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Post by glennz01 on Mar 11, 2016 23:27:16 GMT -5
Any platinum found where you are? Test it with a magnet. Some platinum is magnetic. What does it weigh? How big is it? I beg to differ about pure silver does not tarnish. If my silver eagles and maples(99.9999) are not protected they tarnish. The maple is a 2010 stored in a case. The bar not. All precious metals can be found in the area but not in quantity like this... flakes if one is lucky. All of my strong magnets are someplace in storage and i'm not sure where my digital scale ran off to. it is surrounded in parts by native rock but judging by the weight, i'm guessing the bottom has a larger pocket of metal. Tuesday a geologist should be able to look at it along with the rest of our rock club. next month on the 6th I can have it acid tested. This seems too hard to be molibdymite though. It does have black tarnish on the outside which could be where silver is or it could be the rock, but there is some slight black tarnish on the inside possibly from water seepage. as for structure it has crystals but it is not the same type as galena. I have a piece of galena to compare with.
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Post by glennz01 on Mar 11, 2016 1:56:50 GMT -5
Galena was the first thing I thought of but my metal detector doesn't register galena. also the number on my detector was very high indicating silver.
we do have a lot of natural Molybdenite locally. the break you see is fresh so nothing would be oxidized although there is a slight black tarnish. Molybdenite doesn't tarnish so that may rule it out. This material is also harder than Molybdenite. I need to find my large piece of Molybdenite and run it under my detector to see if it picks it up. I know someone that has a test kit for silver that I will use next month. Until I do that i'm not going to try anything that would be destructive to the specimen. If it is silver, due to the crystaline structure, it could be worth a bit.
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Post by glennz01 on Mar 9, 2016 21:48:59 GMT -5
Native silver or molybdenum, hard to say at this point.
Tested positive for platinum!
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Post by glennz01 on Mar 8, 2016 9:39:30 GMT -5
So as long as it has a flat back it is a cab is that correct or do I have to make the back flat? some people dome both sides but technically speaking a cab has a flat back and a flat edge. We don't specifically hold people to the true definition of a cab, but we don't consider rocks that look like they are hand polished tumbles ether.
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Post by glennz01 on Mar 6, 2016 16:00:51 GMT -5
A large single 7.5lb garnet
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Post by glennz01 on Mar 6, 2016 13:26:55 GMT -5
The only new things in shop for now, everything is huge. Malachite $380
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Post by glennz01 on Mar 4, 2016 10:36:18 GMT -5
Hope that the malachite guitar made the trip okay! Not that I'm in the market for a life sized malachite guitar, but it ought to be pretty impressive to see. When is the boss man due back from Brazil? yeah, it has very high details. My boss gets back in 2 weeks.
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Post by glennz01 on Mar 4, 2016 1:30:44 GMT -5
What happened to the green St. Patrick's theme? I was looking forward to some malachite cabs, hardly ever see any here. Coulda saved flowers (whatever) for next month. I can add green to the theme as it incorporates life. I hadn't thought about egg shapes and forgot easter is coming but now there can be green eggs or scenic eggs. (would be really interesting to have an egg that looks hard boiled in the shape of an egg
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Post by glennz01 on Mar 4, 2016 1:28:00 GMT -5
Hey Glenn, You mentioned the guy has piles of rough and slabs? Why not compose small FRB's of same hardness, but random slabs to people who like to be surprised? You know, fill them with good stuff so nobody is disappointed? Offer each box at whatever flat rate you decide. Go from there... just a thought. Most of the stuff is in a warehouse, the slabs, or some of them, are in the locked shed next to where I will be cutting stuff... I'm going to try and get him to pull the material out as i want to hopefully find a few specifics I got from a few boxes. The huge 3 pallets from tuscon came in... The shipping company damaged (possibly) the goods or boxes at least and notified us prior so hopefully it is just box damage. My boss has to go through it all when he comes back... I kind of hope I can help
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Post by glennz01 on Mar 3, 2016 11:35:40 GMT -5
I'd hold off on that Mike. There is material coming in from the Tucson show and the owner is headed to Brazil this week to get even more inventory. Should be much more impressive stock on hand once all this arrives! Also I thought you were going to put up some pics of what I sent ya? The stuff from tuscon should arrive this week but I can't touch it until he gets back for obvious inventory reasons.
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Post by glennz01 on Mar 3, 2016 11:31:37 GMT -5
I'd hold off on that Mike. There is material coming in from the Tucson show and the owner is headed to Brazil this week to get even more inventory. Should be much more impressive stock on hand once all this arrives! I couldn't agree more! our shop right now has been dwindling due to his trips. I have a few more photos I will put up but until he gets back there will be nothing new... I may start making alaskan pieces which I will start a new thread for. I am excited to see his 1:1 scale malachite guitar he picked up.
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Post by glennz01 on Mar 3, 2016 11:23:31 GMT -5
So, If I would like to do a flower, I can not outline individual pedals? Only the overall shape, if I understand the rules right. Is that right? Correct, made from 1 solid piece like the heart. has to be something that can be made on a cabbing machine / flat lap. I am going to try and make a fish out of some specular hematite I have for instance. A side view of a tulip would be easy to make and I would think that there are a few other realistic / syfy flowers that can be easily made on some wheels. I just found this flower outline on google that would be easy to make. What I would do is dome each individual pedal a little bit to pull out a little more image from the stone.. I have a heart I did that on if you would like to kind of see from the photo. These are some more outlines I found... the inner angles would have to be lessened but still something I could produce with minor modifications. I could go curther with the inner angles if I use my saw to cut them out but I would only be able to polish to a certain point.
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Post by glennz01 on Mar 2, 2016 20:59:51 GMT -5
As we talked about privately I'd be highly interested in seeing slabs - with pictures and prices posted so a specific transaction can occur. When you reach this stage, and if the value of the piece is right, myself and probably a couple dozen other "artists" from here and beyond would be falling over ourselves to post the first "mine." I can hopefully do that when my boss gets back from his trip
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Post by glennz01 on Mar 2, 2016 16:42:48 GMT -5
What I haven't quite figured out is why his boss opened a rock shop in Palmer Alaska (with a population of around 6,000) and doesn't already have a web site. Folks in Palmer must REALLY like rocks! It is a sub business that is a small part in his main business shop. He doesn't have the time for a website nor does he have much time to run the rock shop part in summer.. If he decides to retire it is possible that I could be doing full time work for him, but that is a ways down the road.
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Post by glennz01 on Mar 1, 2016 22:24:46 GMT -5
That one in particular sold, I can look to see if there is another in the on site storage. If I recall it is 1.5" diameter. My boss is going to Brazil this thursday to get a few more pallet loads of material, so what is on hand currently is what is available. He may have brought some new stuff in but I won't know until Thursday. At some point I may actively put up local materials, but I need to do work as everything is in the rough for the most part. Just so you know. I have sold far far far more rough than finished goods here. These folks are artists and rough stone is their canvas. Ignoring that is the same as taking a poll to see what people want, instead of posting pics and prices. Pics and prices sell material, rough or finished. Get to work. Well I need to ether slab it or make 1 cut to see if the material is worth selling... some things are and some arent... I have lots of agate that may have color or may be just clear... hard to say unless I cut.
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Post by glennz01 on Mar 1, 2016 22:21:17 GMT -5
To see more photos and explanations of the cabs see the submission thread here forum.rocktumblinghobby.com/thread/73656/february-2016-fccCab 1: Krazydiamond's Tiffany stone Cab 2: KK's black and white dendrite stone Cab 3: NDK's Mexican lace Cab 4: Rockpickerforever's Rhodonite Cab 5: Cobbledstones's Garnet Cab 6: Glenn's Amythest Agate Cab 7: Micellular's Moss Agate
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Post by glennz01 on Mar 1, 2016 22:04:21 GMT -5
does the purple ball below actually exist? If so, what is it? How big is it? That one in particular sold, I can look to see if there is another in the on site storage. If I recall it is 1.5" diameter. My boss is going to Brazil this thursday to get a few more pallet loads of material, so what is on hand currently is what is available. He may have brought some new stuff in but I won't know until Thursday. At some point I may actively put up local materials, but I need to do work as everything is in the rough for the most part.
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Post by glennz01 on Mar 1, 2016 21:55:21 GMT -5
March 2016 Friendly Cab Contest /Challenge This is a challenge to yourself... What is the best cab that you can create... posting the results of your creation whatever the outcome. Theme: Life, the universe, and everything living! (syfi realistic or real) There are a few options and the options can be mixed like last month (brownie points if you somehow do all of them) Option 1: scenic views - a material that looks like a scene in nature made into a cab (trees, ocean, stars etc.) Option 2: shapes of life - if you can cab a tree, star, animal (or head) or something that is realistic / syfy real. Option 3: green cabs in promotion of life Here is a few examples of materials I made in the past to spur creativity... star: Eyeball: Ultra real: Rules: - Cabs entered must be completed by the deadline (they can be started before the month). All entries will require a photo of the slab or rock, preform and finished cab. So no cabs pulled from the drawer. You can enter as many photos of the finished cab as you like (within reason) on the same post. If you decide to add another photo later on, please edit your original post. Things like intarsias, carvings, jewelry, and composite type cabs may not be entered (unless otherwise specified) in an effort to keep the contest somewhat fair by just entering free form style cabs. It is OK if there is a hole drilled in the item with or without a jump ring, as long as there is no extras on the rock (wire, chord, etc.) We ask that all entries submitted to this contest be unique to this competition (not submitted in several different competitions). any duplicates will not be included in the voting list. Feel free to share with us what ever you like about the material, the process or what ever else you would like to share. Also, don't forget to include the name of the material. If a tie occurs in the voting the breaker will be whoever submitted the finished item first. Prize :
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Post by glennz01 on Mar 1, 2016 16:38:09 GMT -5
Lots of well traveled import material in all the pictures. What do you have for material from Alaska? I have lots of agates, jaspers, rhyolites and some other cool stuff for slabs or book ends... also some geode parts. My boss has a lot more geode parts as well as seen in 2 photos. If you like you can send me a pm with what your looking for
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Post by glennz01 on Feb 29, 2016 19:24:04 GMT -5
so, got the water delivery system working now, quite the learning curve for this machine. Any tips for using a flat lap? Kind of intimidating starting out. KD well since I only have a 220 disk my only advice is to not use hands when picking up the piece unless you don't mind loosing some fingernail... then again I don't follow my own advice
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