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Post by stephan on Sept 5, 2021 18:44:29 GMT -5
Damn, that’s nice. I went up there once, and dint find anything at all. Hard to beat having green, blue and white.
ETA: that would be fun to cab. Even if there’s some differences in hardness, I can’t imagine that they’d be too pronounced, unless that white is gypsum instead of muttonfat.
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Brian
fully equipped rock polisher
Member since July 2020
Posts: 1,512
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Post by Brian on Sept 5, 2021 19:40:42 GMT -5
That jade is incredible! I've never seen such patterns like that.
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Post by jasoninsd on Sept 5, 2021 19:50:00 GMT -5
What a specimen! That is flat out stunning! I love the swirling pattern...it borders on mesmerizing!  |
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Post by stephan on Sept 6, 2021 15:04:27 GMT -5
Damn, that’s nice. I went up there once, and dint find anything at all. Hard to beat having green, blue and white. ETA: that would be fun to cab. Even if there’s some differences in hardness, I can’t imagine that they’d be too pronounced, unless that white is gypsum instead of muttonfat. I have a pretty good eye for it and I still come home without finding anything, the best examples are once in a lifetime finds in my experience. The hardness is similar between the different colors, but I think the crystal structure may be different. Most of it is a mix of diopside and nephrite with the white being diopside, some pieces can be mostly or entirely one or the other. The diopside can also be green, so I suppose the jade could be white though I haven’t found verifiable white jade. It’s great for cabbing when the rocks are entirely diopside and have good green color. Interesting. I'm not sure I've run into diopside. It's usually talc (which snaps easily), or white jade (meaning there's no iron and all magnesium in the Ca 2(Mg,Fe) 5Si 8O 22(OH) 2 formula). |
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Post by stephan on Sept 6, 2021 15:08:49 GMT -5
Thanks Brian , not the most common material but it’s been mined and collected for a long time. jasoninsd I lose track of time looking at this thing lol! stephan here’s a pic of the rough outer surface. Yeah, I might've walked right by that, mistaking it for gneiss (especially if dry). Very cleverly disguised as a leverite. |
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Post by jasoninsd on Sept 7, 2021 19:41:57 GMT -5
This thread has been viewed 159 times...37 of those are mine! LOL (Not quite...) I keep coming back to look at this material. I really am a fan of "busy" material, whether it's something like a Crazy Lace, or a Brecciated...so long as there's a TON of stuff going on in the slab. And this material definitely fits that bill! If I needed to sum it up in one word, I really think I'd say it was an "elegant" pattern. You couldn't use a slab of this for the old "Cab this Slab" challenge. I believe you could close your eyes and drop a template anywhere on the surface and not have a fail! |
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Post by Rockoonz on Sept 8, 2021 9:16:42 GMT -5
Looks like something we might have "assumed" was serpentine. As we unpack I'll have to see if we kept it.
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Post by Rockoonz on Sept 8, 2021 9:45:37 GMT -5
Looks like something we might have "assumed" was serpentine. As we unpack I'll have to see if we kept it. I’d like to see a pic, I’m pretty good at identifying California’s green rocks. Gem grade serpentine is one that’s on my radar. The best examples I’ve found are as rare as the best nephrite jade, and covelo jade. About 100 boxes, 30 lbs each or more Roughly 25 crates, closer to 50 lb average Countless buckets. Might be a minute. I also have several crates of "green rocks" that may have some californite mixed in, I would especially like to sort those out. Elizabeth likes good workable serpentine as well. It's mostly separated out based on the knife blade hardness test, but also could be pretty much anywhere. |
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Post by jasoninsd on Sept 8, 2021 18:10:29 GMT -5
This thread has been viewed 159 times...37 of those are mine! LOL (Not quite...) I keep coming back to look at this material. I really am a fan of "busy" material, whether it's something like a Crazy Lace, or a Brecciated...so long as there's a TON of stuff going on in the slab. And this material definitely fits that bill! If I needed to sum it up in one word, I really think I'd say it was an "elegant" pattern. You couldn't use a slab of this for the old "Cab this Slab" challenge. I believe you could close your eyes and drop a template anywhere on the surface and not have a fail! It’s true, the pattern is so abstract that a cab from any part of the rock would look pretty good. Even though the patterns are different, the cabs would all look pretty similar too. Matched sets and beads would be really fun with this particular piece. I have a cutter in the saw, hopefully I’ll be posting pics of some cab worthy slabs this afternoon.  |
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