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Post by perkins17 on Jul 6, 2022 12:39:58 GMT -5
I, honestly, think I like working with rhodochrosite the best. I love to lay it out but I especially love to polish it up to 100k where it looks like it has a glass covering - very deep.
I like dino bone, too. It starts out looking so ugly and turns into a gem.
I was hoping you'd chime in. I've never worked with rhodochrosite myself, but is some beautiful material. I have a little slab of dino bone I've been thinking about working, but it's really cool as is and I can't bring myself to cut it.  |
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Post by rockjunquie on Jul 6, 2022 12:44:37 GMT -5
I, honestly, think I like working with rhodochrosite the best. I love to lay it out but I especially love to polish it up to 100k where it looks like it has a glass covering - very deep.
I like dino bone, too. It starts out looking so ugly and turns into a gem.
I was hoping you'd chime in. I've never worked with rhodochrosite myself, but is some beautiful material. I have a little slab of dino bone I've been thinking about working, but it's really cool as is and I can't bring myself to cut it.  Cut it! You'll be glad you did. It's fun to cab.
Unfortunately rhodo has gotten really expensive. But, when I do cab it, It's always the highlight of my grind. That and OJ. But OJ isn't really "fun" per say.
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brotherbill
spending too much on rocks
Member since October 2018
Posts: 388
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Post by brotherbill on Jul 6, 2022 12:49:38 GMT -5
I, honestly, think I like working with rhodochrosite the best. I love to lay it out but I especially love to polish it up to 100k where it looks like it has a glass covering - very deep.
I like dino bone, too. It starts out looking so ugly and turns into a gem.
In my experience....hands down rhodochrosite is the best seller so you gotta love it from that aspect. Precious opal is a close second. |
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Post by perkins17 on Jul 6, 2022 13:44:30 GMT -5
I was hoping you'd chime in. I've never worked with rhodochrosite myself, but is some beautiful material. I have a little slab of dino bone I've been thinking about working, but it's really cool as is and I can't bring myself to cut it. Cut it! You'll be glad you did. It's fun to cab.
Unfortunately rhodo has gotten really expensive. But, when I do cab it, It's always the highlight of my grind. That and OJ. But OJ isn't really "fun" per say.
I'll lay the templates out on it in a second. I really like the material, so we'll see how good it turns out. It was in my "scared to cut" pile (along with Biggs, charoite, and jade) lol. I've only cut one oj and it turned out pretty well in my opinion. I love the looks of it. |
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Post by vegasjames on Jul 6, 2022 18:31:19 GMT -5
There was a remote mine here in Nevada that had a bunch of orange chalcedony on the face, and purple chalcedony over the top of the mine. I led a group of people out to collect in the area, including the mine. When I went back about a month later all the orange chalcedony had been removed and a good portion of the purple had also been removed. That's very sad to hear, here in Australia a lot of fossicking areas have been closed due to the locations being leaked and "business" oriented people coming in with illegal equipment to mine at a greater rate than allowed. Chances are a similar thing happened to your site too. Surprised the two colours were so close together, do you have pictures of the material?
Happens too often unfortunately. Even up at Wonderstone Mountain, some friends took me to a spot where there was an abundance of really colorful material all over the ground. So we went over there. The area had been cleaned out. Found out someone had come in with a large dump truck and loaded up all the material and hauled it off.
It is shame that some people cannot be trusted. Then I see people of various rock boards complaining that people will not share spots publicly, and this has to be explained to them.
Here are some pics of the orange and purple chalcedonies.
Some pink and orange ones
A little of the purple, which runs from a light to dark purple.
/143011703@N05/]James Sloane [/url], on Flickr[/div]
Have various other colors from the area including red and bluish-black such as these:
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Post by perkins17 on Nov 19, 2022 20:48:46 GMT -5
I know this is an older thread, but I'd love to see some other responses, so here's a bump. -Nicholas |
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swordfish
off to a rocking start
Hiya, Howdy & Hello. Swordfish Mining Virgin Valley Opals is me on the go
Member since April 2023
Posts: 2
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Post by swordfish on Apr 14, 2023 16:29:08 GMT -5
I'm stuck on Virgin Valley opals and woods and agates and jaspers and the surrounding areas. I used to have a Virgin Valley Facebook Group but somebody is copyright insane and it's all gone including all my content in every other group. Im too tired from mining my claims to try to replace it all.
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Post by stardiamond on Apr 14, 2023 16:35:19 GMT -5
Stuff I can't afford to work with; Orby Morrisonite, Koroit.
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realrockhound
Cave Dweller 
Chucking leaverite at tweekers
Member since June 2020
Posts: 4,497
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Post by realrockhound on Apr 14, 2023 17:43:37 GMT -5
I’d like some van deusen (the good orby stuff) or some leathers ranch plume if anyone knows where to get some.
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Post by perkins17 on Apr 14, 2023 23:22:59 GMT -5
I'm stuck on Virgin Valley opals and woods and agates and jaspers and the surrounding areas. I used to have a Virgin Valley Facebook Group but somebody is copyright insane and it's all gone including all my content in every other group. Im too tired from mining my claims to try to replace it all. Virgin River valley stuff is pretty special. I've got a slab of some of the material found by one of the highway workers way back probably in the 20s or 30s that a buddy of mine got gifted in the 80s and handed down to me. What sort of materials do you find on your claims? |
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Post by Starguy on Apr 15, 2023 11:01:29 GMT -5
My favorites over the years have been star stones. I’ve developed an eye for asterism. It’s pretty cool to find a corundum crystal in a rock shop and be pretty sure that it will exhibit a star after cabbing. It’s even cooler when it actually does.
I spent years digging, tumbling and cabbing Idaho star garnet. Some of my favorite rocks remain six ray star garnets. They have the most unique star pattern of any phenomenal gems. The only star material I’ve come across with more than two stars on a rock are garnets and rose quartz.
I already found my dream rock and it’s man-made. Back in the 80s, I was at the QIA show in Quartzite. I found the most beautiful cornflower blue sapphire boule. As I was admiring it, I noticed a flash run down one side. It turned out to be a 180 ct Linde made by Union Carbide. I had to run around and sell a bunch of garnet ridiculously cheap so I could afford to buy it. It’s still with me and is now my avatar photo.
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