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Post by vegasjames on Dec 6, 2018 4:53:25 GMT -5
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Post by fernwood on Dec 6, 2018 4:58:28 GMT -5
Those are very nice. How hard is the material to work with? I have some pieces, but have not gotten up the courage to try anything with them (yet).
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Post by vegasjames on Dec 6, 2018 5:26:59 GMT -5
Those are very nice. How hard is the material to work with? I have some pieces, but have not gotten up the courage to try anything with them (yet). Not hard to work with at all. The main thing I cab are the copper ores. I love the wider variety of colors and patterns and the dolomite crystals in most the pieces give the surface a sparkle. Not as hard as jasper, so does not wear my wheels as quick and takes less time to finish the cabs.
Hardness does vary a lot depending on the matrix, which is most often primarily dolomite and calcite, but with varying amounts of quartz.
Some of the copper ore I get from the mines is silicated chrysocolla (chalcedony stained with copper salts) that is much harder, which I work with occasionally. For instance in these knife scales:
And these are preforms of silicated chrysocolla:
And some rough:
Here are some previous cabs I did from the copper ore:
So as you can see a lot of variety. Even the mine material can vary quite a bit within the mines or between close by mines.
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Post by fernwood on Dec 6, 2018 5:30:20 GMT -5
Thanks for the show and describing what to be careful about. I love this material. Your cabs/knife handle are great. The first rough pictured is extremely nice.
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Post by vegasjames on Dec 6, 2018 5:33:39 GMT -5
Thanks for the show and describing what to be careful about. I love this material. Your cabs/knife handle are great. Thanks. Here is the first one I ever did. Made this for my brother for his birthday.
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Post by rockjunquie on Dec 6, 2018 8:59:34 GMT -5
Great work! That knife doesn't look like a first.
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Post by hummingbirdstones on Dec 6, 2018 9:02:12 GMT -5
Absolutely beautiful. The first and last cabs are my favorites.
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Post by miket on Dec 6, 2018 10:44:39 GMT -5
All very cool! Cabs, knives, rough. Fantastic.
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Fossilman
Cave Dweller
Member since January 2009
Posts: 20,681
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Post by Fossilman on Dec 6, 2018 11:14:11 GMT -5
Nice looking material for sure!
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Post by lpl on Dec 6, 2018 12:45:24 GMT -5
Love the material a lot. It's extremely visually interesting!
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Post by drocknut on Dec 6, 2018 13:49:24 GMT -5
Great job on the knives and the cabs. I love the variety and colors in all those rocks.
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Post by stephan on Dec 6, 2018 15:12:13 GMT -5
Nice stuff all around, but I am seriously coveting the chrysocolla.
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Post by vegasjames on Dec 6, 2018 17:39:14 GMT -5
Thanks for the show and describing what to be careful about. I love this material. Your cabs/knife handle are great. The first rough pictured is extremely nice. That is a parrot wing silicated chrysocolla from Southern Nevada. Unfortunately I cannot get to the mine anymore. BLM leased the land to a gun range and they are blocking access to all the mines back in that canyon.
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Post by vegasjames on Dec 6, 2018 17:47:17 GMT -5
Great work! That knife doesn't look like a first. The first knife has a parrot wing chrysocolla for scales. That was a real pain to make that one due to the hardness. The one I did for my brother is made from copper ore from a different mine maybe 10 miles away. The ore at this mine contains a variety of copper minerals (chrysocolla, azurite, malachite, rosasite, etc) as well as the silver minerals bromargyrite (silver bromide) and chlorargyrite (silver chloride). The chlorargyrite though reacts with sunlight turning a brown to black so it is hard to distinguish from the limonite. The bromargyrite remains a lime green. This is an example of bromargyrite:
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Post by rockjunquie on Dec 6, 2018 17:49:52 GMT -5
Great work! That knife doesn't look like a first. The first knife has a parrot wing chrysocolla for scales. That was a real pain to make that one due to the hardness. The one I did for my brother is made from copper ore from a different mine maybe 10 miles away. The ore at this mine contains a variety of copper minerals (chrysocolla, azurite, malachite, rosasite, etc) as well as the silver minerals bromargyrite (silver bromide) and chlorargyrite (silver chloride). The chlorargyrite though reacts with sunlight turning a brown to black so it is hard to distinguish from the limonite. The bromargyrite remains a lime green. This is an example of bromargyrite:
Beautiful! I don't think there is another green like it in the rock world.
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Post by vegasjames on Dec 6, 2018 18:01:37 GMT -5
The first knife has a parrot wing chrysocolla for scales. That was a real pain to make that one due to the hardness. The one I did for my brother is made from copper ore from a different mine maybe 10 miles away. The ore at this mine contains a variety of copper minerals (chrysocolla, azurite, malachite, rosasite, etc) as well as the silver minerals bromargyrite (silver bromide) and chlorargyrite (silver chloride). The chlorargyrite though reacts with sunlight turning a brown to black so it is hard to distinguish from the limonite. The bromargyrite remains a lime green. This is an example of bromargyrite:
Beautiful! I don't think there is another green like it in the rock world. I have cabs a few pieces in the past. It does make beautiful cabs. Since it is a rare ore though I keep most of the pieces for specimens.
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RWA3006
Cave Dweller
Member since March 2009
Posts: 4,176
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Post by RWA3006 on Dec 6, 2018 20:52:59 GMT -5
Wow, what a lot of nice looking stuff! Even the rough made me drool.
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Post by opalpyrexia on Dec 6, 2018 21:02:04 GMT -5
Sweet! Excellent material and cabs.
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mossyrockhound
fully equipped rock polisher
Member since January 2011
Posts: 1,278
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Post by mossyrockhound on Dec 6, 2018 23:23:13 GMT -5
You show some brautiful material and great craftsmanship here! I enjoyed looking at all of it. I can only imagine how much beautiful material they ground up to get the copper.
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Post by vegasjames on Dec 7, 2018 0:28:23 GMT -5
You show some brautiful material and great craftsmanship here! I enjoyed looking at all of it. I can only imagine how much beautiful material they ground up to get the copper. Thanks.
Yes, they even ground up a lot of turquoise in a couple of the mines around here just for the copper. Same happening further North in Nevada at Caldelaria. There is a mine there with very nice turquoise being mined only for the gold so the turquoise is getting crushed up.
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