Mark K
Cave Dweller
Member since April 2012
Posts: 2,589
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Post by Mark K on Jan 27, 2024 23:05:09 GMT -5
A little flattireite, a little bit of purple. Not everything is perfect, but lots is really good. IMG_2798 by mrk525, on Flickr
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Mark K
Cave Dweller
Member since April 2012
Posts: 2,589
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Post by Mark K on Jan 27, 2024 23:05:39 GMT -5
...washed out colors in the photo......
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rockbrain
Cave Dweller
Member since January 2022
Posts: 2,519
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Post by rockbrain on Jan 28, 2024 20:40:55 GMT -5
The 3 on the right look quite familiar!
On a different note, for a lapidary forum's official thread we really should spell Quartzsite right.
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Post by Bob on Jan 29, 2024 10:50:02 GMT -5
The spelling looks ok to me.
Only 18" saw!
Had good luck in finding some high quality psilomelane at the PowWow. It was the same guy that sold me some terrible last year, and he confused to that it was crumbly and he had bought it from some traveling guy that had deceived him. He seems honest and I believe him. So he let me get his best pieces though I only got 4-5 of them.
One funny thing happened on the west side of the PowWow when I was leaving. I saw a pan of something familiar that shocked me and exclaimed "Wow, where in the world did you get those Yangtze River agates? They look just like the ones I find at Nanjing, Yichang, or near Suzhou!" He looked at me speechless and maybe isn't used to someone appearing that knew what they were. He replied "from Nanjing." We talked a lot and it was fun.
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Post by Bob on Jan 30, 2024 11:15:59 GMT -5
The 3 on the right look quite familiar! On a different note, for a lapidary forum's official thread we really should spell Quartzsite right. Well, I have to confess now that I've enjoyed a day passing. Since I had started the thread, I had to ability to edit the name and I added the s after seeing your message!
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Post by parfive on Jan 30, 2024 11:34:51 GMT -5
On a different note, for a lapidary forum's official thread we really should spell Quartzsite right. Of coarse.
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rockbrain
Cave Dweller
Member since January 2022
Posts: 2,519
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Post by rockbrain on Jan 30, 2024 15:58:37 GMT -5
The 3 on the right look quite familiar! On a different note, for a lapidary forum's official thread we really should spell Quartzsite right. Well, I have to confess now that I've enjoyed a day passing. Since I had started the thread, I had to ability to edit the name and I added the s after seeing your message! Thanks, I was wondering what was up with your other post and the time stamped edit! I thought you were trying to gaslight me! I didn't realize it had a Z in it until I did the Google maps search.
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Post by Bob on Jan 30, 2024 18:42:32 GMT -5
Well, I have to confess now that I've enjoyed a day passing. Since I had started the thread, I had to ability to edit the name and I added the s after seeing your message! Thanks, I was wondering what was up with your other post and the time stamped edit! I thought you were trying to gaslight me! I didn't realize it had a Z in it until I did the Google maps search. I never knew until now that edits were time stamped. Nice sleuthing. I don't think I've ever spelled it correctly on first try.
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Post by Bob on Feb 2, 2024 11:51:19 GMT -5
I got a large haul from the desert and a small haul from the PowWow. At Tyson Wells, I got my daypack on, and started walking, w/o stopping but just gazing, all the north-south booth columns, starting on the east side but staying north of that main road that crosses through it east west. Since I know my walking speed, I had walked 2 miles when I stopped and estimate I had only seen perhaps 1/2 of all the booths. About half were closed. I stopped the survey after realizing the further west that I got the fewer rock sellers. When I asked a couple of booths about this and they visited with me, it became clear that the local take is to go Desert Gardens for rocks, go to PowWow for certain types of rocks sometimes of higher quality and pricier, and go to Tyson Wells for anything else. That anything else looks to me like about everything in the world needed to operate an RVer life. I'll never forget passing one huge booth that was nothing but gloves. Another was nothing but RV cooking stuff. I saw products in Tyson Wells I've never seen in any Walmart. Found a camo boonie hat in my size at one booth that specialized in military boonie hats! I saw her slip something in the sack and later that day found a note she had written that she is a Christian and wants me to know that and that I also be saved and I really like that. At the top is the inferno jasper. In the middle is that Laguna agate. Lower left is the high quality and very heavy psilomelane. I knew that lapis was high quality and selling for only $30/kg was a steal. I got just a bit more than 1kg and wish I had got several kgs. The quality is even higher than I thought now that it been washed and examined carefully. There is hardly any calcite and the blue is very dark. The calcite layer on a few sides is only 1-2mm thick and will be gone in a week or two of rough grind. Very excited about this lapis! The Arab guy selling it had me laughing so hard I could hardly concentrate on finding some pieces. He was saying things like "Oh, it's so beautiful! Even I am in love with it! Don't you want to cuddle it like a baby! To kiss it! To marry it! It's so pretty and blue!" There were others at his booth laughing. Frankly, his was such high quality that all those exclamations he was making were truthful.
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realrockhound
Cave Dweller
Member since June 2020
Posts: 2,883
Member is Online
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Post by realrockhound on Feb 2, 2024 13:55:43 GMT -5
Was dojacat sleeping at quartzite
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hplcman
spending too much on rocks
Just getting into this....
Member since August 2022
Posts: 414
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Post by hplcman on Feb 2, 2024 14:03:17 GMT -5
I got a large haul from the desert and a small haul from the PowWow. At Tyson Wells, I got my daypack on, and started walking, w/o stopping but just gazing, all the north-south booth columns, starting on the east side but staying north of that main road that crosses through it east west. Since I know my walking speed, I had walked 2 miles when I stopped and estimate I had only seen perhaps 1/2 of all the booths. About half were closed. I stopped the survey after realizing the further west that I got the fewer rock sellers. When I asked a couple of booths about this and they visited with me, it became clear that the local take is to go Desert Gardens for rocks, go to PowWow for certain types of rocks sometimes of higher quality and pricier, and go to Tyson Wells for anything else. That anything else looks to me like about everything in the world needed to operate an RVer life. I'll never forget passing one huge booth that was nothing but gloves. Another was nothing but RV cooking stuff. I saw products in Tyson Wells I've never seen in any Walmart. Found a camo boonie hat in my size at one booth that specialized in military boonie hats! I saw her slip something in the sack and later that day found a note she had written that she is a Christian and wants me to know that and that I also be saved and I really like that. At the top is the inferno jasper. In the middle is that Laguna agate. Lower left is the high quality and very heavy psilomelane. I knew that lapis was high quality and selling for only $30/kg was a steal. I got just a bit more than 1kg and wish I had got several kgs. The quality is even higher than I thought now that it been washed and examined carefully. There is hardly any calcite and the blue is very dark. The calcite layer on a few sides is only 1-2mm thick and will be gone in a week or two of rough grind. Very excited about this lapis! The Arab guy selling it had me laughing so hard I could hardly concentrate on finding some pieces. He was saying things like "Oh, it's so beautiful! Even I am in love with it! Don't you want to cuddle it like a baby! To kiss it! To marry it! It's so pretty and blue!" There were others at his booth laughing. Frankly, his was such high quality that all those exclamations he was making were truthful. What a great post! Thanks for making me laugh. Sounds like the guy selling the lapis was a hoot. May I ask what you're going to do with that lapis? I think it's such a beautiful rock (and the ones you have are top notch), but I don't know if I would tumble them or not..
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Post by Bob on Feb 2, 2024 15:17:52 GMT -5
May I ask what you're going to do with that lapis? I think it's such a beautiful rock (and the ones you have are top notch), but I don't know if I would tumble them or not.. I have not tumbled but perhaps 10 pieces of lapis in a decade, and most of isn't of this quality. I've had mixed results. It sometimes cracks in rough grind, and I've never known for sure if the cracks were already there or they developed due to other rocks banging on them in rough grind. I've never had enough lapis to tumble a barrel full of just it. In fact, because it's special and expensive, I've never tumbled but one piece at a time with other stuff. I've ended up letting it run in 220 for a long time, so that it gets surrounded by material that is already rounded and smooth. The results have been satisfactory, even if not the usual great shine. The surface isn't perfect, but seems to always have tiny pores on it. My research shows that it's a combo of lazurite (Mohs 5.0-5.5), calcite (3.0), sodalite (5.5-6.0) and pyrite (6.0-6.5) and overall is given a 5.0-6.0. So it's not surprising that it is hard to tumble polish. The ones I've done though, even if not a super shine, have a nice semi-shine and are gorgeous rocks in a bowl. People always reach for them. This is, per the seller, the Persian/Afghanistan version which is really primo stuff. But the literature says it's not supposed to have any calcite so maybe this is really the Russian/Siberian type being sold as Persian. I've seen the Chilean material in the markets in Santiago, and it's not near as pretty as the other types if you, like me, favor the intense, dark blue.
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