teddyearp
off to a rocking start
Member since February 2018
Posts: 14
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Post by teddyearp on Feb 11, 2018 15:49:36 GMT -5
So, I am new here. I've only made two posts, one in the welcome section and another asking about an old tumbler I used to have which has now been identified as perhaps being a Covington Engineering tumbler. I received many welcomes back, a couple of PM's and of course the answer to my '45 degree' tumbler question. I do not have much yet to contribute, but everyone likes a good picture thread, hehe. I am still using Photobucket, so hopefully most are on Firefox or one of the other browsers for which the 'bucket block' has been resolved. About 14 years ago or so, I went to the Black Hills Rock hounding site in AZ and gathered some decent agates; much fire. This last Thanksgiving I looked into taking a trip down for more. I ended up at the Round Mountain site instead. While the Chalcedony is much more easy to find; it's all over the ground there, in retrospect, I think at least in this trip, there's more fire at the Black Hills. With that said, let's get started. Every trip has to start somewhere, my trip started in Pinetop, AZ and this is my first picture:
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teddyearp
off to a rocking start
Member since February 2018
Posts: 14
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Post by teddyearp on Feb 11, 2018 15:51:40 GMT -5
Nope, no rocks. Yet. Hehe. I took a trip through the ghost town of Mogollon, NM on the way down. Several hours and many more pictures later, I am getting close: It was wide open country down there. I did quite a bit of gathering. I mean the Chalcedony litters the ground almost like snow in some places. I also intended on camping so I searched out a place to do so as well. I mean, at first I could see that other person camping out!! Nope, couldn't have that. I like the solitude. So, I ended up this little draw where I found the border of the ranch out there: I decided to back off from the 'fence line' and made camp: Took a couple of pics of the sun going down and a pic of the fire goin':
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teddyearp
off to a rocking start
Member since February 2018
Posts: 14
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Post by teddyearp on Feb 11, 2018 15:52:50 GMT -5
So, you ask, where's the durned rocks? Well, I thought I took better pictures of them, but here's the haul I got down there. Mind you, it seems most of the good tumbling stuff was in the bottom: I did do some research and did a good scrub, toothbrush, wire brush and even a plastic dental type pic to clean them up. Since my 'Covington' style tumbler was no more, I had to get another tumbler, so I bought a twin 3# thumler. I also had some very interesting jasper that I tossed into this mix. Someone said it is 'picture' jasper. Anyways, I loaded two barrels with my rocks, some ceramic, and coarse grit. After one week, I sorted and sent one half into medium and the other half back to coarse. But, I also see why I should keep a log as most suggest, lol. After running it's coarse (pun intended), here's the first batch out of the polish side, I still had a barrel on fine that didn't come out so good, more will be revealed: To be continued . . . .
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Post by mohs on Feb 11, 2018 16:00:00 GMT -5
right on ! enjoyed the pictures Ed
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Post by fernwood on Feb 11, 2018 16:59:35 GMT -5
Hi, and welcome. Yes, this was an excellent post. Would have loved to see the rough on the ground before you picked it up. The tumbles look great.
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teddyearp
off to a rocking start
Member since February 2018
Posts: 14
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Post by teddyearp on Feb 11, 2018 17:17:49 GMT -5
Thank you. I should have taken more pictures of the rough as I gathered it. There was plenty that did not even make the tumbler. I have heard that many geodes can be found there. One of them messed with my second barrel. There was much in my gatherings that didn't even make barrel status, but this is one of the most interesting: to be continued . . . . .
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Post by fernwood on Feb 11, 2018 17:19:19 GMT -5
That is extremely interesting. I value specimen's a great deal. There are just some finds that should never be cut, tumbled, cabbed, etc.
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Post by MsAli on Feb 11, 2018 17:30:30 GMT -5
Welcome and great post!
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teddyearp
off to a rocking start
Member since February 2018
Posts: 14
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Post by teddyearp on Feb 18, 2018 16:09:32 GMT -5
continuing . . . . : Well, I started that run with two barrels, after the first week of coarse, I sent some on and the rest for another week of coarse. As you saw in the results above, the polish came out well for the first barrel. Once that was done, well what to do with that empty barrel? I decided to try my hand at some obsidian. After all I had been at glass butte back in 2011: Well, at least that's where I camped, hehe. I took and crushed some of my specimens down to a more managable size: In the meantime I also went on a spending spree at Amazon for some more ceramic, some 1000 grit, and then bought (yes bought) a pound each of tiger eye and amethyst as you can see in the lower right of the picture above. Having read much material on how to do it, I (thought) I put enough ceramic and baking soda in that barrel of obsidian with some coarse grit. But the durned thing 'burped' and broke the seal within about a day. So I just washed it out and left the other barrel on polish for the rest of the week.
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teddyearp
off to a rocking start
Member since February 2018
Posts: 14
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Post by teddyearp on Feb 18, 2018 16:29:27 GMT -5
At the end of that week of polishing the second barrel, well they just weren't polished! Oh the agony! Not even to the stage of giving them a good burnish. So I put them in with some of that 1000 grit and loaded the other barrel again with obsidian, ceramic, plenty of baking soda, and coarse grit. But just rolling that obsidian barrel around on my kitchen counter made the barrel bulge. That is when I created the thread to ask about what ended up to be a Covington style tumbler. In retrospect, I think I had the barrel too full. I dediced to go ahead and take my finds from many years ago at the Black Hills rockhounding site; those had much more fire agate than what I gathered at Round Mountain. Black Hills all those years ago:
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teddyearp
off to a rocking start
Member since February 2018
Posts: 14
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Post by teddyearp on Feb 18, 2018 16:37:38 GMT -5
Man, photobucket hates me, lol. Anyways, I put the stuff from the Black Hills in a barrel of coarse, and tried again to put the other back into polish. After that week, still no good with the polish. I then ordered a new barrel that I will use only for polishing. The other thing too was that my barrel of material that I was trying to polish had shrunk down to less than half a barrel, so I set it aside to wait for the Black Hills to catch up. I went ahead and started a barrel with the tiger eye and amethyst, and took a good hard look at the barrel that I was trying to polish. Gave them all a good cleaning. And lo and behold, the culprit was a rock that I though only had a bit of a pit in it. But with the further cleaning and picking at it with a plastic dental style pick, it was pretty much hollow inside:
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teddyearp
off to a rocking start
Member since February 2018
Posts: 14
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Post by teddyearp on Feb 18, 2018 16:49:53 GMT -5
What good is a picture thread without a good narrative, lol? Going through the paces with the Black Hills, tiger eye and amethyst: In that one above, you see the less than half barrel waiting for more agate to be ready on the left, the others going through the motions and I guess I did have a piece or two of obsidian in the mix. Here is the progress on the tiger eye and amethyst:
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teddyearp
off to a rocking start
Member since February 2018
Posts: 14
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Post by teddyearp on Feb 18, 2018 16:57:16 GMT -5
And now, for now, after removing the offending rock that was obviously retaining too much offending grit for the batch to polish, here I am. I went ahead and put these into a burnish stage with ivory soap for an hour or so: Lot's of fire agate in this batch. There's some remaining picture jasper as well as those couple of pieces of mahogany obsidian there on the right. I do not know if this was obvious, but my kitchen is being taken over by rocks. It is a very small kitchen at this time. I am going to be moving soon, God willing. Just for the record, I do the major washing of grit and rocks outside and only do some of the detailed cleaning inside. My new place (God willing that is closes) has a garage that I think I may install a laundry tub into that will just drain onto the ground somewhere stealthy like, hehe. Right now, I just have the one barrel going with the tiger eye and amethyst. After a week of coarse, I put it in for another at coarse. Now it is in a medium grit for a week. to be continued . . . .
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teddyearp
off to a rocking start
Member since February 2018
Posts: 14
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Post by teddyearp on Feb 18, 2018 17:08:30 GMT -5
That is extremely interesting. I value specimen's a great deal. There are just some finds that should never be cut, tumbled, cabbed, etc. Agreed 100%
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quartz
Cave Dweller
breakin' rocks in the hot sun
Member since February 2010
Posts: 3,352
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Post by quartz on Feb 18, 2018 23:44:26 GMT -5
Unfortunately, no pictures for me. Suggest using other than P-bucket.
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teddyearp
off to a rocking start
Member since February 2018
Posts: 14
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Post by teddyearp on Feb 22, 2018 6:52:05 GMT -5
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zioSergio
starting to shine!
Member since February 2018
Posts: 35
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Post by zioSergio on Feb 26, 2018 8:40:41 GMT -5
Very interesting thread for a newbie like me. And I installed the add-on, so the pictures are all viewable. Thank you.
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