Sabre52
Cave Dweller
Me and my gal, Rosie
Member since August 2005
Posts: 20,466
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Post by Sabre52 on Jun 24, 2014 8:24:38 GMT -5
Howdy folks, Had a chunk of shrinkwood in the vice that looked gorgeous and the dang thing broke up on me. Would have ruined my new blade if I had not caught it quickly. So I took it out, sharpened the blade and cut me a couple of Dryhead agates. If there ever was a site I wished was still open so I could spend a week there it would be the old Dryhead beds. I only had the chance to dig there one time and am still loving cutting nodules from that dig. Lots of duds ( first one I cut yesterday was all full of calcite with little agate) but when you get a good one.....wow! If any of you ever have the chance to buy Dryhead rough, remember the nodules with the smoothest exteriors tend to be duds. Those with rough ridges or bumps on the exterior, tend to be the good ones. The best ones will show indications of fortifications where the bumps on the exterior have been chipped or abraded and those are the ones to buy. Anyway, here are a couple more pics from last evening.......Mel The shrinkie and the sharpening slabs: The end cap and the first slab from the Dryhead: Next two slabs. As with most of these, a fracture showed up after slabbing. Dryheads, like Queenies, seem to have a lot of internal stresses in the nodules. The slabs will look good till a bit after they are cut and then, as they dry out, a fracture will show up. Still Ok for cabbing around the breaks though. Funny about these beds. The guy digging about 25 feet away from me was getting all nodules with a lot of orange banding. My hole yielded mostly these lighter colored examples.
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Post by roy on Jun 24, 2014 9:06:57 GMT -5
nice agates mel
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bsky4463
fully equipped rock polisher
Member since September 2013
Posts: 1,696
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Post by bsky4463 on Jun 24, 2014 10:08:46 GMT -5
Oh boy oh boy oh boy.....now we are talking. Those are exceptional specimens Mel. I LOVE DRYHEADS! and was totally not in the game when that action was going on. Man do I jones to go dig there. However, I was fortunate enough to finally pick up some rough this spring at an estate sale (thanks to the generosity of a friend passing the opportunity on down the line). Anyways, please post more when you cut them. Cheers.
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garock
fully equipped rock polisher
Member since February 2006
Posts: 1,168
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Post by garock on Jun 24, 2014 12:41:27 GMT -5
Love the dryheads two, too, to !
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QuailRiver
fully equipped rock polisher
Member since May 2008
Posts: 1,634
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Post by QuailRiver on Jun 24, 2014 12:57:59 GMT -5
Love those Dryheads! Slabbing those would be a great way to spend an afternoon! Larry C.
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cardiobill
freely admits to licking rocks
Member since March 2012
Posts: 879
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Post by cardiobill on Jun 24, 2014 13:49:50 GMT -5
A treat to look at Mel. Really nice
Bill
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Post by snowmom on Jun 24, 2014 15:31:26 GMT -5
beautiful!
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herchenx
Cave Dweller
Member since January 2012
Posts: 3,360
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Post by herchenx on Jun 24, 2014 20:08:56 GMT -5
Those are great, glad you saved the saw blade!
What is the deal on dryheads, are they all gone, is the area private and closed, is there a national monument there now?
I've seen a few in person and they are pretty.
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Sabre52
Cave Dweller
Me and my gal, Rosie
Member since August 2005
Posts: 20,466
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Post by Sabre52 on Jun 24, 2014 21:18:33 GMT -5
John, When I went there in the 70's the digs were a $35 dollar a day fee dig, which was expensive for those days. Shortly thereafter an outfit called Santiam lapidary bought it and closed it to collecting as they were mining rough for sale and a bead making enterprise. Far as I know, after that a big rancher bought the site and has so much money he's just totally closed it off. It is a friggin awesome area with tons of wild horses. We saw big herds driving in. I think there are digs on the REZ nearby too but that also is closed off. Dryheads are awesome but the digging was horrendous with about five feet of hard limestone/slate overburden and the nodules contain a really high proportion of either total duds or dang crystal or calcite centers which screw a lot of them up. As I've said, fractures are also common which is annoying as they spoil specimens and make them suitable only for slabbing and cabbing the broken sections. There was a different type of agate in the overburden which is kind of a multi geometric fortification type stuff in huge nodules. I could have taken out a ton of that but didn't, and have been kicking myself ever since..Mel
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roundrock
noticing nice landscape pebbles
Holding on to the Stone of Destiny
Member since June 2014
Posts: 91
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Post by roundrock on Jun 24, 2014 21:26:38 GMT -5
Really nice!
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Fossilman
Cave Dweller
Member since January 2009
Posts: 20,687
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Post by Fossilman on Jun 24, 2014 21:34:14 GMT -5
Awesome slabs....
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miander
spending too much on rocks
Searching for the shop of my dreams...
Member since November 2013
Posts: 407
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Post by miander on Jun 24, 2014 23:36:43 GMT -5
Wow, the samples in this post are so defined, crazy cellulose structure and the banding, zoiks!
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SJPatrick
starting to spend too much on rocks
2 1/2 years into rock hounding and I'm still a newbie!
Member since September 2013
Posts: 124
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Post by SJPatrick on Jun 25, 2014 23:23:41 GMT -5
First I've heard of Dry head agate. Very cool. Thanks for the background info.
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