Post by jasperfanatic on Jan 26, 2019 16:11:47 GMT -5
Hey all!
Just thought I'd introduce myself and join the community here. I'm very to new to most everything on this board, but hoping to connect with some like-minded folks...that's to say, those sharing the same mental illness I seemed to have developed. A little background story (TLDR at the end) - it all started when I was 5 years old...just kidding, but I kind of do feel like I need therapy for this obsession.
Dormant for 20 years, and burned out on business and the daily grind, I began looking to get in touch with my "inner child" (digging and playing in creeks was always fun!). In September I packed up the mule and spent a week alone in the mountains exploring old mines, ghost towns, geology and re-learned panning for gold. As happenstance, came across a lot of cool rocks of all different sizes that ended up coming home with me along with about 200lbs of ore to crush and play with. It was an amazing week of beautiful country and more fun from just exploring then I've had in ages. Back home and back to the grind, I wanted to stay connected to that and so started rockhounding every weekend. Up and down river banks and digging thundereggs, I had a few buckets full of rocks but didn't know what to do with them, and so I began playing around learning about tumbling. I had no idea how much work that entailed if you want good results. I'd found some cool cantaloupe sized jasper rocks in some of the rivers, and when I started researching what they were I came across Sam Silverhawk's cabochons and my hobby suddenly became a little more consuming. And more than that, an obsession with Jaspers. Along with some other creative rock-based ideas I'm pursuing, I told myself I MUST learn how to do that.
So I bought a 14" saw (wish I'd gone bigger now) and started cutting the things I had found and some I'd gotten from neighbors, and no, I didn't steal them out of their gardens Just a few here and there, I was still spending most of my time outdoors. Fast forward to November, the weather was changing and rivers swelling, so my outdoor adventures were getting limited. Researched a little more about rockhounding in my state and made one last adventure to an obsidian dig. I spent three, cold days there exploring and learning and dug up some really cool stuff. That was the end of me, this was now a full-blown obsession. By the end of November I'd gone through the obsidian I'd brought back and had now purchased a Cabking to start learning about cabochons. I had plenty of stuff to cut with the thundereggs, red/yellow jasper, carnelian agates and obsidian I'd found, but it was just the same stuff over and over. That changed when I found rough rock auctions on e-bay, much to my bank account's dismay.
I'd been playing with the cab machines and working to try and learn all I could about that, but something happened I didn't expect. Cutting the rocks became an equally strong addiction, with more to learn just about slabbing than I'd ever imagined. For the last two months, if I'm home then the saw is running. "Just one more slice"...the anticipation of what you're going to find when the saw shuts itself down. I've learned so much already and still have more questions than answers. I love that feeling when you cut a chunk of high quality rough and get fantastic slabs with every cut, but usually, it seems you're lucky if you get just one slab that offers multiple cab opportunities. And of course, there's always the rocks that just tank. I had entire 6lb Blue Mountain nodule that turned out to be garbage to the core, that was a bummer!
Haha...this is way more than anyone is going to give a shit about, but even I have been caught off-guard by this consuming obsession that happened over the course of only 4 months. I'm hoping others on the board may have similar afflictions, otherwise, maybe I do need to see a shrink
TLDR; I've been consumed by a rock obsession in just 4 short months, and am still surprised about it! Hoping others can relate.
I'm looking to post up pictures of some cabs for critique, tips & hints soon, on the appropriate board for that of course.
If you made it this far, thanks for reading!
Best,
Kevin
Just thought I'd introduce myself and join the community here. I'm very to new to most everything on this board, but hoping to connect with some like-minded folks...that's to say, those sharing the same mental illness I seemed to have developed. A little background story (TLDR at the end) - it all started when I was 5 years old...just kidding, but I kind of do feel like I need therapy for this obsession.
Dormant for 20 years, and burned out on business and the daily grind, I began looking to get in touch with my "inner child" (digging and playing in creeks was always fun!). In September I packed up the mule and spent a week alone in the mountains exploring old mines, ghost towns, geology and re-learned panning for gold. As happenstance, came across a lot of cool rocks of all different sizes that ended up coming home with me along with about 200lbs of ore to crush and play with. It was an amazing week of beautiful country and more fun from just exploring then I've had in ages. Back home and back to the grind, I wanted to stay connected to that and so started rockhounding every weekend. Up and down river banks and digging thundereggs, I had a few buckets full of rocks but didn't know what to do with them, and so I began playing around learning about tumbling. I had no idea how much work that entailed if you want good results. I'd found some cool cantaloupe sized jasper rocks in some of the rivers, and when I started researching what they were I came across Sam Silverhawk's cabochons and my hobby suddenly became a little more consuming. And more than that, an obsession with Jaspers. Along with some other creative rock-based ideas I'm pursuing, I told myself I MUST learn how to do that.
So I bought a 14" saw (wish I'd gone bigger now) and started cutting the things I had found and some I'd gotten from neighbors, and no, I didn't steal them out of their gardens Just a few here and there, I was still spending most of my time outdoors. Fast forward to November, the weather was changing and rivers swelling, so my outdoor adventures were getting limited. Researched a little more about rockhounding in my state and made one last adventure to an obsidian dig. I spent three, cold days there exploring and learning and dug up some really cool stuff. That was the end of me, this was now a full-blown obsession. By the end of November I'd gone through the obsidian I'd brought back and had now purchased a Cabking to start learning about cabochons. I had plenty of stuff to cut with the thundereggs, red/yellow jasper, carnelian agates and obsidian I'd found, but it was just the same stuff over and over. That changed when I found rough rock auctions on e-bay, much to my bank account's dismay.
I'd been playing with the cab machines and working to try and learn all I could about that, but something happened I didn't expect. Cutting the rocks became an equally strong addiction, with more to learn just about slabbing than I'd ever imagined. For the last two months, if I'm home then the saw is running. "Just one more slice"...the anticipation of what you're going to find when the saw shuts itself down. I've learned so much already and still have more questions than answers. I love that feeling when you cut a chunk of high quality rough and get fantastic slabs with every cut, but usually, it seems you're lucky if you get just one slab that offers multiple cab opportunities. And of course, there's always the rocks that just tank. I had entire 6lb Blue Mountain nodule that turned out to be garbage to the core, that was a bummer!
Haha...this is way more than anyone is going to give a shit about, but even I have been caught off-guard by this consuming obsession that happened over the course of only 4 months. I'm hoping others on the board may have similar afflictions, otherwise, maybe I do need to see a shrink
TLDR; I've been consumed by a rock obsession in just 4 short months, and am still surprised about it! Hoping others can relate.
I'm looking to post up pictures of some cabs for critique, tips & hints soon, on the appropriate board for that of course.
If you made it this far, thanks for reading!
Best,
Kevin