freeztar Posted March 15, 2008 Author Report Share Posted March 15, 2008 There is blue & white banded agate & drussy quartz too, and all of it in a jumble on top of the dike it formed in. I have never collected anymore than what I found on the ground, but properly motivated ($$$) I would go in and at it with prybar & hammer. :hihi: Since you mention blue agate, I have to mention Ellensburg Blue and Holly Blue, both from around your parts. :( This blue agate is fairly highly praised and can fetch a good price if the quality is good. $$ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Turtle Posted March 15, 2008 Report Share Posted March 15, 2008 Since you mention blue agate, I have to mention Ellensburg Blue and Holly Blue, both from around your parts. :) This blue agate is fairly highly praised and can fetch a good price if the quality is good. $$ OK, that clinches it. :( First trip of the year into the mountains is going to be a foray to the secret gem deposit. :hihi: When I hear Ellensburg these days, the next thing pops into my mind is Mel's hole, as it is just outside of town. :( A buddy of mine bought a water-cooled tile saw a while back and I was thinking of trying it to cut some stock out of my rock. How do you guys think that will work? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
freeztar Posted March 15, 2008 Author Report Share Posted March 15, 2008 A buddy of mine bought a water-cooled tile saw a while back and I was thinking of trying it to cut some stock out of my rock. How do you guys think that will work? :hihi: I'm not too familiar with tile saws, but I'm sure you would need a special blade to be able to dig into jasper and such. Ceramic is way softer than jasper or agate. :( Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Turtle Posted March 15, 2008 Report Share Posted March 15, 2008 I'm not too familiar with tile saws, but I'm sure you would need a special blade to be able to dig into jasper and such. Ceramic is way softer than jasper or agate. :( He was cutting stone bathroom floor-tiles with it; not sure if they were natural or cultured. :hihi: I will find out what kind of blade it has & such, and he may still have an instruction book for it. It is a circular blade (it may pivot up & down like a chop saw?), and there is a sliding table to hold the stock & feed into the saw. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thunderbird Posted March 15, 2008 Report Share Posted March 15, 2008 I'm not too familiar with tile saws, but I'm sure you would need a special blade to be able to dig into jasper and such. Ceramic is way softer than jasper or agate. :hihi: The tile saw is what I use, and they use diamond blades. I use it to cut Up to 9 on the hardness scale. They can also be used as a grinder. There great. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thunderbird Posted March 15, 2008 Report Share Posted March 15, 2008 OK Got there. Takk. Since the Missouri stone only comes from the one place in Missouri, I could either call this 'Mock Missouri Dreamstone', or name it something different. :hihi: I have concern abought the veining as well in that piece. There is wide variability in the gem material at the site; some shiny, some dull, some with veins, some without. There is blue & white banded agate & drussy quartz too, and all of it in a jumble on top of the dike it formed in. I have never collected anymore than what I found on the ground, but properly motivated ($$$) I would go in and at it with prybar & hammer. :(The Missouri Dreamstone is Very similar in color and pattern but the mineral is completely different, It looks similar to picture agate. When I see rough like this it makes me wonder what it looks like cut and polished. If the material has soft spots it would be more difficult to finish but not impossible. The really intersting question is what varites can be found in this deposit and what are the possibilites. Its just fun to find your own rough straight from the earth and then make something original from it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Turtle Posted March 16, 2008 Report Share Posted March 16, 2008 The Missouri Dreamstone is Very similar in color and pattern but the mineral is completely different, It looks similar to picture agate. When I see rough like this it makes me wonder what it looks like cut and polished. If the material has soft spots it would be more difficult to finish but not impossible. The really intersting question is what varites can be found in this deposit and what are the possibilites. Its just fun to find your own rough straight from the earth and then make something original from it. Now I'm thinking I should rent snowshoes and get going. :) :( I actually found the cache tracking the gold in some placer claims I owned. The surface material is variable & mostly flat plate-sized grayish stone, with the gem stuff broken, littered, and rotting amongst the plate material. Finding larger intact solid pieces is going to take some concerted digging. :( I never got an assay, but the gold is there as flour size particles in the minerals and even at today's prices, not worth the expense to recover it. Sounds like the smart thing is to get the gems, something I have found no reference to in the historical literature of the area. :hihi: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Turtle Posted March 16, 2008 Report Share Posted March 16, 2008 Never feed the turtle before midnight! :hihi:I do still have a piece of that flat stone, about 5 pounds I think. I use it under a plant pot. :( I just went out in the downpour & brought it in & scrubbed it up and it is now drying. Before the night is out, I'll have a little video showing its shape, texture, resonance, and some close-ups of the grain structure & maybe even a speck of gold. :( Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Turtle Posted March 16, 2008 Report Share Posted March 16, 2008 ... Before the night is out, I'll have a little video showing its shape, texture, resonance, and some close-ups of the grain structure & maybe even a speck of gold. Okee-dokey. :camera: I forgot to give the stone a good whack for the reasonance sound, but you can hear a bit of its 'ting' when I lay the ruler on it. My camera won't do any better of a macro than I have in the clip, and the circled inclusion is IMO either gold or platinum. I did have the occasional platinum flake show up in my pan, but the gold was always dust or flour and no flakes. I had a look at the circled inclusion with my loupe, and it has the character of a thin crust or film, not unlike what formed on the electrolyte in my electrolysis experiment (see photo below). YouTube - Cascade mountains rock http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m1oI3mUIzAU Rock hounds do it closer. :D Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Turtle Posted March 18, 2008 Report Share Posted March 18, 2008 On the piece of chalcedony, I found it is far too full of fractures to yield any workable pieces larger than a couple mm. :( I put the moto-tool cutting wheel to it and it wasn't pretty. :eek: Also in looking at it with the loupe, it has quite a few minute circular/spherical pockets, as does the grey matrix rock. :cheer: I'm now thinking that this formation cooled rather quickly, that is if the sphericals are gas bubbles rather than the result of bacterial action. Enthusiasm up...enthusiasm down. :phones: For some reason I was reading about feldspars and I recalled something about giant feldspar crystals so I went a Googlin' and came on this article on the largest known/recorded crystals on Earth. Large CrystalsAbstract No upper limit on the size of crystals is to be expected, but the dimensions and occurrences of the largest known crystals in each of twenty-four categories (nine classes) of minerals are presented and discussed. The largest authenticated crystal of any type is a beryl from Malakialina, Malagasy Republic, being 18 m in length, 3.5 m in diameter, having a volume estimated at 143 m3 and a mass approximately 380,000 kg.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Turtle Posted March 18, 2008 Report Share Posted March 18, 2008 Hey Thunderbird!? Do you have a carving underway? Whatcha' workin' on? My crumbly jasper and your carving has put me in mind to smash it up with a hammer and try a mosaic. :oh_really:Ever done any mosaics? Do you see any of it at the gem shows? :hihi: That's all I got. ;) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thunderbird Posted March 18, 2008 Report Share Posted March 18, 2008 I have been carving a sperm whale tooth into a sperm whale attacking a giant squid. I would dearly love to do a mosaic out of gems and have made several in my mind, and a tiffiny style lampshade with translucent gem slabs but I do not have the equipment or rough. Here is some big crystals. Great article BTW. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thunderbird Posted March 19, 2008 Report Share Posted March 19, 2008 This is another veiw of the giant topaz crystals, like the one above. BTW the center cut topaz in the pic above was found in the rough at a rock swap amongst some other rough. Talk about not knowing what you have. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thunderbird Posted March 19, 2008 Report Share Posted March 19, 2008 One of my favorite's Lawrence Stoller, Kundalini"Kundalini is a Sanskrit term that refers to the latent source of energy residing at the base of the spine in each of us," says Stoller, "and activating this energy is the goal of those in the quest of enlightenment." Stoller was able to release this "energy" from a 17,026-ct. orange citrine that he discovered on a recent trip to Brazil. The crystal was one of the most intriguing stones that he ever laid his eyes upon. "It was the darkest, most densely color-saturated crystal I have ever seen. I couldn't pass even a high-wattage halogen light through it," he says. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thunderbird Posted March 19, 2008 Report Share Posted March 19, 2008 Larry Woods, Abstract Organic Amethyst Carving Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thunderbird Posted March 19, 2008 Report Share Posted March 19, 2008 Darryl Alexander First PlaceAre You My Mom?Arizona black jade, pristine (shell), and fossilized ivory (horns). 43mm x 35mm x 35mm. 358.5 carats. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thunderbird Posted June 11, 2008 Report Share Posted June 11, 2008 Check this out lapidary on a larger scale. http://http://crystalworks.com/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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