Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Aug 23, 2013 21:19:00 GMT -5
I recall someone recently selling granite chunks off Mt. Rushmore that had been collected back during its carving. Perhaps that would be a good material.
If you wanted to go all metal and pricey, something like josephinite or a slice of a U.S. meteorite (e.g., Canyon Diablo) that shows Widmanstätten patterning might also be nice. California or Alaska gold-in-quartz (also spendy) would harken back to the Gold Rush days when mine owners would craft gems for their tables, walking sticks, etc.
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Post by helens on Aug 23, 2013 21:23:36 GMT -5
Well, those wouldn't be VISUALLY recognizable as US rocks... tho I have to agree any of those would be amazing r2d:).
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Post by helens on Aug 23, 2013 21:39:54 GMT -5
I recall someone recently selling granite chunks off Mt. Rushmore that had been collected back during its carving. Perhaps that would be a good material. If you wanted to go all metal and pricey, something like josephinite or a slice of a U.S. meteorite (e.g., Canyon Diablo) that shows Widmanstätten patterning might also be nice. California or Alaska gold-in-quartz (also spendy) would harken back to the Gold Rush days when mine owners would craft gems for their tables, walking sticks, etc. I just looked up josephinite... how do you differentiate it from slag metal??? It looks just like a hunk of molten iron or steel slag? ![???](//storage.proboards.com/forum/images/smiley/huh.png) ?
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Post by jakesrocks on Aug 23, 2013 22:19:02 GMT -5
Happiness is a Buck folding hunter, stamped Made in the U.S.A., with real rosewood scales. Had it since the 70's, and it still holds a razor edge. Maybe one of these days I'll re-scale it with good old Lavic Jasper.
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Sabre52
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Post by Sabre52 on Aug 23, 2013 22:33:49 GMT -5
Yeah Don, I have an old Buck I've been eyeballing as a project too.
Helen: I did some searching and found several references that say that while dinosaur bones are fund in many countries, gem dino bone, well agatized and colorful, is only known from the four corners region of America ( the Colorado plateau) parts of Utah, New Mexico, Arizona and Colorado. If you think abut it, that's where all those colorful sedimentary rocks occur ( ie Painted desert, Chinle, Morrison formation etc). And, that's also where some of the more colorful rainbow type wood comes from too......Mel
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Sabre52
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Post by Sabre52 on Aug 23, 2013 22:42:31 GMT -5
I have a couple of cabs I cut from lapidary quality Josephinite which the guy I swapped it from said is called Siskiyou Stone. It appears to be Josephinite in quartz matrix. Really pretty stuff and takes a good polish with ease. Appears stable too so it would probably make an awesome knife scale.....Mel
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Post by jakesrocks on Aug 23, 2013 22:46:09 GMT -5
Also Bruneau or any of the picture jaspers. Biggs, Owyhee, etc.
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Post by helens on Aug 23, 2013 23:02:35 GMT -5
I just realized I have one of those Buck 110s from the 1970s somewhere!!!!! I just have to figure out where I put it!!! I'm glad you brought that up, hope I can find it.
Mel, it does make sense. I haven't seen any dino gembone from anywhere else either. Just looked on Ebay and couldn't find any not from the US, or on google. That's really interesting, I wondered if it was because the fossils elsewhere didn't get colorful fill, or because people elsewhere never thought to slice up any dino bone. Am learning a lot from this thread:).
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Post by helens on Aug 23, 2013 23:12:47 GMT -5
I have a couple of cabs I cut from lapidary quality Josephinite which the guy I swapped it from said is called Siskiyou Stone. It appears to be Josephinite in quartz matrix. Really pretty stuff and takes a good polish with ease. Appears stable too so it would probably make an awesome knife scale.....Mel I was sold this preform as Joesephine's Crown... which I thought was just pyrite with quartz. Is this josephinite? It grinds pure silver but reacted with the other stones I was grinding (bumblebee, hematite and shattuckite that same day) some of which might have been acidic. Is Josephine's crown josephinite? ![http://sphotos-b-atl.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-prn2/1173640_10151869901118689_2114997880_n.jpg](http://sphotos-b-atl.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-prn2/1173640_10151869901118689_2114997880_n.jpg) Another angle: ![http://fbcdn-sphotos-d-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-ash3/564999_10151869901083689_1489881153_n.jpg](http://fbcdn-sphotos-d-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-ash3/564999_10151869901083689_1489881153_n.jpg)
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Post by deb193redux on Aug 24, 2013 0:24:40 GMT -5
dino bone may be better than picture jasper
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Post by helens on Aug 24, 2013 0:30:41 GMT -5
dino bone may be better than picture jasper I'm not sure about putting that on a knife... I know it's agate, but I'd feel way worse about damaging it...
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Aug 24, 2013 2:27:22 GMT -5
I just looked up josephinite... how do you differentiate it from slag metal??? It looks just like a hunk of molten iron or steel slag? ![???](//storage.proboards.com/forum/images/smiley/huh.png) ? You differentiate it the same way you would a metallic meteorite from metal slag. Some josephinite will even etch out Widmanstätten-type patterns. It grinds pure silver but reacted with the other stones I was grinding (bumblebee, hematite and shattuckite that same day) some of which might have been acidic. Is Josephine's crown josephinite? No, Josephine's Crown is a mix of various metals and quartz. Gorgeous piece, btw. Pulsite is a similar material from the same SE Oregon area. I've heard many claims about the variety of metals in both Josephine's Crown and pulsite, but not that they held any josephinite. On the other hand, josephinite (aka, awaruite for the New Zealand version) is a nickel-iron alloy from deep within the Earth's mantle that is otherwise known only from nickel-iron meteorites. The difference between meteoric nickel-iron and josephinite/awaruite is that it took gigantic collisions to break up planetoids and throw out the metallic meteors. They don't know how the josephenite/awaruite made it to the earth's surface or why it's only found in any quantity in 2 locations (IIRC, most other sites are supposed to be either meteoric material or micro grains).
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Fossilman
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Post by Fossilman on Aug 24, 2013 10:48:16 GMT -5
The Montana Moss agate.........
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Post by helens on Aug 24, 2013 13:00:34 GMT -5
Thanks for all the great and informative info guys! So quick compilation of the most visually recognizable US rocks (I'm sure there's a lot more, and of course all indigenous rocks from the US are US rocks, but of the ones that on sight most people would say that's an American rock): 1. Picture Jaspers (including: Owyhee, Biggs, Deschutes) 2. Dino Gembone 3. Llanite 4. Az rainbow petrified wood 5. Candy Rhyolite / Nevada Wonderstone (are there rocks found in other nations that resemble this?) 6. Flints- Alibates, Ohio Flint Ridge Flint (are there flints from other nations that resemble this?) 7. Gold in Quartz (is this only found in the US?) Thanks for the info on Josephine's crown R2d:). Fossilman- Montana moss looks like some mosses found in Germany and Scotland (per mindat): www.mindat.org/min-2791.htmlSo would that be the entire list of immediately recognizable US rocks? Hope this list helps anyone looking to make something uniquely American in the future too.
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Post by mohs on Aug 24, 2013 13:15:08 GMT -5
well I'm thinking some good ole American Blues Rock
maybe some robertjohnsonite ?
which is thorolygood mostly
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Post by johnjsgems on Aug 24, 2013 18:38:34 GMT -5
The problem really is the USA is too big to have a US rock. There are many regional specific wonderful rocks but nothing found across the entire country. Most states if not all have a state rock so just make 50 knives.
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Post by helens on Aug 24, 2013 18:52:27 GMT -5
I think I'll be hard pressed to make 1 knife. I was just curious what THE MOST RECOGNIZABLY US rock might be, or at least those most apparent.
If I see Noreena or Mookaite, I think Australia. If I see Charoite, I think Russia. If I see dark jade, I think BC Canada. etc etc.
I know every place has a plethora of rocks. I was just curious what would be the most instantly recognizably American rock might be, without needing explanation or analysis:).
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gemfeller
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Post by gemfeller on Aug 24, 2013 19:08:50 GMT -5
The problem really is the USA is too big to have a US rock. There are many regional specific wonderful rocks but nothing found across the entire country. Most states if not all have a state rock so just make 50 knives. I know what you mean but actually the official U.S. gemstone is tourmaline, honoring the world-class tourmaline deposits in California and Maine. Coast-to-coast as it were. But gem-grade tourmaline from either state would be seriously expensive for knife scales if pieces large enough could be found. And it wouldn't be readily identifiable as American tourmaline except by experts. Tourmaline deposits are pretty widespread internationally. I think picture jasper of some sort might be the best idea so far but there's no way to predict whether similar materials will be found elsewhere. The Royal Sahara picture jasper from north Africa already looks a lot like some Deschutes and Biggs.
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Post by mohs on Aug 24, 2013 21:00:41 GMT -5
Plymouth Rock mostly
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Post by Deleted on Aug 24, 2013 21:50:32 GMT -5
I know what you mean but actually the official U.S. gemstone is tourmaline, honoring the world-class tourmaline deposits in California and Maine. I've also heard and read the claim that the U.S. has an official national gemstone (some say tourmaline, some say turquoise, some say sapphire), but it has yet to happen and likely never will. Bills have been introduced into Congress over the last several decades for all of these, but as far as I have been able to determine, all of them have quickly died. I completely agree with your comment that it would probably be best to use something unique to the U.S.
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