Sabre52
Cave Dweller
Me and my gal, Rosie
Member since August 2005
Posts: 20,487
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Post by Sabre52 on Dec 16, 2014 9:14:48 GMT -5
Howdy folks, had some free time yesterday PM. Had a trail ride with some folks from Venezuela on Sunday late so I was pooped. Nice to just sit awhile and read a book while I let the saw run. Cut three more Rios. here are a few pics.....Mel Kind of an ehh moss, kind of crystalline and a bit porous. This is an end cut. It was a bit large for my saw and not exciting enough to slab further. Another disappointment. This had fine poppies on the exterior but was all muddy looking inside. Oh well. My favorite from the day. Nice solid flower garden one cab wonders. Gorgeous in person.
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Post by captbob on Dec 16, 2014 9:36:53 GMT -5
Two questions - Have you worked with these Rios enough that you can kinda tell what the inside will be? And, this horse ride gig... where do you get all the people that want to ride every weekend? < font=curious >
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Sabre52
Cave Dweller
Me and my gal, Rosie
Member since August 2005
Posts: 20,487
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Post by Sabre52 on Dec 16, 2014 10:23:41 GMT -5
Howdy Bob,
I can kind of grade Rios if they are chipped. That usually tells you how glassy they are at the break and a little about the pattern. Pattern often shows in the external patina but color not necessarily so. What one cannot tell is how soft the inclusions, moss etc are. You can't tell that till you cab or tumble the material. A lot of Rios are totally white on the exterior and show nothing of internal pattern or color and those are a total crap shoot. I get surprised both positively and negatively all the time. Also, some of the glassy ones undercut on the inclusions and some of the sort of crystalline/sugary ones actually polish quite well. Rios are a challenging but pretty agate type.
Our ranch has one paid wrangler and IMHO a lazy inattentive f*ck for a paid ranch manager. We have as many as four scheduled wrangler led novice/guest rides per weekend plus lots of what we call open rides that are only for skilled riders that can catch and saddle their own mounts. A couple of us more experienced riders volunteer to help the wrangler ( who is really a fine horsewoman) and watch over the manager ( when he leads rides) on any trail ride where we have a group of novice riders/guests sign up. This is primarily for safety reasons as riding our terrain can get kind of dangerous. It's very rocky here with lots of ups and downs, ravines, trees etc. In addition, I often lead the rides because I know the 30+ miles of trails very well. It's very embarrassing, and can get dangerous, because of the terrain, when the person leading the ride gets lost or, by accident, on one of the more challenging trails.
We are kind of an odd co op set up where guests of property owners are allowed sign up for rides in advance, so on holidays, when a lot of folks have visitors, we can get quite busy. Since the association members here are quite cosmopolitan and often have worked or owned companies abroad ( lots of oil men) we get a ton of international guests. It's really quite fun for us wannabe cowboys but it is a lot of hard work as catching, grooming, and saddling/unsaddling 14 or more horses is a job......Mel
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Fossilman
Cave Dweller
Member since January 2009
Posts: 20,715
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Post by Fossilman on Dec 16, 2014 10:56:28 GMT -5
Liking those cuts Mel...
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bsky4463
fully equipped rock polisher
Member since September 2013
Posts: 1,696
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Post by bsky4463 on Dec 16, 2014 11:59:34 GMT -5
Mel Nice cuts. I know I owe you some photos to contribute to the Rio viewing on the forum. I have been out of saw mode lately. As soon as I get the 18 spinning again I will focus on some of the Rios you sent up. Cheers.
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Post by snowmom on Dec 20, 2014 6:12:12 GMT -5
Howdy Bob, I can kind of grade Rios if they are chipped. That usually tells you how glassy they are at the break and a little about the pattern. Pattern often shows in the external patina but color not necessarily so. What one cannot tell is how soft the inclusions, moss etc are. You can't tell that till you cab or tumble the material. A lot of Rios are totally white on the exterior and show nothing of internal pattern or color and those are a total crap shoot. I get surprised both positively and negatively all the time. Also, some of the glassy ones undercut on the inclusions and some of the sort of crystalline/sugary ones actually polish quite well. Rios are a challenging but pretty agate type. Our ranch has one paid wrangler and IMHO a lazy inattentive f*ck for a paid ranch manager. We have as many as four scheduled wrangler led novice/guest rides per weekend plus lots of what we call open rides that are only for skilled riders that can catch and saddle their own mounts. A couple of us more experienced riders volunteer to help the wrangler ( who is really a fine horsewoman) and watch over the manager ( when he leads rides) on any trail ride where we have a group of novice riders/guests sign up. This is primarily for safety reasons as riding our terrain can get kind of dangerous. It's very rocky here with lots of ups and downs, ravines, trees etc. In addition, I often lead the rides because I know the 30+ miles of trails very well. It's very embarrassing, and can get dangerous, because of the terrain, when the person leading the ride gets lost or, by accident, on one of the more challenging trails. We are kind of an odd co op set up where guests of property owners are allowed sign up for rides in advance, so on holidays, when a lot of folks have visitors, we can get quite busy. Since the association members here are quite cosmopolitan and often have worked or owned companies abroad ( lots of oil men) we get a ton of international guests. It's really quite fun for us wannabe cowboys but it is a lot of hard work as catching, grooming, and saddling/unsaddling 14 or more horses is a job......Mel sounds a lot like heaven to me.
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Post by adam on Dec 20, 2014 14:07:13 GMT -5
Them stones are like a blast of bright, speckled warm colors. Man they might look even better if given a little touch up.
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Post by pghram on Dec 20, 2014 17:42:48 GMT -5
The poppies don't look that bad, not bad at all. I think you could get some keepers from those.
Rich
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matt2432
starting to spend too much on rocks
Member since December 2014
Posts: 171
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Post by matt2432 on Dec 25, 2014 17:59:08 GMT -5
Never get tired of those Rios. Can't wait to get my hands on some.
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