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Post by Drummond Island Rocks on Jan 4, 2016 20:02:36 GMT -5
These are fresh out of burnish. Some really neat ones this week. I see a couple that I might touch to the grinder and re-run and some have flaws to large to grind out without the rocks losing character and value due to size loss. There are a couple neat pieces of rio agate in here but to be honest I lost patience with the 20 pounds I started and put them aside. I found them to be a very difficult tumble with lots of pits and deep never ending flaws. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 This does not photo well so you will have to trust me when I say its the best one. The clear agate areas almost look like liquid with a whole different looking center. Hard to explain so just come on over and check it out , lol Thanks for looking Chuck
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indiana
spending too much on rocks
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Post by indiana on Jan 4, 2016 20:52:45 GMT -5
18
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Fossilman
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Post by Fossilman on Jan 4, 2016 21:45:20 GMT -5
Beautiful tumbles..................
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Post by Jugglerguy on Jan 4, 2016 21:45:23 GMT -5
When's a good time to stop by? Those might be worth eight hours on the road.
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Tom
fully equipped rock polisher
My dad Tom suddenly passed away yesterday, Just wanted his "rock" family to know.
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Post by Tom on Jan 4, 2016 22:06:04 GMT -5
Great looking tumble chuck. That clear liquid one is cool
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Post by Drummond Island Rocks on Jan 4, 2016 22:46:55 GMT -5
When's a good time to stop by? Those might be worth eight hours on the road. Must be winter in Michigan if it takes you 8 hours,lol Laker collection is getting pretty nice. All the ones I am posting lately and for the next several weeks are from the estate I bought a little while back. The son told me his mom and dad spent all of there vacation time hunting for Lakers.
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herchenx
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Post by herchenx on Jan 4, 2016 23:06:30 GMT -5
Great batch, you've done the estate proud I'd say.
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Post by Jugglerguy on Jan 5, 2016 6:47:10 GMT -5
When's a good time to stop by? Those might be worth eight hours on the road. Must be winter in Michigan if it takes you 8 hours,lol Laker collection is getting pretty nice. All the ones I am posting lately and for the next several weeks are from the estate I bought a little while back. The son told me his mom and dad spent all of there vacation time hunting for Lakers. I thought you'd want me to leave at some point.
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jamesp
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Post by jamesp on Jan 5, 2016 8:01:10 GMT -5
Sweet tumbles Chuck. Catch your point about the Rios. I took a vacation and collected bunch of Rios. Really had to select each rock for to get good tumble material. Tumble size was the target. From a size and 'not beat up' standpoint, the Rios that have little defects were the real nice waxy faced hard agates. It took 4-6 hours to collect 12 pounds of grade A 1-2 inch tumbles verses 100 pounds of 'agates' that were tumble to potato sized and not graded. About one out of 20 larger Rio cobbles windowed and found to have grade A unfractured agate.
It's like 2 types of tumbles I tumble, the less showy coral with almost zero defects or picking colorful Rios out of a 1500 pound stack and wrestling with cracks and pits. Still get excited about a load of carefully prepared load of coral. It may have taken 100 pounds of coral to get 20 pounds of good tumble material. No matter if the are boring grey color, when the tumble is done and the whole batch has no divots/pits or cracks there is satisfaction. The zero defect buzz.
I made a big mistake down in Rio country. The gravel pit had sifted the road size gravel out and cleaned the concrete like caliche off of it. To the side of the quarry was a 3 story pile of 5-20 pound over size uncleaned cobbles that looked like white mud chunks. Shoulda coulda got the hammer and spent time windowing those cobbles. They were the rejects from years of gravel extraction. Cobbles over 5 pounds were few and far between in that whole territory. I have a photo of that pile
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jamesp
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Post by jamesp on Jan 5, 2016 8:13:55 GMT -5
Clean road size gravel to the right, rejected clay and oversize cobbles to left. The reject was probably the treasure of big agates. Never did sample them.
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Post by Drummond Island Rocks on Jan 5, 2016 8:21:37 GMT -5
Clean road size gravel to the right, rejected clay and oversize cobbles to left. The reject was probably the treasure of big agates. Never did sample them. Dang, that's a rockhound's dream pile right there. The two rio's in the post above are really nice but they sure don't come easy. I agree with your post above about taking the time to cherry pick. If I had to guess I would say I throw away a minimum of 10 percent of my rocks at every clean out in stage one. When I am sorting a big part of the process is looking at each rock and determining if the final product will be worth the grit and effort. Toss the duds and make room for beauties. Chuck
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jamesp
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Post by jamesp on Jan 5, 2016 8:24:24 GMT -5
Guessing this is a Rio with the moss floating in clear agate. The mosses in that clear agate were normally free of defects.
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Post by Drummond Island Rocks on Jan 5, 2016 8:30:56 GMT -5
Guessing this is a Rio with the moss floating in clear agate. The mosses in that clear agate were normally free of defects. Yep that one and #4 are the rio's. #4 deserves one of your crazy macro closeups. Chuck
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jamesp
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Post by jamesp on Jan 5, 2016 8:39:32 GMT -5
Clean road size gravel to the right, rejected clay and oversize cobbles to left. The reject was probably the treasure of big agates. Never did sample them. Dang, that's a rockhound's dream pile right there. The two rio's in the post above are really nice but they sure don't come easy. I agree with your post above about taking the time to cherry pick. If I had to guess I would say I throw away a minimum of 10 percent of my rocks at every clean out in stage one. When I am sorting a big part of the process is looking at each rock and determining if the final product will be worth the grit and effort. Toss the duds and make room for beauties. Chuck I have no doubt that some of those big cobbles were pure agate like this. And the high grade waxy stuff would window as if glass or obsidian. Slight tap of hammer and a waxy glass like chip flies off. If the color was there you have 10 pounds of fine agate. You could tell, the grainy cherty stuff was like chipping granite. 10 perfect tumbles worth more than a hundred bad ones. Ruthless sorting pays off. Still irritating to spend time and grit to find out you have a reject.
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jamesp
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Post by jamesp on Jan 5, 2016 8:46:29 GMT -5
I will never forget walking up to that pile of road gravel. First time ever collecting western agates. Dumazz from Georgia, a virgin. I collected this batch from a 5 foot area off the side of the road gravel pile in like 3 minutes. Gentle taps of hammer and the whole lot waxy faced. The background is caliche, and to pry a 2 inch pebble out of it required an 18 inch screw driver hammered in. heart beat at 200...(sorry for hijack, but thought it pertinent)
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Post by Drummond Island Rocks on Jan 5, 2016 9:07:03 GMT -5
I will never forget walking up to that pile of road gravel. First time ever collecting western agates. Dumazz from Georgia, a virgin. I collected this batch from a 5 foot area off the side of the road gravel pile in like 3 minutes. Gentle taps of hammer and the whole lot waxy faced. The background is caliche, and to pry a 2 inch pebble out of it required an 18 inch screw driver hammered in. heart beat at 200...(sorry for hijack, but thought it pertinent) Sweet color variety. The green one at the bottom shows the issues with tumbling. I am guessing 10-12 weeks in stage one to remove those pits with 46/70.
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jamesp
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Post by jamesp on Jan 5, 2016 9:41:07 GMT -5
I have a 2 loads of hand picked odd and unusual Rios running. They have been running in coarse longer than any tumble I ever did. They were hand picked or set aside over the years and quite free of defects. Not just mosses and fortifications, but stuff that is bizarre and not so sought after. The variety there is mind boggling. The theme of the tumble is variation.
Yes, those are nice Rios, but they still did not have smooth faces at the windows. Waxy, but not flattish. Yes, green jasper at bottom a good example. Can't do anything about internal pockets and pits.
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tkvancil
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Post by tkvancil on Jan 5, 2016 10:34:18 GMT -5
Great looking batch. Love me some Lakers, and you have some really nice ones in there.
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Post by Drummond Island Rocks on Jan 5, 2016 12:55:29 GMT -5
Great looking batch. Love me some Lakers, and you have some really nice ones in there. This one was in the box of all the other rough Lakers. You think it can be a Laker? It has some nice amethyst color mixed in the quartz band. Chuck
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jamesp
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Post by jamesp on Jan 6, 2016 4:21:41 GMT -5
Never have seen lakers with amethyst. Can't get much better.
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