lparsons
Cave Dweller 
Member since April 2020
Posts: 276 
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Post by lparsons on May 6, 2022 16:03:27 GMT -5
jamesp From your pics it looks like you had quite a hiking/mudding/gold mining adventure! I can’t imagine how satisfying it must be for it to end with finding all that gorgeous material. I doubt I would have already been tumbling any. I’d dump it out in my yard and sit in the middle of it, cackling maniacally, with a big goofy smile on my face.🤣🤣🤣
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Lumberlegs
fully equipped rock polisher
Not Dead
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Post by Lumberlegs on May 6, 2022 16:26:57 GMT -5
Something tells me you knew what you were getting into jamesp , I've only mudded a few times...too much fun to pass up |
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jamesp
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Post by jamesp on May 7, 2022 7:24:22 GMT -5
Yo James Yep that pet wood was recovered off the Show LowLand My Dad’s major rock hound buddy and co-worker at SRP would spend vacation time up there I just happened to recognize him 5 years later at the AZ Mining Museum Once he discovered I was Remo's son he laughed heartily told him that I never collected any of the pet wood off the land. Not to fear he did! And promptly got some to me. I then made that heart for my neighbor in Show Low – Mike. He grew up in Show Low Him and I were both going through a similar tough situation He helped me get through that- immensely So when I got the wood from my Dad’s Rock’n friend I crafted the heart for Mike I drove up there- after 7 or so years -knocked on Mike's door He recognized me right away & we picked up right where we left off He was doing pretty good I hope to see him again Butte it may not be…. Anyway James thanks for the reply Don’t mean to crash your rock hounding W/ mohs nostalgia buuute I really appreciate it keep on ! Ed That is amazing Ed. Well you were fortunate to have a Dad that was into rock hunting. Sounds like you picked up on the hobby later in life perhaps ? And you connected with old friends with one being your father's, cool. Even made a gift for one of them. Cool story to reminisce upon. A collecting trip to Show Low would have to be on my bucket list if allowed. Your heart tells plenty about the beautiful wood there. Me and wife watched a Youtube about the Arizona petrified forest last night and I thought I was having LSD flashbacks with tracers included. Reminded me of a rainbow forest. Who wouldn't want to fill their rock tumblers up with that fine material. It makes good sense to preserve such a place. I never realized how huge that park is. Might not be a good idea to take a nap out there or you may wake up petrified ha ha. |
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jamesp
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Post by jamesp on May 7, 2022 8:03:55 GMT -5
jamesp From your pics it looks like you had quite a hiking/mudding/gold mining adventure! I can’t imagine how satisfying it must be for it to end with finding all that gorgeous material. I doubt I would have already been tumbling any. I’d dump it out in my yard and sit in the middle of it, cackling maniacally, with a big goofy smile on my face.🤣🤣🤣 There is miles and miles of trails and 4wd trails at this location. 100's of miles of creeks and cool wetlands. Upland timberland too. No shortage of off road activity. The access to the rock filled creeks is the real treasure for me. I need to get my kayak buddies down there to put in the creeks with a pick up vehicle downstream. Tumbling will help get an idea of the quality of the material at various locations so the immediacy. I have searched the internet far and wide and only found on ETSY rock dealer that had Alabama petrified wood that resembles mine in any way. He had two pieces about a half pound for sale for $70. North along the ancient Alabama ocean shore line they find druzy quartz coated pet wood and there was tons of it on the internet, it is well known. The Alabama State Fishery posted a piece of wood near by my site in the Tallapoosa River and posted it asking if it was pet wood. This wood seems unknown ! Freaky... You would think this wood would be somewhere on the internet ! |
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jamesp
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Post by jamesp on May 7, 2022 8:28:52 GMT -5
Something tells me you knew what you were getting into jamesp , I've only mudded a few times...too much fun to pass up When mudding in this greasy clay it helps to have at minimum a V6 engine so you have enough power to spin the tires up at high rpm's to sling the clay out of the knobby tires to get a fresh bite. If your tires treads get plugged with clay you just won't go forward, the tires can't grab. This method coats the entire vehicle with mud. Better roll windows up to avoid getting a mud filled interior. And best not to use the windshield wipers if you want to avoid some very scratched up windows. If getting on the interstate and driving 60+mph it is best to wash the mud off your wheels or else they will be out of balance and cause your tires to wear unevenly. My old V8 4wd 2000 model Toyota Tundra had 400,000 miles on it with plenty of such mudding hours on it and never had any breakdowns due to abrasive mud damaging bearings or moving parts. The skid plate looked like it had been bombed and the driveshaft center bearing had been broken off from the truck belly hitting stumps and rocks. This 2013 FJ has better 4wd features like locking axles instead of 100% limited slip 4wd. I love it. It also has a computer controlled 'crawl mode' that helps it go in deep mud and soft sand. |
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Post by liveoak on May 7, 2022 9:00:18 GMT -5
Could be a good safety to have a come a long in the back, for the just in case.
Patty
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jamesp
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Post by jamesp on May 7, 2022 9:08:49 GMT -5
This material came from the top very dry level of this vein of wood. The road grader broke much of it to smaller pieces. Judging from a steep bluff the wood vein is quite densely packed 50 feet deep.  It takes extreme force to break this stuff into tumbles with a hammer. Even a plate 1" thick say 3" x 3" struck dead center as hard as I can swing the hammer. Sometimes it would have to be struck a dozen times before it breaks to several smaller pieces. I'd be better off sawing such chunks into say 4 pieces to avoid impact fractures, taking lots of time. I fear putting deep impact fractures throughout. Obviously tough material that breaks horribly jagged on the faces going cross grain and on the 'quarter 'sawn' faces'. It breaks smooth on the faces of the growth rings(tangentially). Next question is will it take a polish on those jagged faces. The jagged faces may have ugly surface fractures that need to be tumbled off meaning it will take a lot of tumbling in step 1 depending on the depth of the fractures. And what percentage of it is hard enough to take a tumble polish. Tough doesn't necessarily mean high Mohs hardness. Like some basalts can be super tough but will not take a polish... I did two cleanouts yesterday on two 22 pound barrels after a week running. The volume reduced greatly mainly due to removal of many sharp edges. With the batch spread out over the screener and washed clean they made quite a show. It shapes faster than coral, Montana agate, Brazilian agate, more like most jasper. If only it will polish, if not a matte finish would be fine. It does show surface fractures after drying out, I don't like this characteristic. |
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Post by hummingbirdstones on May 7, 2022 9:43:09 GMT -5
I think the wood you're finding is awesome, jamesp! May not be as flashy as AZ wood you see, but not all AZ wood is rainbow wood or have interesting colors/patterns in it. We have a bunch that we collected up at Dobell's Ranch and it is ok but not fabulous. I looked up that cute caterpickle you posted a picture of. Spanish Moth. Very cool moth that is pink and black with a fuzzy head.  |
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jamesp
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Post by jamesp on May 7, 2022 9:44:27 GMT -5
Could be a good safety to have a come a long in the back, for the just in case. Patty You are right. I have a new 5 ton Waring bumper mount winch but need to buy a winch mount front bumper. Then have to install the mess. One problem down there is that the trees are too far apart in many places for hooking a cable on to. A friend invited me to his 500 acre hunt lease when we were in college. During the day they decided to play hide and go seek with all the jeeps, one guy was it and he was a lineman who could climb trees with those boot spikes. He climbed 70 feet up a large oak a 100 feet off the main trail and hooked his winch cable to a giant limb only to winch him and his jeep all the way up to that limb. He watched the whole bunch drive by and made us all look like idiots. Good(crazy) times... |
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jamesp
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Post by jamesp on May 7, 2022 10:20:11 GMT -5
I think the wood you're finding is awesome, jamesp! May not be as flashy as AZ wood you see, but not all AZ wood is rainbow wood or have interesting colors/patterns in it. We have a bunch that we collected up at Dobell's Ranch and it is ok but not fabulous. I looked up that cute caterpickle you posted a picture of. Spanish Moth. Very cool moth that is pink and black with a fuzzy head. It has become apparent that we won't be matching up to Arizona material. Hunt is still on !! It is unique and variable making it totally interesting. It seems to be all of the same species darn it. Where's the palm ! I was curious if you had access to that fine Arizona material. I can't imagine it having not been scooped up by collectors. That Pet wood National Forest is peppered with the beautiful stuff and covers 220,000 acres - no way, that is a huge area. Compared to the Alabama spot that seems to cover about 20 acres it would be 11,000 times smaller than your National forest - wow ! I see the National forest is on the east side of Arizona. You may be a good ways away from it. I drug a jet ski out to Bullhead City and stayed a few weeks back in the 90's and found small pieces of that beautiful wood on the shores of Lake Mojave. Amazed you found the moth version, well done. Wow what a wild moth @! Love the hair do ! The crinum lily has thick succulent leaves that has to make a fine meal for that caterpillar. My Mom would have said the moth color combos were 'tacky'(a deep south colloquial term meaning' poor taste' lol). I used to collect the large seeds of crinums and germinate/pot them for resale. By far my favorite wetland emergent. They germinate easily like most large seeds. But the beast was a slow grower meaning it was desirable because it would stay in a one gallon pot for years. But not easy to make any money as it took 3 years to be of saleable size. The base trunk gets up to 7-8 inches in diameter. You may see hybrid crinums in landscape plantings in tropical Arizona. Seed pods on plant:  Seed pod dissected:  |
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Post by liveoak on May 7, 2022 11:17:15 GMT -5
Too funny Jim.
I know that Tom's "lug all" has gotten us out of trouble a couple of times, even with our old van on ice in NY state. Worth it's weight in gold & no installation necessary :-)
The modern HF ones are toys compared to this .
Patty
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jamesp
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Post by jamesp on May 7, 2022 11:47:23 GMT -5
So when traipsing along the forest floor the few larger chunks are what I see sticking up thru the leaves. Most chunks are bigger, many weighing 100 to 300 pounds(may be just the tip of the iceberg). They are all heavily bleached. Full round log sections up to 8 inches are very rare except in places in the creek and those are hell to hike out; they are also dead solid with no fractures like the bleached upland material.  And these are the same chunks with hammered windows. This is a poor selection as I have not collected many chunks. Most make great landscape specimens. I'd love to harvest this stuff and sell it at a landscape supply yard(in an earlier life !). |
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jamesp
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Post by jamesp on May 7, 2022 11:51:16 GMT -5
Too funny Jim.
I know that Tom's "lug all" has gotten us out of trouble a couple of times, even with our old van on ice in NY state. Worth it's weight in gold & no installation necessary :-) The modern HF ones are toys compared to this .
Patty
Oh yes, the old reliable 4000 pound come-a-long. Poor Tom having to crank that machine, a great work out. Or does he have Patty crank that beast ? A God-send when stuck though ! |
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jamesp
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Post by jamesp on May 7, 2022 11:55:40 GMT -5
rickb - do you want to try to cook a chunk of this stuff. I got a solid 3.5" diameter stick about a foot long that rings like a bell. Glad to send it to you. It is the long one at middle right: 
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jamesp
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Post by jamesp on May 7, 2022 12:42:20 GMT -5
88 pounds of tumbles reduced down to about 65 pounds at this point. All is this new wood. As each of four 22 pound batches reduces down it gets dumped in a smaller barrel. rollin rollin rollin. Messy area but so is coarse grind. Have already used about 25 cups of super coarse SiC. Glad it was cheap and glad I purchased 800 pounds of it. Mass tumbling not cheap. Oddly I have yet to find a piece of creek rounded wood but every piece of quartzite and gneiss is heavily rounded. Mysteries abound...  |
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Post by liveoak on May 7, 2022 13:21:59 GMT -5
Well at least you got a lot to play with . Amazing stuff you're finding - should keep you busy for a little while , in between trips to get more 
The come-a-long is definitely Tom's job - it's his come-a-long after all.
Here he is winching a lathe up onto the trailer.
I was supervising 
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jamesp
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Post by jamesp on May 7, 2022 14:27:45 GMT -5
Well at least you got a lot to play with . Amazing stuff you're finding - should keep you busy for a little while , in between trips to get more The come-a-long is definitely Tom's job - it's his come-a-long after all.
Here he is winching a lathe up onto the trailer.
I was supervising Denise likes to assume that supervision role too. It really doesn't get on my nerves - NOT. She knows it does so she does it. What's with that lol ? No worries, I have well rehearsed idiosyncrasies that get on her last nerve too. All is good  Tom has a way to go before the lathe is where it needs to go ! Is that y'all's oversea container ? |
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jamesp
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Post by jamesp on May 7, 2022 14:32:31 GMT -5
Lots of patterns to take macro's of. The structure in living organisms of the past are always fascinating. Note how well silicified; maybe 15% is of this quality. Often larger pieces are of this glassy material. Note fine saw tooth edge.  |
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Post by rockpickerforever on May 7, 2022 14:33:23 GMT -5
So when traipsing along the forest floor the few larger chunks are what I see sticking up thru the leaves. Most chunks are bigger, many weighing 100 to 300 pounds(may be just the tip of the iceberg). They are all heavily bleached. Full round log sections up to 8 inches are very rare except in places in the creek and those are hell to hike out; they are also dead solid with no fractures like the bleached upland material. And these are the same chunks with hammered windows. This is a poor selection as I have not collected many chunks. Most make great landscape specimens. I'd love to harvest this stuff and sell it at a landscape supply yard(in an earlier life !).  This is a high and dry eroded spot:  Less white bleached wood where a large tree blew over and the root ball exposed the densely packed creek bank. This material is much easier to judge potential internal color but hell to get to. Inner material much different than patina:  And the big stuff in the creek bottom. The boulders are of pretty banded chert. Note whole 8 inch log at center left. Most of this material is darker in color and dead solid with zero fractures. HEAVY and heavily stained of surface. No quartz. No limestone ?#$%^  More nice stuff, James. But I am getting redundant now. I am flabbergasted that you have lived down in that area for most, if not all of your life. The last 30+ years any way. And yet, you are only now discovering these treasures?  I guess since you have "retired" from the work-a-day world, you have more time to venture out on the hunt. (kidding - I know that when you stop working, it does not mean you have more time, far from it.) Their presence there is certainly astounding. Keep showing us your finds! |
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Post by liveoak on May 7, 2022 14:39:17 GMT -5
Not our container- that was a junk yard that was destroyed by Hurricane Michael. The lathe was in a collapsed building and we had to knock down part of a wall to get it out. Did I mention that we had to pay for this privilege too ? Sounds like Denise, probably like myself, has learned when to be needed & when to just stand by.
Patty
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I guess since you have "retired" from the work-a-day world, you have more time to venture out on the hunt. (kidding - I know that when you stop working, it does not mean you have more time, far from it.) Their presence there is certainly astounding.
Hear no weevils, see no weevils, speak no weevils! 
Slumber Time, and the snoring is easy.
