jelliott
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Post by jelliott on Jun 12, 2018 11:46:52 GMT -5
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jelliott
off to a rocking start
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Post by jelliott on Jun 12, 2018 11:48:31 GMT -5
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jelliott
off to a rocking start
Member since June 2018
Posts: 24
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Post by jelliott on Jun 12, 2018 11:49:10 GMT -5
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Jun 12, 2018 12:04:01 GMT -5
These look like a mix of both soft and hard materials. I'm seeing everything from selenite (very soft) to corundum (very hard). For pieces you wish to tumble, you should only tumble together those that have similar hardness in batches.
Some of your pieces (such as the fossils, amethyst and citrine clusters) are going to be more valuable as-is and used as display specimens.
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jelliott
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Post by jelliott on Jun 12, 2018 12:08:43 GMT -5
rocks2dust, thank you. I am wanting to classify the rocks but am not sure which is which. Can you help point out some of the selenite, I think I have most of the corundum figured out (cluster of brown rock at top of picture). Amethyst are the large purple pieces and the citrine are the white color next to the amethyst correct. What is the best way to remove excess from amethyst, mild soap and nylon brush? what about the citrine?
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Post by fernwood on Jun 12, 2018 12:11:18 GMT -5
Agree with above. Larger photos would be helpful for ID and mohs hardness help. You can get free account here for photo hosting by messaging Tommy. I think Flickr is still offering free photo accounts. Close up photos would help for others here to ID specific rocks. The small Nat Geo tumbler will be a challenge for tumbling. Expect at least 3 months to complete the process. I have a mix of rough display pieces, tumbling and cabochon quality pieces. Glad you are working with your daughter on this. Dunno how old she is, but if young a great family hobby.
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Post by Deleted on Jun 12, 2018 12:25:12 GMT -5
rocks2dust, thank you. I am wanting to classify the rocks but am not sure which is which. Can you help point out some of the selenite, I think I have most of the corundum figured out (cluster of brown rock at top of picture). Amethyst are the large purple pieces and the citrine are the white color next to the amethyst correct. What is the best way to remove excess from amethyst, mild soap and nylon brush? what about the citrine? In the overall picture in your first post, the obvious selenite is the ball in the upper-left corner, just below and to the right of the rose quartz chunk. Selenite occurs in a variety of bladed habits, and the ball form is one of the more popular (fragile and will degrade if exposed to much handling and water). What looks like citrine is the orangish plate of crystal points at the upper-left of the amethyst. Yes, the brown rocks appear to be corundum. Corundum also includes ruby and sapphire, and the hexagonal stone just to the right of those at the top is a tabular ruby crystal (makes a nice specimen as-is). A soak in warm, soapy water, then get rid of any loose bits with a toothbrush. If you have a "Waterpik" type cleaner, that can be useful, too. This time of year, you can also take outside and hose down. Once all the grit is gone, you can even run these through the dishwasher with normal dishwashing detergent (turn the heated dry cycle off, though). First pic, closeup: (clockwise from upper-left) tabular ruby, mica?, jasper?, olivine? or prase?, corundum. Center stone may be marble or ? As fernwood stated, determining the Mohs hardness will be a good step in narrowing down what are some of the questionable items.
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jelliott
off to a rocking start
Member since June 2018
Posts: 24
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Post by jelliott on Jun 12, 2018 12:29:32 GMT -5
Agree with above. Larger photos would be helpful for ID and mohs hardness help. You can get free account here for photo hosting by messaging Tommy . I think Flickr is still offering free photo accounts. Close up photos would help for others here to ID specific rocks. The small Nat Geo tumbler will be a challenge for tumbling. Expect at least 3 months to complete the process. I have a mix of rough display pieces, tumbling and cabochon quality pieces. Glad you are working with your daughter on this. Dunno how old she is, but if young a great family hobby. When I click on the photos they enlarge, does that work for everyone, if not I will message Tommy as you suggest. My Daughter is 7 and we are both really enjoying this so far.
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Post by rockjunquie on Jun 12, 2018 12:52:54 GMT -5
Agree with above. Larger photos would be helpful for ID and mohs hardness help. You can get free account here for photo hosting by messaging Tommy . I think Flickr is still offering free photo accounts. Close up photos would help for others here to ID specific rocks. The small Nat Geo tumbler will be a challenge for tumbling. Expect at least 3 months to complete the process. I have a mix of rough display pieces, tumbling and cabochon quality pieces. Glad you are working with your daughter on this. Dunno how old she is, but if young a great family hobby. When I click on the photos they enlarge, does that work for everyone, if not I will message Tommy as you suggest. My Daughter is 7 and we are both really enjoying this so far. Looks like you are getting help- I just want to add that to tag people you need to put the @ symbol in front of their name with no space. Hover over their name and check what name you see. You want to use the name that pops up. Some people have different names. The pictures enlarge fine for me.
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Post by fernwood on Jun 12, 2018 13:08:25 GMT -5
Love that your daughter is 7 and into rocks. My dishwasher often works as a rock cleaning device. Just be sure to clean the trap/filter in bottom after washing rocks. My dishwasher is 1970's era, so unsure how newer ones would work. Keep asking questions and learn, learn, learn. Also post photos of works in progress and completed. Everyone here loves photos.
Welcome to the addiction.
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jelliott
off to a rocking start
Member since June 2018
Posts: 24
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Post by jelliott on Jun 12, 2018 13:42:21 GMT -5
rocks2dust, thank you. I am wanting to classify the rocks but am not sure which is which. Can you help point out some of the selenite, I think I have most of the corundum figured out (cluster of brown rock at top of picture). Amethyst are the large purple pieces and the citrine are the white color next to the amethyst correct. What is the best way to remove excess from amethyst, mild soap and nylon brush? what about the citrine? In the overall picture in your first post, the obvious selenite is the ball in the upper-left corner, just below and to the right of the rose quartz chunk. Selenite occurs in a variety of bladed habits, and the ball form is one of the more popular (fragile and will degrade if exposed to much handling and water). What looks like citrine is the orangish plate of crystal points at the upper-left of the amethyst. Yes, the brown rocks appear to be corundum. Corundum also includes ruby and sapphire, and the hexagonal stone just to the right of those at the top is a tabular ruby crystal (makes a nice specimen as-is). A soak in warm, soapy water, then get rid of any loose bits with a toothbrush. If you have a "Waterpik" type cleaner, that can be useful, too. This time of year, you can also take outside and hose down. Once all the grit is gone, you can even run these through the dishwasher with normal dishwashing detergent (turn the heated dry cycle off, though). First pic, closeup: (clockwise from upper-left) tabular ruby, mica?, jasper?, olivine? or prase?, corundum. Center stone may be marble or ? As fernwood stated, determining the Mohs hardness will be a good step in narrowing down what are some of the questionable items. Thank you. Just being able to more positively identify the rocks will help. I want to get them all sorted by type, and then check hardness scale, from what I understand dont tumble anything below a 4 on the scale. Thanks for all the imput.
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Post by aDave on Jun 12, 2018 15:22:27 GMT -5
I want to get them all sorted by type, and then check hardness scale, from what I understand dont tumble anything below a 4 on the scale. Thanks for all the imput. Since you're just starting out, I'd stick with rocks that are around 6.5-7 in the hardness scale. Rocks this hard usually respond well to polishing. When you start getting near 5 or so, you may simply end up with shaped matte finish rocks, especially if they are mixed with harder stuff. Softer stuff usually takes a bit more work (and experience) to end up with polished material. Not saying it can't be done, but it will be an uphill battle.
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Post by vegasjames on Jun 12, 2018 17:53:01 GMT -5
In the first photo the green looks like common opal to me.
A lot of the stones, especially the ones in the center photo are corundum (ruby, sapphire).
The ball could be barite as well. They look virtually identical to "selenite" roses.
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jelliott
off to a rocking start
Member since June 2018
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Post by jelliott on Jun 13, 2018 7:25:21 GMT -5
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jelliott
off to a rocking start
Member since June 2018
Posts: 24
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Post by jelliott on Jun 13, 2018 7:27:04 GMT -5
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jelliott
off to a rocking start
Member since June 2018
Posts: 24
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Post by jelliott on Jun 13, 2018 7:27:37 GMT -5
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jelliott
off to a rocking start
Member since June 2018
Posts: 24
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Post by jelliott on Jun 13, 2018 7:28:04 GMT -5
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jelliott
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Member since June 2018
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Post by jelliott on Jun 13, 2018 7:28:41 GMT -5
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Post by Deleted on Jun 13, 2018 10:47:38 GMT -5
A problem with most North Carolina mines is that they haul in material from all over the world for their fee dig operations (which makes identification more guesswork than when you know exactly from where a piece was dug).
First set: emerald or some other crystal in matrix (if the matrix is softer and flaky, probably biotite, in which case you may want to scrape more off to expose more of the crystal and perhaps other crystals); carnelian or citrine + chevron amethyst
Second set: quartz + 2 pieces of emerald in matrix; unakite; amethyst on matrix
Third set: no guesses
Fourth set: Rose quartz; chert; (top to bottom) ?, ruby, spinel?, ?
Fifth set: no guesses, except the last pic appear to quartzes, with the orange-tipped crystals on the left being citrine.
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jelliott
off to a rocking start
Member since June 2018
Posts: 24
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Post by jelliott on Jun 13, 2018 21:04:58 GMT -5
Here are some more pictures hopefully they will help some. What are they and what is the best way to clean and shine them? Thanks everyone. Ok, I did the scratch test with the rocks in the top picture the greenish white ones. No scratch Mark's appeared. I am going to try tumbling these first. I will go 4 days, check and then go longer if need be before phase 2. I will post pictures before I begin. Can I use small stainless steel nails as media besides the grit or should I buy some media ?
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