Texas Rocks

Yep he’s a cool rock dude lol. My step daughter wants me to tumble/polish him but I’m pretty sure it would wipe away that sardonic grin.

#velodromed and I traded some rocks. Here is some cool Pet Wood he sent me! This is after 2 weeks in coarse grind 60/90.



I'm real excited about this one - cool coloration:


Cool banding:


These look like they will be in coarse grind for 5+ months . . .

That first one you’re excited about, I’ve found several similar variations. Some are mostly chert and/or Jasper, while others have agate layers mixed in. I like those rocks quite a bit, which is why I sent you one. It’s looking like one of the better ones so far.

I’ve no idea what this rock is but I love it! It has Jasper/chert features and a lot of color. We call these rocks ‘Texas Painted Jasper’ for fun. I can’t wait to get it tumbling! This one is different than other similar ones I find. It’s light for its size. I’ve a feeling it has some holes inside. There’s also a good size crack running through a third of it, so I think it’ll break fairly quickly. Figure I’ll be able to tell if it’s worth tumbling after the first clean out. Once I’m finished healing from last weeks surgery I’ll get it in the rebel 17. I’m going nuts sitting here healing. At least the Tour de France started this morning. This is the 34th year I’ve watched this amazing race. I can’t cycle anymore but still love to watch it.

Gosh, I'm surprised a rock as "ugly"/ gnarly as the rough you showed, came out as pretty as the tumbles in your last post. It must be brittle looking at all of the chips and cracks that show in your tumbled stones. Its quite attractive colors and destined for a good shine. Based on where you are finding it, its white coating, and brittleness, I'd suspect its in the chert realm as well, it was just born with charm and variety. It will be interesting when you slice a few to see how the layers/color bands are positioned.Now back to the Tour.

Yup, often I’m using a 2lb hammer on the larger rocks I find, so it takes a while to tumble-clean them up when I find a good one. That’s what my 40rpm rebel 17 is for. Typically the chunks are plenty big enough so it works out. Most of our rocks are covered with a heavy layer of limestone, chert or similar. Larger rocks I hammer break and smaller ones I saw cut or throw straight in the tumbler. I find a lot of banded chert, but these colorful Jasper combos mostly seem to come from west Texas and are rare to find. I’ve only run across a few so far.

So, the kid and I found this rock several months ago. But it didn’t look like this. It was a funny looking ball of chalk like stuff the took weeks to dissolve in high strength vinegar. What was left seemed like a Jasper base and top with some chalcedony mixed in between. But now, after 6 weeks of course tumbling… WOW!! Man this rock is one cool agate thing of some sort. Pictures don’t show the depths of it really. These are after the first polish stage so it should be even better in the next couple weeks or so.

Thanks!! The best part of this hobby for us is turning out to be the hidden local finds…the ones where I’m guessing something good is inside based on the crusty appearance. I’m getting better at it lol.

Thanks! Finished up yesterday, but I didn’t have time to take pictures before hopping on a plane to Seattle. I only polished it a little bit more. I do not want to lose any of the amazing red and gold/tan features swirling in and on the surface of the Calcedony. Some of them seem deep, others pretty shallow and some are right on the surface. I’ve now turned my attention to some rocks that are proving to be quite surprising after nearly 2 months of tumbling. I’m very excited about them. Love this hobby!