|
|
Post by velodromed on Apr 12, 2023 12:51:09 GMT -5
My family has been collecting rocks for the last year or so and having a blast. That’s how I got into the whole tumbling thing to begin with. There’s not much here in San Antonio aside from limestone, but we do hit rock yards, make occasional trips to nearby rivers and have run across a few interesting finds. Instead of posting them one at a time separately, I figured I’d just run this little thread and post a picture here every now and then. First off, petrified wood! I love petrified wood most of all and we have found some nice pieces overtime. I recently got a 7 inch tile saw and like to cut small slabs from ones that fit. Here’s some of what we’ve found, cut and polished recently. We used to have a lot more, but seem to be giving it away nearly as fast as we finish it.   |
|
|
|
Post by velodromed on Apr 12, 2023 15:10:32 GMT -5
I cut this one over the weekend and was pleasantly surprised. It seems like it’s a chert/Jasper of sorts but I’ve never seen one with so much color around here. I managed to get several of these little 3-4 inch slabs and can’t wait to see how they polish.  |
|
|
|
Post by chris1956 on Apr 12, 2023 16:24:34 GMT -5
Thanks for the petrified wood pics. Really like the first two. Your wood looks similar to what I find here in northwest Missouri. It is rare when I find something with much color.
|
|
dillonf
fully equipped rock polisher
Hounding and tumbling
Member since February 2022
Posts: 1,622
|
Post by dillonf on Apr 12, 2023 17:32:36 GMT -5
Nice finds! My family collects up near Austin - mostly what we find is Chert. We haven't had too much luck finding Pet wood up here
|
|
Time
starting to spend too much on rocks
Making something positive out of COVID restrictions by learning to create jewelry out of stones.
Member since September 2021
Posts: 154
|
Post by Time on Apr 12, 2023 19:30:48 GMT -5
I am just West of Austin also. It it about a 2 hour round trip but I plan to go over to Llano and see what river rocks I can find that are keepers.
|
|
|
|
Post by jasoninsd on Apr 12, 2023 19:35:17 GMT -5
Great looking wood Velo!  |
|
|
|
Post by velodromed on Apr 12, 2023 20:42:57 GMT -5
Here’s an interesting rock we found by the Llano River a month or so back. I’ve never seen anything like it. I cut off a piece and the pattern is the same inside as it is on the outside. The closest thing I could find close online was oolitic chert. I’m not quite sure what to do with it yet. I’ll probably throw it in the big tumbler at some point soon. It’s very hard so should polish up well.  |
|
|
|
Post by velodromed on Apr 12, 2023 20:45:59 GMT -5
Thanks for the petrified wood pics. Really like the first two. Your wood looks similar to what I find here in northwest Missouri. It is rare when I find something with much color. You’re welcome and thanks! I’ve near 20lbs still to tumble lol. The high color ones are a bit rare, often buried under other colors and don’t come out until the third or fourth course tumbling session. |
|
|
|
Post by velodromed on Apr 12, 2023 20:49:13 GMT -5
Nice finds! My family collects up near Austin - mostly what we find is Chert. We haven't had too much luck finding Pet wood up here Thanks! We found some big pieces on the llano river about halfway between Austin. A couple are 5 pounders, great finds. The smaller stuff is all over the surrounding rivers but often covered with so much limestone or chert it’s hard to tell. |
|
|
|
Post by velodromed on Apr 12, 2023 20:58:17 GMT -5
I am just West of Austin also. It it about a 2 hour round trip but I plan to go over to Llano and see what river rocks I can find that are keepers. There’s a long 4 section bridge over the Nueces river, I think, outside of Llano with that’s supposed to be good. Scott Wilkens goes there and I was able to spot the big bridge in his video on the Google satellite view. Here’s the coordinates, if I did this right lol. It’ll be our next day trip in the near future. One thing is everything was white with dust, in his video from a month or so ago, and the river dry. Maybe the recent rains hit that area though but in case not, we’re planning on taking a few gallons of water to wash the rocks basically. Spray bottles weren’t enough the dirt was so thick when we were on the Llano river. maps.app.goo.gl/y8mceMywBZbpcfmQ7?g_st=ic |
|
|
|
Post by velodromed on Apr 12, 2023 20:59:04 GMT -5
Great looking wood Velo! Thanks Jason! |
|
|
|
Post by velodromed on Apr 13, 2023 9:45:16 GMT -5
I really like this little Rock. The kid and I found it at our neighborhood lake park early this year. There’s not many rocks aside from limestone in San Antonio, but every now and then we get lucky. I’ve always figured it was some kind of petrified wood…but now that it’s polished up, I’m not so sure. It has a chatoyancy of sorts in the sun light. Whatever it is, it’s one of my favorites.   |
|
|
|
Post by velodromed on Apr 13, 2023 13:51:23 GMT -5
More petrified wood! I’ve been cleaning and organizing so pulled all these out. I’ll run the big pieces in the the 17lb tumbler one at a time over the next year. I’ll also try to tumble this long chunk of what I hope is banded chert.  |
|
|
|
Post by HankRocks on Apr 13, 2023 15:13:25 GMT -5
Good luck with tumbling those pieces. Patience is your friend. For Petrified Wood I usually leave some of the "defects" as for me they add character. A good number of small to join it for the journey. I had to keep adding those as I repeated each Coarse run. A big rock will increase grinding on the smaller cushioning rocks. Here's a piece of Texas Wood I tumble polished 2 or 3 years ago. I believe it was about 4 to 5 pounds beginning weight. I had to use the rotary(Model B) for the whole process as it would not fit in the UV-18.  IMG_2622 by Findrocks, on Flickr After 4 or 5 weeks in Coarse;  IMG_3373 by Findrocks, on Flickr Final Polish  IMG_3393 by Findrocks, on Flickr Good luck Henry |
|
|
|
Post by velodromed on Apr 13, 2023 16:00:41 GMT -5
Good luck with tumbling those pieces. Patience is your friend. For Petrified Wood I usually leave some of the "defects" as for me they add character. A good number of small to join it for the journey. I had to keep adding those as I repeated each Coarse run. A big rock will increase grinding on the smaller cushioning rocks. Here's a piece of Texas Wood I tumble polished 2 or 3 years ago. I believe it was about 4 to 5 pounds beginning weight. I had to use the rotary(Model B) for the whole process as it would not fit in the UV-18. IMG_2622 by Findrocks, on Flickr After 4 or 5 weeks in Coarse; IMG_3373 by Findrocks, on Flickr Final Polish IMG_3393 by Findrocks, on Flickr Good luck Henry That is very nice Henry! How long did it take from beginning to end? We do similar. Some pieces we fully polish and others we leave as much of the character as possible. Each big piece 4-5lb+ piece will be tumbled with a lot of medium and smalls, I’ve more than enough saved up. The medium 1-3lb chunks I’ll do several at a time with a bunch of medium/smalls, I think. I’m excited to have a tumbler that can handle the larger rocks now. |
|
|
|
Post by HankRocks on Apr 13, 2023 18:12:51 GMT -5
Probably a bit over 8 weeks or so. Some Petrified Wood will tumble a bit faster, plus this piece was a bit rounded to start with.
Good luck
|
|
dillonf
fully equipped rock polisher
Hounding and tumbling
Member since February 2022
Posts: 1,622
|
Post by dillonf on Apr 13, 2023 21:16:03 GMT -5
I am just West of Austin also. It it about a 2 hour round trip but I plan to go over to Llano and see what river rocks I can find that are keepers. We have collected and tumbled a lot of quartz and chert from out there. We have also found quite a bit of Llanite. Not much luck with Pet wood though. There are some good air B&Bs in town, but we usually stay at the Best Western. PM me if you would like me to share some spots. |
|
dillonf
fully equipped rock polisher
Hounding and tumbling
Member since February 2022
Posts: 1,622
|
Post by dillonf on Apr 13, 2023 21:29:34 GMT -5
I am just West of Austin also. It it about a 2 hour round trip but I plan to go over to Llano and see what river rocks I can find that are keepers. There’s a long 4 section bridge over the Nueces river, I think, outside of Llano with that’s supposed to be good. Scott Wilkens goes there and I was able to spot the big bridge in his video on the Google satellite view. Here’s the coordinates, if I did this right lol. It’ll be our next day trip in the near future. One thing is everything was white with dust, in his video from a month or so ago, and the river dry. Maybe the recent rains hit that area though but in case not, we’re planning on taking a few gallons of water to wash the rocks basically. Spray bottles weren’t enough the dirt was so thick when we were on the Llano river. maps.app.goo.gl/y8mceMywBZbpcfmQ7?g_st=icMy family has gone to the slabs twice, and we have had some good finds here. We found an arrow head, our first piece of Llanite, and some nice quartz and chert. I'm starting to think some of what we have found that we call chert may be Pet wood. Not sure I can differentiate . . . |
|
|
|
Post by velodromed on Apr 14, 2023 5:55:09 GMT -5
There’s a long 4 section bridge over the Nueces river, I think, outside of Llano with that’s supposed to be good. Scott Wilkens goes there and I was able to spot the big bridge in his video on the Google satellite view. Here’s the coordinates, if I did this right lol. It’ll be our next day trip in the near future. One thing is everything was white with dust, in his video from a month or so ago, and the river dry. Maybe the recent rains hit that area though but in case not, we’re planning on taking a few gallons of water to wash the rocks basically. Spray bottles weren’t enough the dirt was so thick when we were on the Llano river. maps.app.goo.gl/y8mceMywBZbpcfmQ7?g_st=icMy family has gone to the slabs twice, and we have had some good finds here. We found an arrow head, our first piece of Llanite, and some nice quartz and chert. I'm starting to think some of what we have found that we call chert may be Pet wood. Not sure I can differentiate . . . The slabs? Is that what the area I indicated is called? Man, we would love to find an arrowhead. When we were out on the Llano river River, we found one beautiful piece of Llanite with bright glowing blue quartz in it and two pieces that had less bright blue in them. That petrified wood can be a bit sneaky… |
|
|
|
Post by velodromed on Apr 20, 2023 14:10:55 GMT -5
|
|
