Withlacoochee River (type) Coral - pic heavy

Mighty cool corals there and quite an education to boot! The more I read your posts on these, the more fascinated I become!

These corals are "Intheswamp Approved"...

THANK YOU James! This is exactly the information I was looking for from the coral master, but I was hesitant to ask because I figured it would take a lot of typing. I appreciate the time this took and the bonus pictures.

I figure this lady must have hundreds of the larger sized pieces, and I'm going to do my best to help her move them out over a couple few trips up to Jacksonville during the next few months.
There are walls built with these chunks and piles just overgrown with plants. Doubt they would miss a couple hundred chunks - just not so sure how this will play on the home front when the wife unit sees a truck load pull in the driveway.
Lady has keepers that she won't part with - YET (I didn't have enough cash on me this past trip to do any serious bribing), but these are good country folks that I'm pretty sure could use the money. So we'll see...

I'm kinda counting on her granddaddy knew what he was doing when collecting, from what I have seen so far.
He was a Navy Seebee and diver. Did sponge diving in the gulf at some point after his time in the service.
Moved (retired) to Lake George.
She told me many stories as she followed me around this past trip, and her granddaddy sounds like a man I wish I had had the honor to meet.

Guess the hollows won't "ring" as hollow if packed with clay. *duh*

Hadn't thought of the holding under water / bubbles thing *face palm*
Crazy how such logical solutions often evade.

Thanks again for the schoolin'

Great fodder for that Highland. Hope to see some face sawn.

Hot summer days in that nice water is about as good as it gets for this Georgia boy.
Lots of treasures and variations there. We must go sometime.

I don't say much when collecting. Too busy looking for ~8 different forms at any time.
Color-form-shape-texture-fossil quality-tumble grade-slab grade-hollows-bots-yard rocks-displayable halves-specimens-artifacts-tiny heads-large heads and more
Is that 8 ?

Hi Captain,

I just moved to Jacksonville, FL from CT. Have been spending my time fossil hunting on the beach but would love to take my two boys to paw through a rockpile for sale. Is this a top secret location or advertised somewhere?

Hey rockymom, this location is something that I will be keeping to myself for awhile, sorry. Not advertised anywhere, just a private home in the middle of the Ocala national forest. Not sure how old your boys are, but this isn't the kinda "rock pile" anyone younger than mid teens should be messing around. All the rocks are sharp and the roaches, spiders and snakes are a bit of a put off.

Welcome to Florida! You may want to start keeping an eye on your local Craigslist for lapidary items if you are not searching there frequently already. I also think Jacksonville has a pretty nice rock club; don't know their location, but probably easy enough to Google. Think their show is in the early Fall up there.

Thank you Captain,

Just looking for an adventure to go on with my 10 and 13 year old, learn about the area and local geology and keep them off of the electronics. We took the backroads to Gainsville and the interior of FL is so interesting and different than what we are used to in New England. I am more of a surface hunter, no interest in actually donning snorkeling gear to harvest my own (which would involve more that snakes and roaches). Don't want to bother folks that don't want to be bothered.

I visited the one person with a rock collection that advertises on Craigslist in this area. He was a lot of fun though my husband and boys spent way to much on his shark tooth collection. Visited the show in the fall and spoke with the rock club they are a nice group though do mostly jewelry and no collecting trips. Our club in CT was very kid friendly, we actually stopped going to the meetings regularly because we were coming home with to many rocks! Everyone was more than generous with the young ins.

Take care, Natalie

The sun won't do any damage in our lifetime.

It is formed from dissolved silicas in water and dries out when the original patina is exposed making it look dull and ugly.

Man does the water change it and make it look heavenly. Especially the bots.

Tumbling is one way to solve the patina issue. Facing those hollows with a saw too.

Some corals are dry all the way thru the head. Most not.
Here is a process for the dry types. No oily film afterwards. Vacuum bag in oven at 200F for several hours.:

www.flickr.com/photos/67205364@N06/sets/72157633370404128

Tung oil idea is a good one to try for your inside specimens.

captbob , jamesp , radio just had a brainstorm, or maybe it was a brain fart, but must perform experiment and report back on results. I saw I was tagged in this thread ans read again the discussion of oiling or waxing the goodies and the ensuing down side of treatments being dust collectors when a very dim light bulb went off in my even dimmer brain!  It occurred to me that museums use a certain type of wax to preserve antiques and protect against fingerprints and such, but the the dust collecting discussion triggered my curiosity about if this special wax would collect dust which would be a big no no on historical items in a museum, so did a Google search for the stuff.  www.thefurnitureconnoisseur.com/renaissance-wax-polish/  Sure enough, if applied in a thin coat and wiped off a bit, it seems to not collect dust!

I have a can of this stuff in the shop I bought hoping a thin coat would help keep my jewelry from tarnishing in the display cases and reduce polishing chores, but I saw little benefit.  I will rub a bit on some slabs and see if it makes them pop and report back