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Post by holajonathan on Oct 29, 2021 10:27:20 GMT -5
Wow, what a great write up of our trip, Jonathan. I had a really great time too. For those of you who haven't met Jonathan in person (I assume that's almost everyone), he talks as much as he types. I like that. our 3.5 hour trip in each direction flew by because the two of us chatted the whole time. I kind of hated leaving his place, because it seemed like we still had more about life to discuss. I'm not going to be home until tomorrow, so I haven't even had a chance to rinse of my rocks. My wife Nancy and I were at a beach today looking for lightning stones and found a few. It was another good day. That photo looks like a postcard, Rob. I know that is cliche, but seriously, it really should be a postcard. The way the drift wood runs parallel with the shoreline is fantastic. The rocks are pretty cool, too. Someday I've got to show you my lake superior rock that looks like a lightning stone, but the brown part is hard and polished pretty well. One thing I didn't mention above... I overheard the crystal girl proposing that YOU go with her to see "rainbow rocks," and you said something like -- I bet my friend Jonathan would like to see them. Don't think I didn't hear this.
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Post by holajonathan on Oct 29, 2021 10:38:44 GMT -5
Thanks for this awesome account of your adventure! I’m a new rockhound from Columbus and spent the last year traveling up to Rob’s neck of the woods to hound, kayak, and hike. I’ve enjoyed his videos immensely and am incredibly bummed I missed seeing you guys- I was there on Monday! If I’d have seen Rob I would’ve asked him to autograph a piece of flint! If you have time, would you be able to share some tips on how you slab and cab flint with druzies? I picked up a whole bunch when I was there Monday and have been staring at these beautiful chunks trying to figure out how the heck to slice and work these pointy fellas while keeping the druzy bits intact. Any advice is appreciated! I'm no expert, but I'll tell you what I know. The obvious (and maybe unhelpful) answer on how to slab rocks with crystal quartz is to position the rock such that the blade cuts through as little of the crystals as possible. You do need to slab a rock before you can cut a preform and cab it, and usually there is no getting around cutting through at least some quartz crystals in the process. As a practical matter, I would just slab them all up without paying much attention to the crystals. Some will get whacked by the blade, but many will not. It is difficult to explain in the abstract how to incorporate druzy vugs into a cab. If you post a photo of a slab, I will be happy to offer specific ideas. Druzy vugs are often incorporated in the middle of a cab (the top of the dome). You have use a light touch when grinding and sanding around that area since the edges of the vug will grind faster than the rest of the cab. I have also seen quartz crystals on one of the edges of a cab, interrupting the smooth outside edge, if that makes sense. I don't think I have any example photos, but I would suggest you starting a new thread with your question, and you will probably get a few people willing to share photo examples. Finally, welcome to RTH!
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Post by holajonathan on Oct 29, 2021 10:42:56 GMT -5
Great trip! Cook them and you will get some blue and green! So that's where the blues and greens come from... Do heat treated slabs cab just as well? I know the flint knappers heat treat to make them more brittle. My concern is that a heat treated slab might develop more micro fractures or subsurface damage from the 80 grit hard wheel. I wonder if I could dome a cab and heat treat it I am finished with the hard wheels?
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Post by holajonathan on Oct 29, 2021 11:06:02 GMT -5
Are you in Western PA? I'll go again and meet you there. Having gotten the feel for the place, we could really clean up in 4-5 hours. And if you want a hardcore experience, I'll bring a generator if you can get a jackhammer. Or dynamite. Two guys with a jackhammer could pull 500+ pounds of the really nice material (similar to my third photo) in a day. That would be awesome. I’m in the southeastern corner of PA so it would be a bit more of a trek though. It would be quite a trek from south-east PA to Nether's Farm, but if you are ever interested let me know and I'll meet you down there. This would be my dream trip to Nether's farn: 1. A group of 4 or 5 highly motivated RTH-lings -- including at least 1 or 2 with the strength and stamina to handle a jackhammer (I would reluctantly put myself in this category for at least a few hours) 2. A jackhammer 3. A concrete cut off saw 4. A generator 5. A small winch and heavy duty tote or bag for lifting rocks out of a deep pit I own everything except a jack hammer, but my neighbor would lend me one. With these tools and 4 or 5 "miners," I bet we could pull 1000-2000 pounds of primo quality rough in an 8 hour day at the farm. It would be fun to have enough for personal use and to supply the RTH community for an extended period of time. The material that was coming out of the bottom of a newly dug pit (shown in the third photo of my original post) is among the nicest I have ever seen from Nether's farm. Maybe I should start a new thread and see who might be interested in planning something like this for the spring. I would be seriously interested in doing it.
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Post by Son Of Beach on Oct 29, 2021 11:24:49 GMT -5
I'd be down, it's on my to do list anyway. Haven't been south for a few years now...
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Post by holajonathan on Oct 29, 2021 11:35:03 GMT -5
Lucky you! You got to hang out with Rob and you got some great rocks. I love your description of the alternative girl. LOL! I've met a few of them myself.
Sounds like a REALLY disappointing trip. Look- you're still at it. They don't even cut themselves. LOL! Excellent trip report, holajonathan and thanks for the picture previews! Sounds like you found some great material and from your pictures, it looks like it, too.
Looking forward to seeing Rob's mini-video. I love the descriptions of the jackhammer guy and and "alternative" girl. She was fun. When she first showed up, she walked over to an area where Rob, the jack-hammer knapper, and I were congregated, and asked something like: can you guys tell me what you are doing here? I think it was Rob who asked how she ended up at a mining pit in the woods if she didn't know the answer to that question. Someone had told her there were pretty rocks to be found at the farm, but she didn't know which rocks were the pretty ones. (Not as silly as it sounds, since there are rocks everywhere, but most were covered in mud.) She and her boyfriend were trying to break rocks by banging them together when Rob or Mr. Jackhammer gave them a crash course in windowing rocks with a hammer. This briefly kept her attention (which may have been chemically impaired) until she found a rock with crystals (druzy quartz). Although she did use the phrase "powerful crystals" at least once or twice, she was no crystal healer. Just a friendly young lady with dyed black hair, a nose ring, more than a few tattoos, and -- I suspect -- a psychotropic enhanced love for druzy. I enjoyed her enthusiasm. Looking through the rough I brought home, one or two of her rainbow rocks seem to have snuck into my bucket. I have no other explanation for why I would have brought home a few pieces of gray chert with rust stains.
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Post by jasoninsd on Oct 29, 2021 18:47:49 GMT -5
Jonathan - thank you SO much for posting this trip report. It was an amazing read. I'm glad your trip with Rob turned into what I'm willing to bet will be a very hard to forget excursion! I can't wait to see even more pics from the spoils. The pics you posted were some amazing examples! I love that red-toned piece! Now I'm off to count my rainbow rocks! LOL
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Post by Jugglerguy on Oct 29, 2021 19:42:25 GMT -5
Wow, what a great write up of our trip, Jonathan. I had a really great time too. For those of you who haven't met Jonathan in person (I assume that's almost everyone), he talks as much as he types. I like that. our 3.5 hour trip in each direction flew by because the two of us chatted the whole time. I kind of hated leaving his place, because it seemed like we still had more about life to discuss. I'm not going to be home until tomorrow, so I haven't even had a chance to rinse of my rocks. My wife Nancy and I were at a beach today looking for lightning stones and found a few. It was another good day. That photo looks like a postcard, Rob. I know that is cliche, but seriously, it really should be a postcard. The way the drift wood runs parallel with the shoreline is fantastic. The rocks are pretty cool, too. Someday I've got to show you my lake superior rock that looks like a lightning stone, but the brown part is hard and polished pretty well. One thing I didn't mention above... I overheard the crystal girl proposing that YOU go with her to see "rainbow rocks," and you said something like -- I bet my friend Jonathan would like to see them. Don't think I didn't hear this. I wasn't leaving that pile that had just been abandoned by Brad. I waited all day to go through that stuff!
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Post by hummingbirdstones on Oct 30, 2021 0:05:42 GMT -5
That would be awesome. I’m in the southeastern corner of PA so it would be a bit more of a trek though. It would be quite a trek from south-east PA to Nether's Farm, but if you are ever interested let me know and I'll meet you down there. This would be my dream trip to Nether's farn: 1. A group of 4 or 5 highly motivated RTH-lings -- including at least 1 or 2 with the strength and stamina to handle a jackhammer (I would reluctantly put myself in this category for at least a few hours) 2. A jackhammer 3. A concrete cut off saw 4. A generator 5. A small winch and heavy duty tote or bag for lifting rocks out of a deep pit I own everything except a jack hammer, but my neighbor would lend me one. With these tools and 4 or 5 "miners," I bet we could pull 1000-2000 pounds of primo quality rough in an 8 hour day at the farm. It would be fun to have enough for personal use and to supply the RTH community for an extended period of time. The material that was coming out of the bottom of a newly dug pit (shown in the third photo of my original post) is among the nicest I have ever seen from Nether's farm. Maybe I should start a new thread and see who might be interested in planning something like this for the spring. I would be seriously interested in doing it. 2018 RTH Nether's Farm Meet and Greet
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Post by Rockoonz on Oct 30, 2021 1:02:47 GMT -5
A get together would be fun. I have only made it to one RTH gathering that wasn't Quartzsite. I do live 500 miles closer to Ohio than I did in 2018, and I'm retired now. If a thread is started kindly tag me.
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Post by holajonathan on Oct 30, 2021 10:01:15 GMT -5
That photo looks like a postcard, Rob. I know that is cliche, but seriously, it really should be a postcard. The way the drift wood runs parallel with the shoreline is fantastic. The rocks are pretty cool, too. Someday I've got to show you my lake superior rock that looks like a lightning stone, but the brown part is hard and polished pretty well. One thing I didn't mention above... I overheard the crystal girl proposing that YOU go with her to see "rainbow rocks," and you said something like -- I bet my friend Jonathan would like to see them. Don't think I didn't hear this. I wasn't leaving that pile that had just been abandoned by Brad. I waited all day to go through that stuff! I should have spent more time going through it. All of the stuff he was pulling out from way down deep has blue chalcedony veins in it. That wasn't obvious to me at the time. The few pieces that we managed to extract from the bottom of that pit -- after we hammered and chiseled for an hour -- are really nice! I still sort of feel like a jackhammer is cheating, but his productivity was undeniable.
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Post by 1dave on Nov 5, 2021 6:28:03 GMT -5
Thanks for this awesome account of your adventure! I’m a new rockhound from Columbus and spent the last year traveling up to Rob’s neck of the woods to hound, kayak, and hike. I’ve enjoyed his videos immensely and am incredibly bummed I missed seeing you guys- I was there on Monday! If I’d have seen Rob I would’ve asked him to autograph a piece of flint! If you have time, would you be able to share some tips on how you slab and cab flint with druzies? I picked up a whole bunch when I was there Monday and have been staring at these beautiful chunks trying to figure out how the heck to slice and work these pointy fellas while keeping the druzy bits intact. Any advice is appreciated! I have filled them with wax and melted the wax out with hot water when done.
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