Tommy
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Post by Tommy on May 21, 2013 0:12:34 GMT -5
We hit up a massive rock sale yesterday - an older couple from my club were selling off 40 years of rock collecting from according to her at least 11 different states. My brother and I spent several hours digging to the bottom of the largest of several piles of rocks - We could have easily filled 10 milk crates and not made a dent - but I limited myself to one - weighing about 75 lbs I think - and my brother filled four. This is my haul - if you recognize anything let me know.  A certain type of plume agate - the old man thought it might have come from Sheep Bridge in AZ but he couldn't remember.   This rock is solid purple - weighs about 10lbs  mucho picture jasper - unsure of the locations  Plume agate  Something solid and green  Blue - solid through  Blue - outside shell only (seemingly)  Amethyst  Thanks for looking :-) |
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Sabre52
Cave Dweller 
Me and my gal, Rosie
Member since August 2005
Posts: 20,490
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Post by Sabre52 on May 21, 2013 18:13:52 GMT -5
Great haul. The big purple one looks really interesting....Mel
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on May 21, 2013 20:53:25 GMT -5
nice haul!
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Post by paulshiroma on May 21, 2013 21:37:01 GMT -5
What an awesome sale. Great pickup, Tommy! I commend you on your restraint. I'm not sure I could have stopped at one crate.
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Tommy
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Post by Tommy on May 21, 2013 22:12:27 GMT -5
It was a money issue Paul :-) at a $1 a pound price on everything I had a one-crate budget and had to move a few rocks into my brother's crates at the end - It's OK because I'll steal them back later ;-) Mel I broke a little piece off the purple rock and I can tell you two things - it is bloody hard - harder than brazilian agates I've worked on and it takes a mirror shine. I tried to shape it on my diamond grinder just to get the matrix off and after twenty minutes I had gotten NOwhere with it. I'm going to try to do my first specific gravity test...  |
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Tommy
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Post by Tommy on May 21, 2013 23:11:17 GMT -5
If I did the specific gravity test correctly I came up with 2.62. don't know if that helps anyone...after discovering how hard it is my curiosity is peaking now.
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Post by Toad on May 22, 2013 14:13:03 GMT -5
Is it Burro Creek?
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on May 22, 2013 16:44:34 GMT -5
Burro creek... hmmm...
I have a few pieces of burro creek. Tim and Brian were very generous with their stone.
The color is correct, but the yellow skin is problematic. Mine do not have this. Maybe Beefjello & Tim will weigh in on the burro creek.
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Tommy
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Post by Tommy on May 22, 2013 16:51:38 GMT -5
Thanks for the input guys. Burro creek is a good idea but I'm with Scott - color is close but the matrix and consistency is different. I also have some burro creek at home I'll check it against it tonight and maybe get a picture up if possible.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on May 28, 2013 12:52:29 GMT -5
puts it squarely in the world of agate/jaspers.
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Post by helens on May 28, 2013 19:56:13 GMT -5
Looks like McDermitt Purple Cow to me. Does it have any RED in the purple at all anywhere? A while ago, Michael Hoover traded me some slabettes of insane old stock material because his wife liked a pendant I made (it's where I got the old belvade from too). That was when I was on a hoard everything slabette kick so I could just cab everything I got without cutting. Brown skin, very purple and gemmy clear in spots, with some lighter areas, but some RED in there too... (not all over). It's a pretty wild looking purple... although your piece looks more uniformly colored (but that could just be the piece itself). NO dendrites at all in the Purple Cow, but when sliced up, looks like wispy clouds in the purple. Here's some pieces of the old McDermitt Purple Cow:    I see some white in your purple rock... and as you can see from the above, the original rocks were sort of pancake shaped too, plus the skin is brown... but I see no red streaks (but not all purple cow has red streaks) so maybe:). |
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Tommy
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Post by Tommy on May 29, 2013 9:55:44 GMT -5
Thanks Helen, I'm not sure really. I see little streaks of red but I don't see any hint of transparency on the edges - maybe that will change inside the rock. I'm headed up to my brother's house the weekend of the 7th and that will be one of the first ones we cut.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on May 29, 2013 10:06:28 GMT -5
McDermitt purple cow?? What a creative name for a gorgeous stone.
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Tommy
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Post by Tommy on May 29, 2013 10:27:30 GMT -5
I agree - that is an incredibly beautiful stone - my fingers are crossed that it turns out to be that.
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Tommy
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Post by Tommy on May 29, 2013 11:06:21 GMT -5
While we are on the subject of cutting purple rocks – this is another beauty I found the first time through the sale – we think Burro Creek agate. I gave it to my brother and he started cutting it Monday and sent me this picture.  |
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Post by helens on May 29, 2013 11:38:46 GMT -5
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on May 29, 2013 15:42:38 GMT -5
Perhaps the Arizona boys will have some input as to Burro Creek. Dendrites??
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Tommy
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Post by Tommy on Jun 11, 2013 23:38:06 GMT -5
A quick update on the solid purple rock... turned out to not be quite so solid LOL. I tried to cut it this weekend and it turned out to be completely fractured inside and fell apart in the saw. I left about half the rock up with my brother so he can work with it on his smaller saw and try to get some usable slabs.  Like I said earlier it's a VERY very hard stone - harder than some agates I've worked on and it takes a high shine. I'll get some smaller cabs out of it for sure but overall I'm very disappointed on how it went.  |
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Post by helens on Jun 12, 2013 0:02:05 GMT -5
The cut pieces don't look like purple cow.... purple cow has some red and white in it.
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zarguy
fully equipped rock polisher
Cedar City, Utah - rockhound heaven!
Member since December 2005
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Post by zarguy on Jun 20, 2013 13:42:57 GMT -5
The first purple one you asked about doesn't look like it has a conchoidial fracture as agate does, more like the way quartz fractures.
The purple one in the slab saw looks like dendritic Tiffany Stone (Bertrandite) from the Brush Wellman Mine near Delta Utah. That stuff is expensive when you can find it. Cabs I cut from it go for big bucks.
Lynn
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