wargrafix
Cave Dweller 
Member since June 2023
Posts: 1,085
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Post by wargrafix on Oct 9, 2024 9:20:45 GMT -5
I had a few acquisitions this week and cut a leftover geode from my collection. They has some fun specimens which were a mix of rough and polished. I bought the rough so one day I will be able to tumble a nice set. Moss agate with bands  Ocean Jasper with a quartz pocket  Carnelian  I believe this is a dugway geode  |
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Post by pebblesky on Oct 9, 2024 11:19:51 GMT -5
The 2nd piece also looks like Indian Green Moss Agate.
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Post by chris1956 on Oct 9, 2024 11:21:24 GMT -5
I think the second one could make a cab for this month's cab contest.
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wargrafix
Cave Dweller
Member since June 2023
Posts: 1,085
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Post by wargrafix on Oct 9, 2024 11:26:52 GMT -5
They may have labelled it wrong. I wish I knew how to cab.  |
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Post by whalecottagedesigns on Oct 9, 2024 23:32:28 GMT -5
That moss agate looks lovely! And between you and me, cabbing is really not that hard, you could literally have a go and come up with something decent in a day already! The biggest issue is that it is pretty necessary to have a cabbing machine of some sort! If your pockets are not bulging, then find your closest lapidary/rock/gem club and go visit them, they will most likely show you the different ways you can approach cabbing, and most likely you can book time on their on-site cabbing machines. And will give you good pointers on finding a second hand machine. Most of the machines are like tractors, they will last a looong time! And if you have specific questions about approaching cabbing, post them here, the folks are seriously helpful! :-) I promise, it is not brain surgery, you are at the very basics of it just scratching at rocks with finer and finer scratchy things until they polish like crazy!
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titaniumkid
spending too much on rocks
Member since June 2023
Posts: 499
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Post by titaniumkid on Oct 10, 2024 3:16:38 GMT -5
Nice collection! I love when rocks have little quartz pockets. They add interest and are very pretty.
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wargrafix
Cave Dweller
Member since June 2023
Posts: 1,085
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Post by wargrafix on Oct 10, 2024 7:44:36 GMT -5
That moss agate looks lovely! And between you and me, cabbing is really not that hard, you could literally have a go and come up with something decent in a day already! The biggest issue is that it is pretty necessary to have a cabbing machine of some sort! If your pockets are not bulging, then find your closest lapidary/rock/gem club and go visit them, they will most likely show you the different ways you can approach cabbing, and most likely you can book time on their on-site cabbing machines. And will give you good pointers on finding a second hand machine. Most of the machines are like tractors, they will last a looong time! And if you have specific questions about approaching cabbing, post them here, the folks are seriously helpful! :-) I promise, it is not brain surgery, you are at the very basics of it just scratching at rocks with finer and finer scratchy things until they polish like crazy! Sadly those options are not available as we have not such clubs in trinidad. I manually polish my rocks and geodes via sandpaper...by hand. Because i am ghetto like that |
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Post by whalecottagedesigns on Oct 10, 2024 19:53:47 GMT -5
That moss agate looks lovely! And between you and me, cabbing is really not that hard, you could literally have a go and come up with something decent in a day already! The biggest issue is that it is pretty necessary to have a cabbing machine of some sort! If your pockets are not bulging, then find your closest lapidary/rock/gem club and go visit them, they will most likely show you the different ways you can approach cabbing, and most likely you can book time on their on-site cabbing machines. And will give you good pointers on finding a second hand machine. Most of the machines are like tractors, they will last a looong time! And if you have specific questions about approaching cabbing, post them here, the folks are seriously helpful! :-) I promise, it is not brain surgery, you are at the very basics of it just scratching at rocks with finer and finer scratchy things until they polish like crazy! Sadly those options are not available as we have not such clubs in trinidad. I manually polish my rocks and geodes via sandpaper...by hand. Because i am ghetto like that You are working your material though! The only real difference is that it takes longer, but you can make as perfect a cabochon or worked rock as anybody else. And maybe you will be the person to start a lapidary club there! I am sorta/maybe considering doing the same thing here, as we also do not have a lapidary/gem/rock club here in the desert! If you get an opportunity, check out @layton_robertson_kaiwhakairo on Instagram or Youtube, he does his work even more old school, does not even allow himself sandpaper, based on how the Māori worked rock in the ago. Absolutely incredible! I saw Lapidary Dave use an old tile saw - where he was just putting diamond wheels of varying grits where the saw blade would go. And of course they do not have to be diamond wheels, they can be sandpaper glued to a wood back, many people still swear by and use wet/dry corundum sandpaper as it is significantly cheaper than diamond laps. If I had not been fortunate to be able to afford a cabbing machine I would have tried that, or else make up something with an old clothes drier machine motor perhaps. I have seen someone do that, put the motor below a clothes bucket on YouTube, and it appeared to work ok! As long as you keep safety in mind, and work under water, there are so many things one could try at bare bones level! We are whiteys from Southern Africa and a pretty un-monied background, I got my first pair of shoes when I was 9 - school insisted (hee hee) so we certainly know how to make a plan with what one can find! |
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wargrafix
Cave Dweller
Member since June 2023
Posts: 1,085
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Post by wargrafix on Oct 10, 2024 22:16:41 GMT -5
Funny enough, the president of our astronomy club was in south Africa recently for a conference of the IAU. If I were not working I would have been there.
Trinidad is mostly crappy quartzite/ Sandstone. No real volcanic past. So our rocks tend to be meh. Little one still likes to rockhound at the beach. I had forgotten my passion for rocks until my aunt in law bought little one a geode box (nat geo) and it was like an old switch in my brain getting turned on. I polish ( depending how smooth the original cut) with 150 grit and move up to 10k.
People like agate dad, michigan rocks, currently rockhouding are channels I follow with a smattering of others.
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wargrafix
Cave Dweller
Member since June 2023
Posts: 1,085
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Post by wargrafix on Oct 10, 2024 22:21:18 GMT -5
Well you just blew my mind. I never thought of using the diamond pads on the tile saw.....I use the corondum wet/dry sandpaper
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Post by whalecottagedesigns on Oct 10, 2024 23:27:41 GMT -5
I cannot take credit for that, Lapidary Dave had a YouTube video on it!
We have the same situation, we are expat Saffers who live and work in the UAE, for 24 years now, and there is diddly here too, mostly desert and sandstone. I have found decayed epidote layering and I know there is apparently marble somewhere south of Al Ain, probably in the Hajar mountains, but that is all!
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Post by 1dave on Oct 14, 2024 8:25:58 GMT -5
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wargrafix
Cave Dweller
Member since June 2023
Posts: 1,085
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Post by wargrafix on Oct 20, 2024 9:31:53 GMT -5
Another carnelian  Mookaite jasper  Prehnite  What do you all think? |
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Post by whalecottagedesigns on Oct 20, 2024 19:45:26 GMT -5
Great pieces to work with! I quite like Prehnite.. :-)
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rockinrenn
starting to shine!
Member since December 2023
Posts: 37
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Post by rockinrenn on Oct 20, 2024 21:09:00 GMT -5
wargrafix I hate to be a spoil sport but I think your Dugway Geode is probably not from Dugway, Utah. It is quite different from the hundreds I have seen in my day. I probably have over 100 of them in my backyard and the rhyolite matrix is very gray in color and not brown. The one you picture is beautiful, but probably from somewhere else. Best Wishes.
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RWA3006
Cave Dweller
Member since March 2009
Posts: 4,625 
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Post by RWA3006 on Oct 20, 2024 22:08:00 GMT -5
wargrafix I hate to be a spoil sport but I think your Dugway Geode is probably not from Dugway, Utah. It is quite different from the hundreds I have seen in my day. I probably have over 100 of them in my backyard and the rhyolite matrix is very gray in color and not brown. The one you picture is beautiful, but probably from somewhere else. Best Wishes. Concur. I've dug and have seen many hundreds of them from Dugway and this one doesn't look consistent with what I've seen from that area. |
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wargrafix
Cave Dweller
Member since June 2023
Posts: 1,085
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Post by wargrafix on Oct 21, 2024 2:05:53 GMT -5
Ohhh, it's OK. The seller had it listed as such. When I cut it I wasn't sure. What do think it might be?
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Post by 1dave on Oct 21, 2024 8:18:22 GMT -5
It is not a Dugway unless it is from the outskirts somewhere. This Dugway may be close.  I don't recognize it from any of the other locations I know about. |
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wargrafix
Cave Dweller
Member since June 2023
Posts: 1,085
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Post by wargrafix on Oct 21, 2024 12:14:27 GMT -5
I have a few others with a similar structure
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wargrafix
Cave Dweller
Member since June 2023
Posts: 1,085
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Post by wargrafix on Oct 21, 2024 19:35:03 GMT -5
The other side of the cut  Interesting mineral growth  |
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