jamesp
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Member since October 2012
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Post by jamesp on Jul 9, 2014 12:54:25 GMT -5
I am happy to find these bigger corallites finally. The color is typical of Indonesian coral, meaning i can cook that dull yellow color to pink. They heat treat most of their coral too. added bonus of sparkles(not visible in photos)
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Post by kap on Jul 9, 2014 13:03:56 GMT -5
NICE! You are going to have to stop posting these pictures you are killing me! I want to go digging!
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panamark
fully equipped rock polisher
Member since September 2012
Posts: 1,343
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Post by panamark on Jul 9, 2014 14:19:46 GMT -5
Those are spectacular. As good or better than a lot of the Indo stuff. Congrats. Pls post pics when heat treated to pink Thanks!
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Post by jakesrocks on Jul 9, 2014 15:08:59 GMT -5
James, it bears a very close resemblance to the Tisbury star coral from England. Nice find. should cut some sweet looking cabs. Broken chip of Tisbury.
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Post by snowmom on Jul 9, 2014 15:18:30 GMT -5
wow!
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jamesp
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Post by jamesp on Jul 9, 2014 15:57:02 GMT -5
NICE! You are going to have to stop posting these pictures you are killing me! I want to go digging! Would it better for you if they were PM'ed to you instead of posted ? I better shut my trap and behave so as to avoid left tied to a tree for gator fodder. Or a mutiny. Aw, what the heck, this 9 pounder just kerchunked in the saw Close-up in case interested, one tiny inclusion. darn And a 22 pounder before that, too tall for the saw
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jamesp
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Post by jamesp on Jul 9, 2014 16:05:24 GMT -5
James, it bears a very close resemblance to the Tisbury star coral from England. Nice find. should cut some sweet looking cabs. The surface is about the same on the ones with defined corallites. That rough texture. It will tear you up. Donny makes cabs out of that Tisbury. Made a trip into Florida to get these.
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Fossilman
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Post by Fossilman on Jul 9, 2014 16:30:43 GMT -5
Beautiful........
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jamesp
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Post by jamesp on Jul 9, 2014 16:36:57 GMT -5
Those are spectacular. As good or better than a lot of the Indo stuff. Congrats. Pls post pics when heat treated to pink Thanks! Not quite Mark. The strong light enhances the structure. The Indo would blow it away under same conditions. But it is a new location, and I got interrupted by target shooters. They were on the other side of the river and the target was my side of the river. As Arnold says, I will be back.
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Sabre52
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Me and my gal, Rosie
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Post by Sabre52 on Jul 9, 2014 16:56:02 GMT -5
Good grief James! In my humble opinion your coral is easily as nice as the Indonesian material and that's without their heat treating too. fantastic polyp patterns and that blue one, man, that puppy is blue with a big "B"!......Mel
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jamesp
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Post by jamesp on Jul 9, 2014 16:59:43 GMT -5
Good grief James! In my humble opinion your coral is easily as nice as the Indonesian material and that's without their heat treating too. fantastic polyp patterns and that blue one, man, that puppy is blue with a big "B"!......Mel I finally found that stuff. Man I am glad I have access. I know they shut down access to so many collecting spots. Hope they wait till i am dead and gone before they start that stuff over here.
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quartz
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breakin' rocks in the hot sun
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Post by quartz on Jul 9, 2014 23:46:38 GMT -5
Those are some really fine pieces, our compliments. Seems you found a good "blue place", man that stuff is nice to look at. The one with the big corallites is really special, lucky you doesn't really fit, good diligence does.
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jamesp
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Post by jamesp on Jul 10, 2014 3:18:48 GMT -5
Those are some really fine pieces, our compliments. Seems you found a good "blue place", man that stuff is nice to look at. The one with the big corallites is really special, lucky you doesn't really fit, good diligence does. I think the bigger corallite type coral above is a deeper water coral. I went down into Florida that day and the limestone bedrock/ancient sea floor was lower in altitude meaning deeper water back in that era. Maybe the larger windows were needed for darker deeper water ?? These corals are full of water. It takes the oven at least 30-40 hours at 200F to dry them out. If you take them past boiling point/212F they are fractured to pieces if wet. I set them on black rubber liner in full hot sun and dry them out over several months to save electricity. I went to get that blue one and noticed it had baby blue powder all over it after drying some in the sun. So some kind of weird chemical must be the culprit in turning them blue.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Jul 10, 2014 14:26:10 GMT -5
#1) nice rocks. Great find.
#2) baby powder on dried corals sounds like dehydrated clay to me.
#3) would love to know the source of the 'blue' as well.
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Post by rockpickerforever on Jul 10, 2014 15:11:52 GMT -5
WOW, sparkly, coral supreme! I think it was worth waiting for.
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quartz
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breakin' rocks in the hot sun
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Post by quartz on Jul 10, 2014 22:47:24 GMT -5
Blue is generally copper by my understanding.
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jamesp
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Post by jamesp on Jul 11, 2014 3:46:08 GMT -5
Blue is generally copper by my understanding. One thing is for sure Larry, it is a chemical/compound in black organic muck. Very well could be dissolved copper in that muck or something in the algae coating. Nasty black muck that has settled in the river. And you got to run your hands through it and feel for the abrasive coral heads, as visibility is nil.
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jamesp
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Post by jamesp on Jul 11, 2014 4:13:11 GMT -5
#1) nice rocks. Great find. #2) baby powder on dried corals sounds like dehydrated clay to me. #3) would love to know the source of the 'blue' as well. This one must weigh 300 pounds. That is the tip, most of it in the clay. The weight was negligible though, I bent a 3 foot pry bar on it- due to the clay holding it. Another next to it was another that I gave up on. Both were not very blue, as they were above the black muck. These were blue and out of the black muck. You can see the clay line on them and you can see the water facing side with the green algae. Reviewing these photos it appears that the algae is what turned into baby blue powder once dried. The coral to the far left in the below photo is the 9 pounder above. And it was the patch of green algae facing the camera that turned blue. These corals are so well silicified. No pulp, just solid and no cracks so far. That 9 and 22 pounder was like a chunk of glass. Have more to cut. Hoping they are not pulpy in the center.
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jamesp
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Post by jamesp on Jul 11, 2014 4:42:11 GMT -5
WOW, sparkly, coral supreme! I think it was worth waiting for. Setting slabs aside for you to tinker with Jean. Got blue and got corallites with sparkies. Got some other colored experiments in the cooker to slice too, including some with corallites that may turn pink or orange. Sawing them in 80% kerosene/20% clean 10W-40 mix. poor man's saw oil, sorry. I cleaned out the 18 inch saw and put the sludge in a fire pit. It burned for half a day. A fine grayish white dust resembling talc powder was left, 6 gallons of it. It was very hard to ignite this sludge. The motor oil makes it hard to ignite. I wonder if I could sell it-'Baby powder for Bikers'-ha.
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Post by rockpickerforever on Jul 11, 2014 6:38:09 GMT -5
Bring it on, James! That coral is so hard, how is it on your saw blade?
Baby powder for bikers, okaaay. Sure bet you wouldn't want to inhale that stuff. Probably worse for the lungs than smoking, what with the grit and all.
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