Barite (Cartersville, GA)

 

Chlorite Schist (not certain)

 

Mystery "green thing"

I suspect it is some type of plastic, but I've no clue what it is exactly. :)

[Thunderbird]

Freeztar, I brought in a disc to download some photos but it is a tif file so its not working, I will have to scan photos to get the frog carvings up. You were asking about gem carving with carnelian agate.

Agate is a hard gemstone as you know. I like to carve in a sink with a steady stream of water in contact with the cutting area. Get a good size diamond cutting wheel, {Expect to pay about 50$} Start with a course grain, And a set of sintered bits for detailing, Again these are not cheap.

There is a good reason most people give up on carving hard gems, as you know when you tried nothing seemed to be happening except maybe some discolored water coming from the area being cut. This is a slow process, If you can do some preliminary shaping with a saw or grinder this will help. My advice is to start with a small piece that already has a interesting shape and work from there.

You were talking about interesting anecdotes at the beginning of the thread , About 4yrs ago at our local rock swap I walked up to a stand were they had a row of large specimens, right in the middle sat a large piece of Burmese jadeite. This particular jadeite is whitish green with dark specks called “Moss in Snow” This is a nice jade but nothing to write home about , but on the outside edge was a vein of something that occurs in this particular type of jade. an intense dark emerald green of Imperial Jade !! this is something you just do not find in the rough . With out thinking I pointed at it and stammered at the women behind the counter W-w-what’s that? She picked it up gave it a quick look and said she would find out, and started across to another booth. I almost panicked. This type of rough stone is so hard to find, but also very hard to gauge the price of, since the uncut gemmy material is difficult to appraise until it is cut and polished, and I wanted to be the one doing it!! I had her hand it to me and told her it is was jade, “ what are you asking?” “Oh! do you like jade ?” she reaches under the counter and opens a 21-12 wooden box with a nice collection of nephrite and jadeite jade. I pulled out my wallet I had about 30 bucks, she accepted it. When I arrived home and cut out of the vein it yielded about 50-70 carets of good quality emerald green jade, that I gave to the women in my family in the form of 5 cabochon pendants. They probably didn't believe me when I told them that they would run about 600$ apiece at the jewelries.

 

Check out this site; Lawrence Stoller - CrystalWorks | Lapidary Art - Quartz crystal jewelry and sculptures

[Thunderbird]

We are having our annual rock swap this summer if anyone is interested. There will be appox 60 vendors attending.

 

Missouri Mines Rock Swap

Park Hills. Mo. June 13-14-15 P..M me for more information.

[freeztar]

Freeztar, I brought in a disc to download some photos but it is a tif file so its not working, I will have to scan photos to get the frog carvings up. You were asking about gem carving with carnelian agate.

Agate is a hard gemstone as you know. I like to carve in a sink with a steady stream of water in contact with the cutting area. Get a good size diamond cutting wheel, {Expect to pay about 50$} Start with a course grain, And a set of sintered bits for detailing, Again these are not cheap.

There is a good reason most people give up on carving hard gems, as you know when you tried nothing seemed to be happening except maybe some discolored water coming from the area being cut. This is a slow process, If you can do some preliminary shaping with a saw or grinder this will help. My advice is to start with a small piece that already has a interesting shape and work from there.

 

Thanks, that explains a lot. I was working with really small and cheap wheels and was not using water. :hihi:

 

You were talking about interesting anecdotes at the beginning of the thread , About 4yrs ago at our local rock swap I walked up to a stand were they had a row of large specimens, right in the middle sat a large piece of Burmese jadeite. This particular jadeite is whitish green with dark specks called “Moss in Snow” This is a nice jade but nothing to write home about , but on the outside edge was a vein of something that occurs in this particular type of jade. an intense dark emerald green of Imperial Jade !! this is something you just do not find in the rough . With out thinking I pointed at it and stammered at the women behind the counter W-w-what’s that? She picked it up gave it a quick look and said she would find out, and started across to another booth. I almost panicked. This type of rough stone is so hard to find, but also very hard to gauge the price of, since the uncut gemmy material is difficult to appraise until it is cut and polished, and I wanted to be the one doing it!! I had her hand it to me and told her it is was jade, “ what are you asking?” “Oh! do you like jade ?” she reaches under the counter and opens a 21-12 wooden box with a nice collection of nephrite and jadeite jade. I pulled out my wallet I had about 30 bucks, she accepted it. When I arrived home and cut out of the vein it yielded about 50-70 carets of good quality emerald green jade, that I gave to the women in my family in the form of 5 cabochon pendants. They probably didn't believe me when I told them that they would run about 600$ apiece at the jewelries.

I love it when people don't know what they are selling and you're able to get a good deal. I had a similar experience with a peice of tri-color tourmaline. It is virtually perfect, with very few inclusions and a perfect, intact termination. I bought it for $15 (I would have bought more, but I only had $20 with me). I later returned with a mineral-loving friend and we planned to buy all the peices they had. When we got there, the price tag was $150 a peice and the owner explained that they had been mis-priced.

 

Random question: How workable is zincite? I know it's relatively soft, but I've got several peices of it that are beautiful and would look great in jewelry.

Check out this site; Lawrence Stoller - CrystalWorks | Lapidary Art - Quartz crystal jewelry and sculptures

Very nice! :doh:

[freeztar]

We are having our annual rock swap this summer if anyone is interested. There will be appox 60 vendors attending.

 

Missouri Mines Rock Swap

Park Hills. Mo. June 13-14-15 P..M me for more information.

 

I wish I could go, but that's a LONG drive for me.

My town has a couple rock swaps a year. They're a little smaller than that one, but still lots of fun. I really can't wait to make it back to Tuscon. If you've never been, it's impossible to describe. I was there for three days and probably saw a tenth of what was there. :hihi:

[DFINITLYDISTRUBD]

One of my fave hobbies.

I enjoy making arrowheads from flint and obsidian. I've also collected them (and other artifacts) since I was 10.

 

I also love going rock hunting particularly down around Belefont Pa. Excelent source of trilobites and other nifty fosilized critters.

 

Montoursville has always been good for pyrite, quartz and amethyst.

 

Williamsport -quartz, amethyst, pyrite and geods of various sorts.

 

Herkemer NY. is on my must go list for Herkemer diamonds (they're really quartz or something like it but are known for their odd crystal shape and clarity)

 

As for cutting you NEED, absolutely MUST HAVE Tungsten/carbide cutting implements....and not the cheesey plated crap but the real deal...they're a bit costly BUT

far more durable than anything else you can get your hands on!

 

Also are you cutting dry or wet...it makes a big difference on tool life (keep your tool cool and it will last a good deal longer, I use the same cutting lube/coolant that I use at work for milling hardened steel and stainless) and to varying degrees the final quality of the cut.

[freeztar]

Cool, if I ever make it up to PA, I'll check out some of those places.

 

And yes, Herkimer "diamonds" are really quartz. I haven't been there myself, but my ex went and brought me back some nice peices. The basalt it forms in is extremely dense (hard), so I've chosen to just leave the vugs in the matrix. :hihi:

[Thunderbird]

Thanks, that explains a lot. I was working with really small and cheap wheels and was not using water.

 

 

 

 

Random question: How workable is zincite ? I know it's relatively soft, but I've got several peices of it that are beautiful and would look great in jewelry.

 

Very nice! :doh:

 

 

Had to look up zincite, It said it is 4 on the hardness scale so you would be able to cut relatively easy but it does not strike me as a gemmy material.

The carnelian however is wonderful for "insitu" carvings, its where you take a piece that contains an area of gemmy material surrounded by a dark matrix. Carve around the gemmy part to where you keep the subject embedded in the matrix. A have a translucent salamander perched on an opaque matrix base that I carved, also a ruby frog imbedded in its natural matrix of bright green zoisite carved into a bush.

 

These types of carving are relatively easy to do and are very sought after, the problem is finding the right piece, with the right ratio of gemmy to matrix.

 

 

This is one of my other favorite called internal or reverse carving by another artist Susan Allen. Extremely difficult to pull off. :hihi:

 

 

 

 

 

Artist : Susan Allen

Title : The Large Shaman

Materials : Internal Carving - Depicting a shaman and petroglyphs in clear quartz with phantom at base

Artist : Susan Allen

[Thunderbird]

I wish I could go, but that's a LONG drive for me. ;)

My town has a couple rock swaps a year. They're a little smaller than that one, but still lots of fun. I really can't wait to make it back to Tuscon. If you've never been, it's impossible to describe. I was there for three days and probably saw a tenth of what was there. :)

 

I haven't been to Tucson yet but that is were I will need to go to sell some carvings and find more materials. I should have went last month since the fish was in the Tuson Guide this year but mabe next year. My favorite place to visit is Cherokee north Carolina @ Pedro's Gem Shop.

[freeztar]

Had to look up zincite, It said it is 4 on the hardness scale so you would be able to cut relatively easy but it does not strike me as a gemmy material.

 

It can be gemmy. 3.69 ct ULTRARARE DARK GOLDEN - ZINCITE - INVESTMENT - eBay (item 190199798644 end time Mar-08-08 17:06:00 PST)

My main concern is it fracturing.

The carnelian however is wonderful for "insitu" carvings, its where you take a piece that contains an area of gemmy material surrounded by a dark matrix. Carve around the gemmy part to where you keep the subject embedded in the matrix. A have a translucent salamander perched on an opaque matrix base that I carved, also a ruby frog imbedded in its natural matrix of bright green zoisite carved into a bush.

Nice, I can't wait to see these pictures!

 

These types of carving are relatively easy to do...

 

You are severely underestimating my lack of talent. ;)

 

This is one of my other favorite called internal or reverse carving by another artist Susan Allen. Extremely difficult to pull off. :)

That's a beautiful peice.

I've seen those before at shows. Is it done with a laser?

[Thunderbird]

Nice, I can't wait to see these pictures!

 

 

 

You are severely underestimating my lack of talent. :)

 

 

That's a beautiful peice.

I've seen those before at shows. Is it done with a laser?

 

You never know your talent until your fulfill your obsessions,

I called Susan in Colorado to ask how she did it. She said you use long carving bits from the back end, and a small sand blaster to frost in the texture.

The link to the web site is down for the moment.

 

The ones you see in gift shops are made with lasers in an acrylic. They go for about 12$ Susan's hand carved Quartz piece run around 6-8 thousand a piece.

[Lilybean]

I once spent the day in a farmers field in South Dakota digging up shark's teeth, if you can imagine that! There were oodles of em! Now I have a huge round rock (abt half the size of a bowling ball) and I'm just sure it's a geode. I wish I knew how I could get it cut in half to see if I'm right! I also wish there were rock hound tour buses that took you to a good spot and let you dig for a few hours and brought you home. I have a transportation problem.

[freeztar]

Hey Lilybean, welcome! :)

 

I once spent the day in a farmers field in South Dakota digging up shark's teeth, if you can imagine that! There were oodles of em!

Cool, I've never had the luck to find a shark tooth.

 

Now I have a huge round rock (abt half the size of a bowling ball) and I'm just sure it's a geode. I wish I knew how I could get it cut in half to see if I'm right!

 

If you go to a rock and gem show, they sometimes have rock saws there and they will cut just about anything for a small fee ($2-5).

Do you have a picture of the rock? Geodes have a certain peculiar look about them. You should be able to see some sparkles if it is a geode.

Also, you can crack the geode.

How To Break Open A Geode!

 

I also wish there were rock hound tour buses that took you to a good spot and let you dig for a few hours and brought you home. I have a transportation problem.

 

That's a great idea! Unfortunately (fortunately?), I don't think the demand is high enough.

 

What you can do is join a local rock club. They plan field trips and I'm sure you could hitch a ride with someone. I used to do that as a kid and it was great fun (I should probably sign up again now).

[Lilybean]

Thanks for your reply & ideas. I didn't know that a rock show might have cutting services, plus I thought it would cost a fortune. I can definately afford a few bucks though. I've never investigated a rock show...but I am going to now!

 

My geode (or possible geode) is quite round, a little granite-looking and definately has a "glint" to it.

 

Lily

[freeztar]

Thanks for your reply & ideas. I didn't know that a rock show might have cutting services, plus I thought it would cost a fortune. I can definately afford a few bucks though. I've never investigated a rock show...but I am going to now!

 

This is a good place to find one near you.

Rock and Gem Magazine

 

My geode (or possible geode) is quite round, a little granite-looking and definately has a "glint" to it.

Does it feel lighter than it should? If so, you might be correct.

Where did you find it?

[Lilybean]

Oh yes, It's quite a bit lighter than you'd expect it to be. I have a few geodes that I've accumulated from who knows where - and these are split open - and this large round one appears outwardly similar. It's also kind of bumpy and has something of an odd bellyband around it that is a little lighter and the bumps are smaller and closer than the main body on either side. I can't remember where I found it. My head is perpetually down where-ever I go. You can always tell a rockhound - they are always kicking and scruffing in the dirt and bending over every few steps! LOL! I have some egg sized round rocks that might also be geodes. (sorry - no camera) I can't wait for a rock show now. Thanks for the suggestion. I'm getting re-enthused.

[Thunderbird]

Moved from frogs are amazing.

I use a foredom flex shaft power tool. with diamond grinding bits. I will scan some photos of the frogs and get them up as soon as I get time. The fish took two years to carve from one large Montana Moss Agate cobble. I have also done bisons in ruby and jade, birds in quartz crystal, Catfish in white/brown jade.

 

 

Colored Stone: the 2008 Gemmy Awards