Best batch yet (for me...very pic heavy)
Nov 26, 2017 19:48:02 GMT -5
RWA3006, quartz, and 16 more like this
Post by dakotabirder on Nov 26, 2017 19:48:02 GMT -5
Still new at this, but there are two times for me that are like a kid on Christmas morning. The first is opening the tumbler after the first rough tumble, where you sometimes find some awesome hidden gems that just need some outer layer removed. The second is finishing a batch that's been going through the process for a few months. This really is only our third finished batch, and the first in our bigger 6-lb Lortone. We were thrilled with how this batch turned out. All of these were self-collected on the same area on Buffalo Gap National Grasslands.
1 - Overview of the batch, showing the variety of pieces.
2 - Surprise! A Fairburn agate! This is one that had a heavily weathered exterior, and although I saw a hint of banding, I didn't expect to find this after the rough tumble. I'm not polishing most of the Fairburns I've found, but did decide to go through with the whole process on this one.
3 - Polished bubblegum agates. This is what many of them look like after polishing, with "eyes" and banding of red and cream. Patterns are all over the place!
4 - I could bring home buckets of petrified wood on every visit to the Buffalo Gap National Grasslands. This is the most common color you normally find. Takes a wonderful polish, you just have to be careful in the rough stage, because sometimes the pattern is skin deep and can get polished off if you're too aggressive.
5 - I love this little bubblegum. My son and I call them "Easter Island Heads"...little round, black, bumpy agates with absolutely NO hint of color when you find them. As you rough polish, the black gives way to these gorgeous patterns underneath. On this one, we stopped the rough polish after some of the black still remained, giving it a really cool pattern.
6 - You can pick up as much quartz as you'd like on the Grasslands as well. Much is clear, white, or rose, but there's also some really pretty smoky quartz.
7 - Someone needs to tell me what this is. It's a one-of-a-kind piece in terms of what we've found.
8 - Most of the prairie and bubblegums have some kind of banding, but this piece has more thin, fine layers than most. And very colorful to boot! It had a really funky shape when I first found it. I was going to rough-tumble it more to get it a little more rounded, but given how pretty it was, I ended up keeping the funky shape.
9 - Some of the different kinds of quartz you can find on the Grasslands.
10 - Another agate with a pattern that really wasn't revealed until polishing. I won't go so far as to call this one a Fairburn as well, but it does have hints of a similar pattern.
11 - Another one where I'd like someone to give me a name! It's another one-of-a-kind piece for what we've found, not only for the pattern, but for the color and pattern of the yellowish-orange part. After poking around for the last few months out here, I know there's something you guys call a mossy agate. The pattern here looks like that, but I have no idea if a real "mossy agate" is something you find in South Dakota.
12 - The classic prairie agate. The black-and-white patterns on this one are probably the 2nd most common pattern I find, behind a more creamy/yellow/orangish pattern.
13 - A nice color piece of petrified wood. We don't find too many like this on the grasslands...most are gray or light tan.
14 - Here's an agate that I kept in the rough-polish phase for many weeks, as I hoped more of the color and pattern would be revealed on this side. However, it just kept getting smaller and smaller, with the same pattern! Finally stopped rough-polishing and went through the whole process with it.
15 - Another polished bubblegum, showing the beautiful fine banding many of them have.
16 - Petrified wood pieces of various colors / forms.
17 - A conglomerate / agate / something. Again, if you have a name for this, let me know!
18 - Ditto for the above...an agate/jasper/conglomerate of...some kind.
19 - This is the biggest piece of the batch, perhaps 2/3rds the size of a tennis ball. It's a beautiful quartz piece with a color that's different than most we find.
20 - A bubblegum with "eyes".
21 - A small agate, but shooting with a macro lens you can see the wonderful fine patterns in pieces like this.
22 - A reddish prairie agate.
23 - Another nice big quartz piece.
24 -
1 - Overview of the batch, showing the variety of pieces.
2 - Surprise! A Fairburn agate! This is one that had a heavily weathered exterior, and although I saw a hint of banding, I didn't expect to find this after the rough tumble. I'm not polishing most of the Fairburns I've found, but did decide to go through with the whole process on this one.
3 - Polished bubblegum agates. This is what many of them look like after polishing, with "eyes" and banding of red and cream. Patterns are all over the place!
4 - I could bring home buckets of petrified wood on every visit to the Buffalo Gap National Grasslands. This is the most common color you normally find. Takes a wonderful polish, you just have to be careful in the rough stage, because sometimes the pattern is skin deep and can get polished off if you're too aggressive.
5 - I love this little bubblegum. My son and I call them "Easter Island Heads"...little round, black, bumpy agates with absolutely NO hint of color when you find them. As you rough polish, the black gives way to these gorgeous patterns underneath. On this one, we stopped the rough polish after some of the black still remained, giving it a really cool pattern.
6 - You can pick up as much quartz as you'd like on the Grasslands as well. Much is clear, white, or rose, but there's also some really pretty smoky quartz.
7 - Someone needs to tell me what this is. It's a one-of-a-kind piece in terms of what we've found.
8 - Most of the prairie and bubblegums have some kind of banding, but this piece has more thin, fine layers than most. And very colorful to boot! It had a really funky shape when I first found it. I was going to rough-tumble it more to get it a little more rounded, but given how pretty it was, I ended up keeping the funky shape.
9 - Some of the different kinds of quartz you can find on the Grasslands.
10 - Another agate with a pattern that really wasn't revealed until polishing. I won't go so far as to call this one a Fairburn as well, but it does have hints of a similar pattern.
11 - Another one where I'd like someone to give me a name! It's another one-of-a-kind piece for what we've found, not only for the pattern, but for the color and pattern of the yellowish-orange part. After poking around for the last few months out here, I know there's something you guys call a mossy agate. The pattern here looks like that, but I have no idea if a real "mossy agate" is something you find in South Dakota.
12 - The classic prairie agate. The black-and-white patterns on this one are probably the 2nd most common pattern I find, behind a more creamy/yellow/orangish pattern.
13 - A nice color piece of petrified wood. We don't find too many like this on the grasslands...most are gray or light tan.
14 - Here's an agate that I kept in the rough-polish phase for many weeks, as I hoped more of the color and pattern would be revealed on this side. However, it just kept getting smaller and smaller, with the same pattern! Finally stopped rough-polishing and went through the whole process with it.
15 - Another polished bubblegum, showing the beautiful fine banding many of them have.
16 - Petrified wood pieces of various colors / forms.
17 - A conglomerate / agate / something. Again, if you have a name for this, let me know!
18 - Ditto for the above...an agate/jasper/conglomerate of...some kind.
19 - This is the biggest piece of the batch, perhaps 2/3rds the size of a tennis ball. It's a beautiful quartz piece with a color that's different than most we find.
20 - A bubblegum with "eyes".
21 - A small agate, but shooting with a macro lens you can see the wonderful fine patterns in pieces like this.
22 - A reddish prairie agate.
23 - Another nice big quartz piece.
24 -