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Post by Starguy on Jan 1, 2021 11:08:48 GMT -5
jamespGlad to see you giving the garnets a try. I have used them as grit/cushioning with a few larger pieces of jasper. The garnet never polished the jasper but left an attractive silky finish on them. It also cleaned up the garnet sand nicely.
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jamesp
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Post by jamesp on Jan 1, 2021 11:27:05 GMT -5
jamespGlad to see you giving the garnets a try. I have used them as grit/cushioning with a few larger pieces of jasper. The garnet never polished the jasper but left an attractive silky finish on them. It also cleaned up the garnet sand nicely. Interesting how your garnets give a totally different surface finish. These rocks I garnet finished are so smooth to the touch they slip from your grasp. The sandy tailings behind rocks in fast flowing Appalachian mountain streams often have a red glow where the red garnets pile up in the sand. This is a quick way to tell if the mountain has garnets in it's make up. Near Hiawasse Georgia purple garnets are found in perfect sharp edged crystals with out a single fracture often 3/8" and if lucky 1/2" in size. Unfortunately they formed in hard granite and are a bear to remove without breaking them. So fortunate you live close to such a fine garnet source Brent. Can't forget that load of star garnets you tumbled. I looked for the video of the massive commercial Emerald Creek operation, can't find it for the life of me. So many they sort/sifted them to size and filled super sacks with them for resale. It has been removed from Youtube apparently. Certain that the operation creates megatons of silt.
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Post by Starguy on Jan 1, 2021 20:06:21 GMT -5
jamespI never went beyond running the garnet and jasper together. I never added any grit or polish to the mix. As you said, they are incredibly durable. The best thing I got out of my experiment was a batch of completely clean garnet. Since it was sand sized material I didn’t want to introduce anything to contaminate it. The garnet completely ground away everything except the larger jasper pieces I used to add weight to the tumble. Seeing your thread makes me want to try it again. It’s difficult to collect garnet sand at the Forest Service dig because it isn’t naturally concentrated. I know of another site near by where the garnet sand has been concentrated by a river. It’s a pretty cool area but not open to prospecting. Every rock you turn over in the river has 1/2 cup or more garnet sand under it. It’s not 100% pure but if tumbled for a couple weeks it will be. The almandine at that site is a lighter red color than found at Emerald Creek but it looks like solid crystals somewhat rounded by the river. I think I’ll try collecting 10 or 20 pounds next summer and give it a go. Thanks for the inspiration. Take care my friend.
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jamesp
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Post by jamesp on Jan 2, 2021 4:48:43 GMT -5
jamespI never went beyond running the garnet and jasper together. I never added any grit or polish to the mix. As you said, they are incredibly durable. The best thing I got out of my experiment was a batch of completely clean garnet. Since it was sand sized material I didn’t want to introduce anything to contaminate it. The garnet completely ground away everything except the larger jasper pieces I used to add weight to the tumble. Seeing your thread makes me want to try it again. It’s difficult to collect garnet sand at the Forest Service dig because it isn’t naturally concentrated. I know of another site near by where the garnet sand has been concentrated by a river. It’s a pretty cool area but not open to prospecting. Every rock you turn over in the river has 1/2 cup or more garnet sand under it. It’s not 100% pure but if tumbled for a couple weeks it will be. The almandine at that site is a lighter red color than found at Emerald Creek but it looks like solid crystals somewhat rounded by the river. I think I’ll try collecting 10 or 20 pounds next summer and give it a go. Thanks for the inspiration. Take care my friend. Garnet is one of the best all-around abrasives found in nature. And the garnets in your neighborhood are some of the finest abrasive and gem grade garnets in the world. You are fortunate. Two counties away from my home is loaded with low grade garnets. Referred to as iron garnets. Often times well formed crystals 1 to 2 inches in diameter. A 5 gallon bucket full was more than most would want to pick up. They used to mine-crush-grade them and glue the graded powder to paper. A la garnet sand paper. Being tough the sharp edges stayed sharp much longer than say crushed glass or quartz. Synthetic abrasives have long replaced them and the garnet mines were all closed. But they are some real ugly garnets.
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Post by Starguy on Jan 2, 2021 11:22:25 GMT -5
jamespWe have iron garnets here too. I know some places where you can literally kick them out of the surface of dirt roads. I found one the size of a baseball that way. It’s a nice 12 sided crystal but ugly as sin. It’s cool but useless as anything other than a paper weight.
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jamesp
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Post by jamesp on Jan 6, 2021 6:09:17 GMT -5
jamespWe have iron garnets here too. I know some places where you can literally kick them out of the surface of dirt roads. I found one the size of a baseball that way. It’s a nice 12 sided crystal but ugly as sin. It’s cool but useless as anything other than a paper weight. No surprise poor quailty happens out your way too. Nothing pretty about an iron garnet. Baseball size, wow. Often the garnets in schist are of higher quality. Lots of pressure and heat has to be present to form high graders. The best ones are often in mountainous areas which must have some effect on pressure when formed. For some reason the small garnets end up accumulating in the tire track grooves in sandy dirt roads. Using a hoe they can be raked up by the 100's. Apparently when crushed they yield small particles of sharp solid garnet particles. The resulting sandpaper has a dark purple/brown color.
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Post by Starguy on Jan 6, 2021 15:30:47 GMT -5
jamesp North Idaho iron garnet. I found it laying in the middle of a logging road. A person on my crew asked if I ever found garnets around the area. I looked down and told him “there’s one”.
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Post by Starguy on Jan 6, 2021 15:51:41 GMT -5
The garnets found around here were formed in schist. They weathered out of the rock and were concentrated by repeated draining of Miocene lake Clarkia. They’re heavier than most rocks so it took a pretty high energy event to concentrate them in layers as found in Emerald Creek. From studying topo maps of the area, I generated a theory that Emerald Creek was in a different location than it currently is. The bigger garnets are found along a series of benches crossing several ridges along approximately four miles of old streambed. The entire drainage is full of sand size garnets but the larger gem material is found in four or five sub-drainages below Emerald Butte. The Forest Service dig site was closed last summer due to COVID. I know one of the geologists who manages the site. He told me that garnet picking will be very good when they reopen.
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