bcrockhound
spending too much on rocks
Member since June 2014
Posts: 418
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Post by bcrockhound on Jul 29, 2014 23:29:16 GMT -5
I went out looking for rhodonite today but drove by a river with a gravel bar and couldn't help but give it a look. 12 hours and a broken, sunburned back later, I made it home. I find Flowerstone on Vancouver Island beaches fairly commonly but this time I found a lot of it in one place. Some pictures of finds today. Thanks for looking! Little ones, the first I saw One in the water. I just waded around all day knee deep grabbing these guys. Felt kind of like JamesP but gladly no alligators around here. I am scared of bears though. Bottom right is Dallasite, left is Flowerstone, and are the top two petrified wood? There is lots of quartz and what looks like quartzy wood (or quartz with other stuff in it) in the rivers here. I am assuming that is pretty much common everywhere? Flowerstone, still with river scum bcrockhound.com/2014/07/29/stumbling-on-flowerstone/
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Jul 30, 2014 7:05:09 GMT -5
The flower stone is way cool. How is it to work and polish?
The white stone looks a lot like opal wood that I find occasionally. Jim
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Sabre52
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Me and my gal, Rosie
Member since August 2005
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Post by Sabre52 on Jul 30, 2014 7:54:50 GMT -5
Wow that first flower stone is freaking awesome! I had some Japanese farmer friends back in Commiefornia that would have gone nuts over that one.....Mel
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bcrockhound
spending too much on rocks
Member since June 2014
Posts: 418
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Post by bcrockhound on Jul 30, 2014 10:26:21 GMT -5
The flower stone is way cool. How is it to work and polish? The white stone looks a lot like opal wood that I find occasionally. Jim Hey Jim, do you have a picture of the opal wood you find? The rivers here seem to be full of wood-looking pieces that range to completely quartz-looking, but still being a similar shape with some of the woodish markings. Some are colourful. Below are some other ones I assume are wood, but would love being corrected. I'm still not clear on what is wood and what has gone on to produce all the quartz in the rivers. I don't want to confuse petrified wood with a sedimentary rock, nor petrified wood with hunks of quartz. I am sending some flowerstone to Tommy to see what he can do, but I've seen it worked by others and the stuff I was finding today is all solid looking. It's sold as rough in some rock stores on the mainland. I also found a few very lightweight, very roughly textured white rocks with some sort of crust/skin. What the heck are these? They almost don't even strike me as rocks, but maybe some industrial waste or something. Every other rock in the river is smooth and slippery but these guys almost hurt to hold tightly.
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bcrockhound
spending too much on rocks
Member since June 2014
Posts: 418
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Post by bcrockhound on Jul 30, 2014 10:27:33 GMT -5
Wow that first flower stone is freaking awesome! I had some Japanese farmer friends back in Commiefornia that would have gone nuts over that one.....Mel Thanks! Do you have their phone number? Haha.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Jul 30, 2014 11:04:35 GMT -5
I have not messed with the opal wood because it is all white so I could not find a photo in photobucket. I will have to go through my computer photos to find it. I picked up a couple of pieces in Quartzsite also because it has a bit of grain which is not visible in the stuff I have found. Here is a photo of the milky quartz that I find here but it looks like you know what that looks like. The other white photos you posted look like quartz to me. Jim
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panamark
fully equipped rock polisher
Member since September 2012
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Post by panamark on Jul 30, 2014 11:46:02 GMT -5
I am no expert on petwood, but I have field collected a LOT from around the west, probably over 1000 lbs. So I have seen quite a bit of different stuff, and here are my 2cents on those 3: 1) no = just quartz fooler 2) quartz+something = the something is not agatized, but rather coarse which wood fiber occasionally is, but not usually 3) possibly, but probably just another fooler quartz. You can look at it under a scope and maybe tell better But I could be wrong, so take it to a petwood expert for an in-hand examination. If you can see annual rings on the end grain that is a dead give away for pet wood. There are some natural, non-biological fooler stones, but usually that is the easiest method of detecting petwood. HTHelps, Mark
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bcrockhound
spending too much on rocks
Member since June 2014
Posts: 418
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Post by bcrockhound on Jul 30, 2014 12:13:19 GMT -5
Below are some other ones I assume are wood, but would love being corrected. I'm still not clear on what is wood and what has gone on to produce all the quartz in the rivers. I don't want to confuse petrified wood with a sedimentary rock, nor petrified wood with hunks of quartz. I am no expert on petwood, but I have field collected a LOT from around the west, probably over 1000 lbs. So I have seen quite a bit of different stuff, and here are my 2cents on those 3: 1) no = just quartz fooler 2) quartz+something = the something is not agatized, but rather coarse which wood fiber occasionally is, but not usually 3) possibly, but probably just another fooler quartz. You can look at it under a scope and maybe tell better But I could be wrong, so take it to a petwood expert for an in-hand examination. If you can see annual rings on the end grain that is a dead give away for pet wood. There are some natural, non-biological fooler stones, but usually that is the easiest method of detecting petwood. HTHelps, Mark Thank you very much. That is just what I was looking for. There is basically quartz with various junk in it/attached to stuff all over the rivers out here, eh?
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panamark
fully equipped rock polisher
Member since September 2012
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Post by panamark on Jul 30, 2014 12:28:53 GMT -5
Yeah. I don't think Vancouver Island is known to have much petwood. But lots of other nice stuff.
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jamesp
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Post by jamesp on Jul 30, 2014 13:52:32 GMT -5
It my be quartz and gneiss bc. Maybe in the metamorphic category ? Atlanta is mostly metamorphic stuff. Looks familiar. What causes flowerstone ?? Those are fine. That is a fine creek too. beat the heat, hit the water
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bcrockhound
spending too much on rocks
Member since June 2014
Posts: 418
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Post by bcrockhound on Jul 30, 2014 15:53:46 GMT -5
It my be quartz and gneiss bc. Maybe in the metamorphic category ? Atlanta is mostly metamorphic stuff. Looks familiar. What causes flowerstone ?? Those are fine. That is a fine creek too. beat the heat, hit the water Thanks a lot. I'm glad I made this thread. I wasn't believing that there was that much petrified wood around. I find the quartz and its variations so attractive, I have trouble not picking it up. Just a few minutes from where I live, a petrified palm tree is on display at a mall where it was found. Hope to find some myself sometime. www.nanaimo.ca/PublicArtInventory/detail.aspx?id=225A local website describes flowerstone forming as: "Millions of years ago during the formation of Texada Island, geological thrusts caused the Island to rise up from the water. It was during that time that flower-stone "in its volcanic origin" escaped to the surface scattering the material for miles. During cooling the phenocrists of feldspar burst within the porphyry matrix creating the unique flower like patterns." www.texadaislandflowerstoneinc.comFunny comment about Texada Island, where the only known deposit of flowerstone is according to that site: "First Nations people will not go to Texada Island; they believe because the island rose up from the ocean it will fall back into it." I'm not sure what classifies as a deposit but the place I found has hundreds of pounds if not several tons of it. Not all top quality but there's a lot.
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bcrockhound
spending too much on rocks
Member since June 2014
Posts: 418
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Post by bcrockhound on Jul 31, 2014 12:58:02 GMT -5
A picture of the majority of bigger pieces I found. Lighting not so good. The flowers are dimmer on a lot of these guys but very well formed. Some rocks have just a handful of big flowers. Here's where I hid a big one I couldn't get into my bucket. My body is extremely sore. It's a heat wave in BC too and just terrible. Need rain.
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