ziggy
spending too much on rocks
Member since June 2016
Posts: 483
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Post by ziggy on May 23, 2017 19:14:36 GMT -5
For those who might be interested I posted a pic of our lapidary work area. To the left on the table is a home made buffing wheel and arbor powered by a 3/4 HP motor. Next to that is our old 8" trim saw that hubby fit a nice precision rail mounted clamp on for awesome straight slab cuts and a cover made from lexan to cut down on water loss and spraying. Our cabbing machine is next. It was made from scratch for about 1/5 the cost of a store bought one. Over on the right is an old belt sander we use to rough shape Petoskey and lightning stones before finishing them on the cabber.
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ziggy
spending too much on rocks
Member since June 2016
Posts: 483
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Post by ziggy on May 18, 2017 20:42:30 GMT -5
Great work! That pendant is beautiful, I was wondering the same about such shapes, here's some of my experiments flic.kr/s/aHskVohZEZIs the last photo thompsonite?
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ziggy
spending too much on rocks
Member since June 2016
Posts: 483
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Post by ziggy on May 18, 2017 20:11:30 GMT -5
I wanted to see yours but the pic isn't working. Here is a heart my hubby made probably 40 years ago. He didn't have any lapidary tools or experience yet and this little heart of Stone is what got us interested in this stuff to begin with. I think it is some kind of pink rhyolite.. I have managed to somehow hang on to it through 4 or 5 moves during the years.
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ziggy
spending too much on rocks
Member since June 2016
Posts: 483
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Post by ziggy on May 18, 2017 19:42:49 GMT -5
Just wondering if others have made cylinder shaped pendants ? Also, in an upcoming yard sale I plan on trying to sell my keychains for $9.00 each. The six pictured below are typical ones for sale. Is $9.00 asking too much? The two on the left are Michigan lightning stones, middle two are mixed green and pink Prehnite with native copper inclusions, and the two on the right are Petoskey stones.
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ziggy
spending too much on rocks
Member since June 2016
Posts: 483
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Post by ziggy on May 17, 2017 10:58:45 GMT -5
Thank you all for your kind words. Memories will never replace interaction but at least we have that much left of him.
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ziggy
spending too much on rocks
Member since June 2016
Posts: 483
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Post by ziggy on May 16, 2017 19:56:51 GMT -5
Was his dog, Max. Max was smart, loving, playful and loyal and he loved to sleep He always laid next to me on our futon. As long as he was near me or hubby he was happy. He was so cute when he was sleeping, and he was camera shy which is why most of our pictures show him asleep. When he saw the camera he always tried to avoid getting his picture taken and would generally look away. Sunday night our little guy got violently ill and started to make horrible wretching noises before he vomited foam. We did our best to comfort him until the vet opened. The poor guy couldn't lay down and hubby noticed that Max's abdomen looked swollen. We contacted an emergency vet and gave them his symptoms and they said it sounded like a case of dgv (aka bloat) but since Max was still drinking water his stomach had not yet flipped (which is what kills a dog with bloat.) They said get him to the vet asap. To make an already long story short, the vet took one look at him and said, it's not bloat. Just when we thought our little guy could be treated and could come home after they figured it out the vet felt his abdomen. He bluntly said that Max has cancer and our best bet to stop his suffering is to put him down. Hubby's jaw hit the floor and I broke down. After the doctor explained that Max had little chance of even surviving any surgery due to the fact that he was epileptic and would not survive the anesthesia we all decided that our little guy, who was so tired from being unable to sleep and in obvious agony (when dogs hurt they drool uncontrollably), needed our help to end his horrible suffering. Below is the last photo of our little guy Max, shortly after he got the sedative and fell asleep on my lap. Yes, I'm also in agony as I said goodbye. We kept telling him what a good boy he is as he finally fell into much needed sleep. We loved our little guy of 13 years like a son. He loved walking on the beach with his dad.
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ziggy
spending too much on rocks
Member since June 2016
Posts: 483
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Post by ziggy on May 13, 2017 16:39:26 GMT -5
Picture 4. Is that gowganda tillite? Yowser...that's huge. will it polish ziggy I have a softball sized piece but never done anything with it yet. I did find a pic of a sphere someone made out of it though.
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ziggy
spending too much on rocks
Member since June 2016
Posts: 483
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Post by ziggy on May 12, 2017 20:22:48 GMT -5
Picture 4. Is that gowganda tillite? Yowser...that's huge.
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ziggy
spending too much on rocks
Member since June 2016
Posts: 483
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Post by ziggy on May 8, 2017 20:52:36 GMT -5
Well, not really named after me but it was fun to find it just north of Clare Michigan. We were looking for a glacial moraine that is noted on our road atlas and ran across it during our search.
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ziggy
spending too much on rocks
Member since June 2016
Posts: 483
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Post by ziggy on Apr 27, 2017 20:45:18 GMT -5
Checked out a couple different pits the past weekend , limited success . Did manage to come up with a few jaspers . One decent size and some tumbler food , some could be sliced . big one , 4-5 pounds , Again , thanks for looking . Is that jaspelite? I'm going to Jasper knob this summer to get some of that myself. I think @shotgunner was looking for some of that too.
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ziggy
spending too much on rocks
Member since June 2016
Posts: 483
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Post by ziggy on Apr 27, 2017 20:36:17 GMT -5
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ziggy
spending too much on rocks
Member since June 2016
Posts: 483
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Post by ziggy on Apr 27, 2017 6:21:40 GMT -5
Nope. Scenic road at the mouth of Duck Lake. Whitehall mi.
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ziggy
spending too much on rocks
Member since June 2016
Posts: 483
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Post by ziggy on Apr 24, 2017 21:24:08 GMT -5
Copper country datolite is special. Finding it on a beach...something else. It's not a real high quality datolite. It is sort of pinkish to almost purple with lots of matrix veining. There are some native copper inclusions scattered in it. It actually matches the color of the datolite shown in the pic below (picture is not my nodule) and the rind( matrix) matches as well. My first instinct told me it was pink Prehnite but it is actually the same hardness and specific gravity as datolite and not prehnite. Being beach worn, I couldn't tell what it was when I found it. There was patches of the pink datolite showing where normally it would be covered with matrix skin. I've only ever heard of a few datolites found on beaches. I stumbled on to it at Hunter's point park way out on one of the beaches at the far end of the trail that runs through there. I was looking for agate where none existed. The pink spots stuck out like sore thumbs among the mostly brown colored beach pebbles that dominate the beaches near copper harbor. I picked it up on a whim. I plan on doing some heavy duty searching for datolite at several mine piles in the Cliff to Central area this summer and also plan on searching the Wolverine #2 pile for some copper replacement agates, along with stops at Ishpeming for some jaspilite and a little agate hunting at Grand Marais and Muskalonge S.P. Can't wait
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ziggy
spending too much on rocks
Member since June 2016
Posts: 483
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Post by ziggy on Apr 24, 2017 15:07:51 GMT -5
The point being, many people walk the beach and look for pretty stones like in the shops. I started finding agate when an old timer told me to leave the pretty stones for the tourists, pick up and inspect the ugly ones. He didn't mean every ugly stone, just look for something different than the rest, and ugly too. The piece my wife picked up was looked at by literally hundreds of beach combers. Too ugly to bother with and may be the best of the year for us. When I'm doing the beaches up there I have to force myself to not look for pretty rocks. If I did spend time looking for pretty ones, I'd never find what I'm really after. So many mineral distractions. There is one beach I found up there where the downright ugliest rock on the beach (basalt) turned out to be the home of several nice greenstones neatly stashed inside with only minor clues showing on the surface. The funny thing is, another name for that beach other than it's real one, is agate beach. From the makeup of the rocks on that beach, it's highly unlikely that there are many, if any, agates there. I did manage to pick up the previously mentioned greenstone bearing basalt as well as a water worn datolite nodule and also found several basalt outcrops loaded with what looks like greenstone and thompsonite amygdules that I plan on retrieving this summer. Last summer I didn't have the proper tools to do it with me.
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ziggy
spending too much on rocks
Member since June 2016
Posts: 483
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Post by ziggy on Apr 20, 2017 21:42:52 GMT -5
Lot of good information on those two links , spent hours there Ok,thanks Just thought I'd add my two cents. If agates are your main target, you'd be better off making some other easier to find mineral your main target and just always be on your toes for agate. Keep in mind that most of the agates found these days on the beaches up there are smaller than a dime and are to be honest, what you would call well picked over if any are left at all. If agate is the only thing that can trip your trigger, then, your best bet is to concentrate on beaches known to still produce the occasional agate every now and then. Places producing the most seem to be concentrated between Whitefish point and Grand Marais. Try Whitefish point to the west of the museum/lighthouse. The Two Hearted river is west of that then Muskalonge State park is further west. Farthest west is Grand Marais. All of these locations have nice Rocky beaches with lots of unakite and other distracting "pretty rocks". If you can get into mine piles, the Wolverine #2 poor rock pile occasionally turns up what is known as copper replacement agates. To get them you need to bust them out of the poor rock. If you get tired of the beaches, try mine piles like the ones at the Cliff Mine for other minerals like native copper, Prehnite, datolite, or greenstone. Doing the mine piles involves research on sites like Mindat to see what can be found where. Some sweat equity is involved in this type of hounding as digging through the piles is usually the most productive method.
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ziggy
spending too much on rocks
Member since June 2016
Posts: 483
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Post by ziggy on Apr 19, 2017 17:29:44 GMT -5
Very nice! I haven't seen any native copper in a stone so nice. What is the base stone? It's a mix of pink and green Prehnite while the darkest parts are amygdoloidal basalt
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ziggy
spending too much on rocks
Member since June 2016
Posts: 483
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Post by ziggy on Apr 19, 2017 11:02:40 GMT -5
Did you find it this year That is from last August. I only found enough for about four pendants. When I picked it up at the Cliff Mine, I had no idea it was shot through with so much copper or I would have collected more of it. Something I will be bringing more of home this summer.
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ziggy
spending too much on rocks
Member since June 2016
Posts: 483
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Post by ziggy on Apr 18, 2017 21:16:50 GMT -5
Found at the Cliff Mine. The shiny areas are native copper. Below, a shot not showing the copper so much.
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ziggy
spending too much on rocks
Member since June 2016
Posts: 483
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Post by ziggy on Apr 17, 2017 21:54:01 GMT -5
At 8:30pm and you are in sheer beauty At our back is a big sand dune and in front is a beautiful sunset on the 5th largest body of freshwater on the planet.
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ziggy
spending too much on rocks
Member since June 2016
Posts: 483
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Post by ziggy on Apr 17, 2017 9:46:11 GMT -5
That's pretty stuff. However you cut the grooves it does a nice job of not chipping out. I used the grooving machine my hubby built for me. There's a build thread for it in the equipment section.
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