Bunch of different colors added w/closeup photos

I wack next to a steep hill. The bottom of the hill gets pommelled by very sharp cores of silicified razor sharp chunks that get rolled down(reject sections,etc). The heated stuff is real easy to break. If
you chip them while they are hot a one once hammer will tear em up.

Not so many patterns Rich but lots of colors.

The skin off the coral is the prettiest part. Hard to slab that stuff Jim. It is easy to chip though.

I am getting better at predicting the color Dave. If there is no iron color in the coral like yellow orange red or brown it probably will not change unless it has salt(i think it is salt).
I guess i can look at 2/3 of them and tell close. But a great deal of the best color comes from a very few of 100's of coral heads. I had collected coral for years to sell as sawn specimens
to sell to the interior decorating business. Just in the last year have i collected for heating. But i am getting along well w/the colors and learning what does what.
I run into guys over the years collecting coral for knapping. We compete a little so i sort of avoid them. But i have helped them get coral that would work for their uses. Most of them know
well what they are doing though. Most that they collect is a common color that is dense and fracture free. It cooks best too.
My focus is color and it often comes from the outside 1 inch layer of the coral head requiring 'surgery' to remove it. That's why you see most of the color there. That is probably 200 pounds of pieces that
i chipped off of 600 pounds of coral. Often when collecting i use a 3 pound sledge and knock the skin off of heads that way 100 or more pounds right there in the field. Or i collect the already broken stuff that ancient man piled at the shoals.
There is so much variety it would take several lifetimes to get a decent collection of all the colors. I visited you at stonesandbones. I am a member of a couple of artifact forums but rarely visit them. I collected for 30 years and slowed down due to the lack of ground disturbing construction and plow farming. And strict Florida laws...

Jim, that is about 1/2 of the load from a 4 night trip last week. I have about added more and up to almost 250 pounds. So out of 1200 pounds i brought home i will get 400+ pounds of those what i call el primos. It will speed up when i learn more about collecting for heatable stuff.

I have about a ton of rough but it is for specimens and not for color. It is fun to play with Jim. My hobby. Thanks for noticing.

Are you going vacuum or pressure? Mel said metal-salts too. The salt is interesting. Coral in salt water has a lot of black.

I did use a convection counter top oven but recently switched to this old welding rod oven. It is unattached to my wife unlike the kitchen oven:)
If i dry the coral out for a half day at 200 i can cook it hotter to get crazier color. Especially if it is grainy and not glassy material..

Lucky you to have Flint Ridge. Chuck shared some with me and it is fine .


forum.rocktumblinghobby.com/thread/61701/industrial-rock-cooking-oven

It is porous. More than you would ever think. Full of microscopic capillaries. Like no silicification i have ever seen. That is why the color is so much deeper if you
vacuum seal it with vaseline.
Building a 4000 is big deal. And to have a door is also big deal. But vacuum and vacuum pump is pretty simple and good bit safer. I thought about doing a vacuum deal.
I was going to look up a vacuum pump from the industrial salvage place in oklahoma....surplus center..

Ok, small gast vane pumps on ebay for $100 that pull 11-12 psi. Since flow means nothing you could pull that level with tiny 1/8 HP Gast Vane. May take few minutes but then you turn it off and walk away
whilst the chemicals get sucked into the rock. Dealing w/implosion instead of explosion. Vacuum is obnoxious. It will attack efficiently.