hplcman
spending too much on rocks
Just getting into this....
Member since August 2022
Posts: 413
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Post by hplcman on Aug 3, 2022 12:04:05 GMT -5
I bought my daughter a Chicago Electric double barrel tumbler for Christmas last year because she was interested in shiny rocks whenever we saw them at the store. I always wanted to get into tumbling as a hobby and thought this would be a fun way to do it. Well, she has lost interest and now I'm hooked. The CE tumbler died after a couple months (of course) and now I'm running a Lortone 33B and loving every second of it! Whenever I'm at the beach, river, or even walking around behind the building I work in I'm always scouring the ground for new roughs to try and tumble!
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Post by Starguy on Aug 3, 2022 12:42:25 GMT -5
hplcmanWelcome to RTH. There is a lot of great knowledge here.
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Deleted
Deleted Member
Member since January 1970
Posts: 0
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Post by Deleted on Aug 3, 2022 12:47:32 GMT -5
Hi from Illinois! Sounds like you’ve got the fever!
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stonemon
Cave Dweller
Member since January 2017
Posts: 1,024
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Post by stonemon on Aug 3, 2022 14:35:03 GMT -5
Welcome from western Oregon!
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Post by Pat on Aug 3, 2022 15:22:23 GMT -5
Welcome from California. Not a tumbler, but many experts here.
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Post by liveoak on Aug 3, 2022 16:44:19 GMT -5
Welcome from NW Florida Patty
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Post by vegasjames on Aug 3, 2022 17:49:00 GMT -5
Welcome from Southern Nevada.
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Post by jasoninsd on Aug 3, 2022 18:38:32 GMT -5
Welcome to the forum from South Dakota!
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Post by hummingbirdstones on Aug 3, 2022 19:40:00 GMT -5
Welcome from Northern Arizona!
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allbetzoff
noticing nice landscape pebbles
Member since November 2020
Posts: 77
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Post by allbetzoff on Aug 3, 2022 20:35:36 GMT -5
Welcome from Oakland!!!
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Post by opalpyrexia on Aug 3, 2022 21:31:56 GMT -5
Welcome from Washington.
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Tommy
Administrator
Member since January 2013
Posts: 12,652
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Post by Tommy on Aug 4, 2022 9:26:16 GMT -5
I bought my daughter a Chicago Electric double barrel tumbler for Christmas last year because she was interested in shiny rocks whenever we saw them at the store. I always wanted to get into tumbling as a hobby and thought this would be a fun way to do it. Well, she has lost interest and now I'm hooked. The CE tumbler died after a couple months (of course) and now I'm running a Lortone 33B and loving every second of it! Whenever I'm at the beach, river, or even walking around behind the building I work in I'm always scouring the ground for new roughs to try and tumble! Welcome from Napa!
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hplcman
spending too much on rocks
Just getting into this....
Member since August 2022
Posts: 413
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Post by hplcman on Aug 4, 2022 9:48:44 GMT -5
I bought my daughter a Chicago Electric double barrel tumbler for Christmas last year because she was interested in shiny rocks whenever we saw them at the store. I always wanted to get into tumbling as a hobby and thought this would be a fun way to do it. Well, she has lost interest and now I'm hooked. The CE tumbler died after a couple months (of course) and now I'm running a Lortone 33B and loving every second of it! Whenever I'm at the beach, river, or even walking around behind the building I work in I'm always scouring the ground for new roughs to try and tumble! Welcome from Napa! Thanks! I'm looking forward to discovering places to rockhound in our neck of the woods! I love the coastal beaches, and have found some nice rocks out there. Do you have any resources on other places that may be interesting? I was planning a trip to Berryessa to look at the jasper on the shoreline, and was thinking a quick trip up to Morgan Valley/Knoxville could be interesting. Plus, I heard there is obsidian to be found around the Glass Mountain area north of St. Helena. I absolutely love this area. Even more so now that I'm discovering the widse variety of beautiful rocks that help make this landscape so amazing!
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Tommy
Administrator
Member since January 2013
Posts: 12,652
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Post by Tommy on Aug 4, 2022 10:40:50 GMT -5
Thanks! I'm looking forward to discovering places to rockhound in our neck of the woods! I love the coastal beaches, and have found some nice rocks out there. Do you have any resources on other places that may be interesting? I was planning a trip to Berryessa to look at the jasper on the shoreline, and was thinking a quick trip up to Morgan Valley/Knoxville could be interesting. Plus, I heard there is obsidian to be found around the Glass Mountain area north of St. Helena. I absolutely love this area. Even more so now that I'm discovering the widse variety of beautiful rocks that help make this landscape so amazing! Hi, sounds like you are aware of most of the potential spots - we have a favorite dog swimming spot at the very northern top of the lake and there are a LOT of rocks to look at as the lake gets low but I've never found anything I wanted to drag home and cut. From a tumbler's viewpoint this might be a different story. We have not been up to Knoxville but we keep talking about it. Not sure exactly where to go once we got up there. Someone on a FB group was chatting about finding jasper or onyx in the OHV area but he wasn't too specific about where. I have a chunk of Manhattan Mine lace agate that came from the original gold mine there - but that has been completely strip mined and turned into a lake and nature preserve now. The road cut at Glass Mountain is kind of a gnarly place to play and not worth a trip to Napa by itself. It's basically an unclimbable almost vertical ash wall with pock marks around the base where others have dug, and a steady stream of cars roaring along on Silverado Trail. It's fun to look at - I drive by there all the time but I've never seen any obsidian peeking out even after a heavy rain and I've never gotten my nerve up high enough to go there and dig. The appeal of plain black obsidian riddled with bubbles just isn't strong enough I guess lol. The hills on both sides of the valley are laced with volcanic glass. I have a source of nice tumbler size chunks of black obsidian directly opposite glass mountain, 2-3 miles across the Napa valley but it's on the grounds of a very exclusive winery and my access is limited but I can casually pick up a few pieces and put them in my lunch box. I've heard of obscure mineral type rocks to be had in the creek between Conn Creek and Frogs Leap wineries. Starting just up from Caymus there are definitely access points but for whatever reason I've never walked it. What area of Sonoma County are you? It's a pretty huge county lol.
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hplcman
spending too much on rocks
Just getting into this....
Member since August 2022
Posts: 413
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Post by hplcman on Aug 4, 2022 12:28:16 GMT -5
Thanks! I'm looking forward to discovering places to rockhound in our neck of the woods! I love the coastal beaches, and have found some nice rocks out there. Do you have any resources on other places that may be interesting? I was planning a trip to Berryessa to look at the jasper on the shoreline, and was thinking a quick trip up to Morgan Valley/Knoxville could be interesting. Plus, I heard there is obsidian to be found around the Glass Mountain area north of St. Helena. I absolutely love this area. Even more so now that I'm discovering the widse variety of beautiful rocks that help make this landscape so amazing! Hi, sounds like you are aware of most of the potential spots - we have a favorite dog swimming spot at the very northern top of the lake and there are a LOT of rocks to look at as the lake gets low but I've never found anything I wanted to drag home and cut. From a tumbler's viewpoint this might be a different story. We have not been up to Knoxville but we keep talking about it. Not sure exactly where to go once we got up there. Someone on a FB group was chatting about finding jasper or onyx in the OHV area but he wasn't too specific about where. I have a chunk of Manhattan Mine lace agate that came from the original gold mine there - but that has been completely strip mined and turned into a lake and nature preserve now. The road cut at Glass Mountain is kind of a gnarly place to play and not worth a trip to Napa by itself. It's basically an unclimbable almost vertical ash wall with pock marks around the base where others have dug, and a steady stream of cars roaring along on Silverado Trail. It's fun to look at - I drive by there all the time but I've never seen any obsidian peeking out even after a heavy rain and I've never gotten my nerve up high enough to go there and dig. The appeal of plain black obsidian riddled with bubbles just isn't strong enough I guess lol. The hills on both sides of the valley are laced with volcanic glass. I have a source of nice tumbler size chunks of black obsidian directly opposite glass mountain, 2-3 miles across the Napa valley but it's on the grounds of a very exclusive winery and my access is limited but I can casually pick up a few pieces and put them in my lunch box. I've heard of obscure mineral type rocks to be had in the creek between Conn Creek and Frogs Leap wineries. Starting just up from Caymus there are definitely access points but for whatever reason I've never walked it. What area of Sonoma County are you? It's a pretty huge county lol. Hi! Thanks for all of that information! I find it all very helpful! I'll search for obsidian someplace else... I'm in Petaluma, and have found great rocks for tumbling at Wrights, Schoolhouse and Pinnacle beaches and the beach at the end of the trail at Shorttail Gulch. I hope to drive up the coast to the Ft. Bragg area, as I saw some videos of people collecting nice rocks off the beaches up there. In Petaluma I haven't found much. There's some old train ballast near where I work that looks like it consists mostly of crushed rock from the Russian River perhaps? I have found some nice jasper and maybe even some jadeite there (I'm still learning how to identify rocks, so sorry for the lack of knowledge!). I'm just loving this hobby, and am looking to add a larger tumbler (maybe a Lortone QT66 of QT12) and a vibratory tumbler, sometime in the future!
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Tommy
Administrator
Member since January 2013
Posts: 12,652
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Post by Tommy on Aug 4, 2022 17:14:08 GMT -5
Hi! Thanks for all of that information! I find it all very helpful! I'll search for obsidian someplace else... I'm in Petaluma, and have found great rocks for tumbling at Wrights, Schoolhouse and Pinnacle beaches and the beach at the end of the trail at Shorttail Gulch. I hope to drive up the coast to the Ft. Bragg area, as I saw some videos of people collecting nice rocks off the beaches up there. In Petaluma I haven't found much. There's some old train ballast near where I work that looks like it consists mostly of crushed rock from the Russian River perhaps? I have found some nice jasper and maybe even some jadeite there (I'm still learning how to identify rocks, so sorry for the lack of knowledge!). I'm just loving this hobby, and am looking to add a larger tumbler (maybe a Lortone QT66 of QT12) and a vibratory tumbler, sometime in the future! Sounds like you've got the beaches down already but there's one more you haven't mentioned - Agate Beach down in Avila is definitely worth a visit. We were there a couple months ago and found a lot of the little oil agates. Of course we left them there because picking them is posted to be illegal ... wink wink
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Tommy
Administrator
Member since January 2013
Posts: 12,652
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Post by Tommy on Aug 4, 2022 17:17:56 GMT -5
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hplcman
spending too much on rocks
Just getting into this....
Member since August 2022
Posts: 413
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Post by hplcman on Aug 5, 2022 10:38:50 GMT -5
Hi! Thanks for all of that information! I find it all very helpful! I'll search for obsidian someplace else... I'm in Petaluma, and have found great rocks for tumbling at Wrights, Schoolhouse and Pinnacle beaches and the beach at the end of the trail at Shorttail Gulch. I hope to drive up the coast to the Ft. Bragg area, as I saw some videos of people collecting nice rocks off the beaches up there. In Petaluma I haven't found much. There's some old train ballast near where I work that looks like it consists mostly of crushed rock from the Russian River perhaps? I have found some nice jasper and maybe even some jadeite there (I'm still learning how to identify rocks, so sorry for the lack of knowledge!). I'm just loving this hobby, and am looking to add a larger tumbler (maybe a Lortone QT66 of QT12) and a vibratory tumbler, sometime in the future! Sounds like you've got the beaches down already but there's one more you haven't mentioned - Agate Beach down in Avila is definitely worth a visit. We were there a couple months ago and found a lot of the little oil agates. Of course we left them there because picking them is posted to be illegal ... wink wink Haha! Avila, is that down around San Luis Obispo? There's a beach in Bolinas I would like to visit... That is something I worry about, the legality of collecting rocks from the beach. From what I understand, if it's a state beach you can collect (without using tools) about 10 pounds of rocks? But then some state beaches you can't collect at all? It all seems very convoluted and unclear. Have you seen a post about this on here?
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Tommy
Administrator
Member since January 2013
Posts: 12,652
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Post by Tommy on Aug 5, 2022 15:49:38 GMT -5
Oh sorry! Yes Bolinas - Avila has an entirely different awesome material - search for Avila Rhyolite aka: deedeeite.
I try not to overthink the convulated rules ... At Pescadero State beach you can walk 20 yards to the south and pick up agates freely. It makes no sense. Best time to pick at Pescadero is always during a minus tide after a winter storm has cleared out all that stupid sand covering the pebbles layer.
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Post by drocknut on Aug 5, 2022 17:06:02 GMT -5
Welcome to the forum from south central Arizona
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