jamesp
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Post by jamesp on May 22, 2016 9:56:45 GMT -5
These are some 10-14 ounce petrified corals. Wet and not yet polished. About the only luck had polishing such was using 8-9 pounds small media and 4-5 pounds of large rocks in a 14 pound capacity tumbler.
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Post by orrum on May 22, 2016 12:05:04 GMT -5
Hey Jim those look nice. I knapped my first point last Thurs from the heat treated coral u gave me. It's a very small one. The lovely Susan immediately claimed it, u can see the coral critters in it! Thanks a bunch pardner!
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jamesp
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Post by jamesp on May 22, 2016 12:12:34 GMT -5
Hey Jim those look nice. I knapped my first point last Thurs from the heat treated coral u gave me. It's a very small one. The lovely Susan immediately claimed it, u can see the coral critters in it! Thanks a bunch pardner! Photo Bill. Must be nice if Susan snatched it up. Will you try more ?
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Post by orrum on May 22, 2016 18:48:50 GMT -5
Absolutely Jim I will try more. I need to practise on these small pieces to get used to how it works. It's not brittle, it's cooked just right but it's tough. Hard to explain. I will get a pic n get someone to post it. I wonder if the critters will show in a lot of it. I b thought this kind doesn't show the critters much?
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jamesp
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Post by jamesp on May 23, 2016 13:27:44 GMT -5
Absolutely Jim I will try more. I need to practise on these small pieces to get used to how it works. It's not brittle, it's cooked just right but it's tough. Hard to explain. I will get a pic n get someone to post it. I wonder if the critters will show in a lot of it. I b thought this kind doesn't show the critters much? As you well know a lot of that knapping has to do with tools Bill. A lot of plain jane coastal plain chert is easy to work after heated. Lots of it before heat. Obsidian. Buy some slabs from the knappers who have heat treated the slab itself for best results. I heat whole coral heads and chip/spall the outer layer where the most color is for tumbling. But heated slabs of coral is great material, but some coral is grainy, some glassy and easy to work. Those Texas cherts are fine. Lots of cherts with a thick white rind make good material.
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Post by orrum on May 23, 2016 14:08:40 GMT -5
James I like the vorsl. Obsidian is brittle n breaks real easy. Coral n flint is less brittle and tough. You can get away with more mistakes. Wait til I send you a pic of this little point. Not sure if the critters will show on the pic tho.
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jamesp
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Post by jamesp on May 23, 2016 15:18:13 GMT -5
James I like the vorsl. Obsidian is brittle n breaks real easy. Coral n flint is less brittle and tough. You can get away with more mistakes. Wait til I send you a pic of this little point. Not sure if the critters will show on the pic tho. The chert from the Flint River is about as good as it gets. It is all easy to work. It should be a standard for beginners. Stan Payne on Facebook will send you some heated slabs of it. He is a great cook, has a strong oven. Didn't you have a toilet ? They knap well.
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Post by orrum on May 23, 2016 15:29:38 GMT -5
LOL. I picked up a bunch of large broken pieces of a very old toilet in the Owhyee Mountains a couple years ago on Roy n Tons trip. I had this fellow hauling my stuff and they thought I was joking about old time porcelain toilets cabbing great so everybody laughed snd someone threw it away!!! LOL. They cab and knapp. It's called Johnny Knapping! I blamed Roy as a joke so he posted a pic of a toilet in his yard and told me to come and get it. I found the broken toilet a a very old gold mining camp and workings. They had a outhouse....I wanna go dig the outhouse pit up!
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Post by orrum on May 23, 2016 15:29:50 GMT -5
LOL. I picked up a bunch of large broken pieces of a very old toilet in the Owhyee Mountains a couple years ago on Roy n Tons trip. I had this fellow hauling my stuff and they thought I was joking about old time porcelain toilets cabbing great so everybody laughed snd someone threw it away!!! LOL. They cab and knapp. It's called Johnny Knapping! I blamed Roy as a joke so he posted a pic of a toilet in his yard and told me to come and get it. I found the broken toilet a a very old gold mining camp and workings. They had a outhouse....I wanna go dig the outhouse pit up!
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jamesp
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Post by jamesp on May 23, 2016 21:09:07 GMT -5
I remember that story. Serious source of orrumamusement. Great score Bill. Some things money cannot buy.
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jamesp
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Post by jamesp on May 29, 2016 13:40:43 GMT -5
10 ounce nugget of coral. Done in three steps. SiC 30 in rotary. AO 500 with sugar in vibe 3 days. AO 14,000 polish with Borax for 24 hours. Tumbled with 5-6 other equally sized rocks together in the rotary and the vibe. These larger rocks seem to need the polish step. Heavy rocks hit harder when together. effects polish adversely. Surround them with lots of small rocks. Indirectly reflected sun light: Polish not so visible in direct sunlight
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jamesp
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Post by jamesp on May 29, 2016 14:00:13 GMT -5
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Post by orrum on May 29, 2016 14:12:19 GMT -5
Like those snakeskin agates!
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jamesp
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Post by jamesp on May 29, 2016 14:23:38 GMT -5
Like those snakeskin agates! Not easy to find Bill. This is old stock from an estate sale. Easiest rock in the world to tumble.
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grayfingers
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Post by grayfingers on May 29, 2016 14:34:06 GMT -5
Nice! I've never seen snakeskins tumbled whole, what a pleasing result. They look a bit like Montana agate when slabbed, right? That big coral is killer too, can see the polyps really well and what a shine.
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jamesp
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Post by jamesp on May 29, 2016 16:47:35 GMT -5
Nice! I've never seen snakeskins tumbled whole, what a pleasing result. They look a bit like Montana agate when slabbed, right? That big coral is killer too, can see the polyps really well and what a shine. Where broken they are very like Montana's in color and waxy texture, just lacking so many patterns. The breaks often occur along concentric layers of those orbs. Seem to form in layers as if botryoidal. Real pure and hard like Montana's. No idea what type of pocket or mold they filled. Or if true bots. These big ones do not have so many fine wrinkles like the smaller ones. I have rolled 15 pound barrels of those ovalish whole corals alone at 6-12 ounces with no smalls start to finish in the rotary. Left the slurry thick using SiC 30, ran it for 2 weeks the last 30 addition to break it down past 400-500. Then did AO 500-AO 1000-AO 14,000 each in very thick sugar slurry. Used a lot of sugar. But got wicked rotary polish. Seems if large rocks are well rounded and really hard material there seems to be no need for smalls with thick slurry. The big rocks grind fast and use the grit up way faster. End result is a bunch of nice big tumbles.
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quartz
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breakin' rocks in the hot sun
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Post by quartz on May 29, 2016 22:42:49 GMT -5
With a selfie on the rock, that's a really great polish.
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jamesp
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Post by jamesp on May 30, 2016 6:26:11 GMT -5
With a selfie on the rock, that's a really great polish. Grey hair reflects well lol.
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Post by Garage Rocker on May 30, 2016 6:36:58 GMT -5
You're almost camo'd in with the coral pattern. Those are wicked cool. Looks like psychedelic leopard print.
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jamesp
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Post by jamesp on May 30, 2016 7:11:37 GMT -5
You're almost camo'd in with the coral pattern. Those are wicked cool. Looks like psychedelic leopard print. It takes 2.5 hours to get to this first coral vein on Suwannee River in Florida. Shoals along the way require lightweight duck boat rig. Native man chipped a bunch of this material up. It is all tumble able. Sizes 1-4 inches. Takes an hour to fill 6 five gallon buckets. This vein is a 30 foot band crossing the river. Collecting from center to edge of river yields a wide variation of color. The coral in the center of the river has black due to ancient organic stains. Yellows and oranges on bank. Fun spot. trip upstream: www.flickr.com/photos/67205364@N06/sets/72157632382025865
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