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Post by vegasjames on Apr 28, 2024 14:38:36 GMT -5
Tommy vegasjames may know about prospects and risks. I personally wouldn't take a chance on squatters. Places I tend to go I never see people. I prefer to avoid them when out digging unless I know them.
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Post by vegasjames on Apr 28, 2024 14:31:45 GMT -5
Welcome from Southern Nevada.
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Post by vegasjames on Apr 27, 2024 23:44:16 GMT -5
Nice. Is that a plume esq type of inclusion or something different? Not plume, just white chalcedony inclusions and pockets of diatomaceous earth in the blue chalcedony.
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Post by vegasjames on Apr 27, 2024 20:25:07 GMT -5
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Post by vegasjames on Apr 27, 2024 20:22:11 GMT -5
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Post by vegasjames on Apr 27, 2024 20:18:17 GMT -5
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Post by vegasjames on Apr 27, 2024 20:16:35 GMT -5
Rhyolite front and back.
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Post by vegasjames on Apr 27, 2024 15:22:42 GMT -5
Welcome from Southern Nevada. Personally, I would not tumble turquoise. Turquoise can run from chalky to naturally hard (very rare), and can run from a penny a carat all the way up to $1,000 per carat. Price varies based on a number of factors, but hardness being a major one. Naturally hard turquoise, which could be tumbled, is too expensive to really tumble. The cheap stuff is too soft to tumble, unless maybe stabilized. I realize now that I shouldn't just dump any rocks into the tumbler and expect good results. When I first received the tumbler, I glanced through the manual and the whole process seemed pretty simple. 3 months later, I've discovered that I still have a lot to learn. There are many good youtubes to learn from though. I like Michigan Rocks and Lapidary Dave's stuff. My son is living in Henderson and doing construction work at McCarran airport. He's also interested in lapidary. Thanks for the info. Your son can join our club Southern Nevada Gem and Mineral Society, which would allow him to join on rock hounding trips and use the club lapidary equipment.
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Post by vegasjames on Apr 27, 2024 15:18:07 GMT -5
You must be out a lot! I like the pink in the 16th pic and the few before that. Is it pinker in person? I would say yes, that they are a bit more pink. The sunlight washes the pics out a bit. The pink chalcedonies vary a lot in intensity running from a faint pink to a darker pink, or pinkish purple.
There is a small mountain in Southern California that has a lot of pink chalcedony.
And for pinks, I find pink orthoclase, rhyolites and opal.
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Post by vegasjames on Apr 27, 2024 15:12:20 GMT -5
Your saw must stay pretty busy! I don't do as much cutting as I would like. Harder stones like the chalcedonies I generally wait to go down to the club shop to cut on oil saws. At home, I cut softer stones with the tile saw, but it is heavy and awkward to carry so I only set it up occasionally.
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Post by vegasjames on Apr 27, 2024 15:05:29 GMT -5
Welcome from Southern Nevada.
Pics of the stone dry as well can help make some features more visible.
And more info such as hardness and density can also help.
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Post by vegasjames on Apr 27, 2024 6:29:11 GMT -5
Here is some of the stuff I recently collected. Will add more pics soon as I get more photographed.
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Post by vegasjames on Apr 26, 2024 18:50:40 GMT -5
Welcome! Did you plan to post some pictures but they didn't show up? There were links to the pics originally. May have been moved, or they may be trying to get them to show up with the Cloudiary.
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Post by vegasjames on Apr 26, 2024 15:41:36 GMT -5
We used to catch blue bellies, yellow bellies, skinks and horned toads here all the time as kids. Most have completely disappeared with all the development of their territory. Still see an occasional horned toad. And I have a bunch of geckos that live in my rock piles around the house. One cool thing we have up here are newts and salamanders. However they are hard to find. You guys have any down there? No, neither of those. Too dry here.
Here is a link with a list of many of our lizards.
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Post by vegasjames on Apr 26, 2024 15:24:46 GMT -5
We got blue belly lizards, horn toads and skinks up here. As a kid, I was always jealous of the reptiles down your way. We used to catch blue bellies, yellow bellies, skinks and horned toads here all the time as kids. Most have completely disappeared with all the development of their territory. Still see an occasional horned toad. And I have a bunch of geckos that live in my rock piles around the house.
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Post by vegasjames on Apr 26, 2024 14:59:11 GMT -5
Welcome from Southern Nevada.
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Post by vegasjames on Apr 26, 2024 14:58:03 GMT -5
The lizard is a long nosed leopard lizard.
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Post by vegasjames on Apr 26, 2024 14:57:19 GMT -5
Jax is happy as usual. I see they brought their rockhounding pup, too. So, what did you collect and what kind of lizard? The first location I took them to was for phyllite primarily.
Then took them to a location for Apache tears. Found some nice rhyolites in the area as well and found a small nodule.
Next stop was mainly for rhyolite, then they jumped in my truck because we had to go up some bad roads to the top of the mountain. Looked for orange common opal at the base of the mountain, then took them up to the top of the mountain, which has a beautiful blue and black chalcedony, as well as blue chalcedony and small amounts of orange chalcedony.
Next, took them over to collect Stonewall Canyon jasper.
Then went to another location that has a variety of different colored and patterned chalcedonies, and has common opal. Have also found sulfur crystals there in the past. Then went around the corner to the mine that had the orange chalcedony, purple chalcedony and strawberry chalcedony. This is the mine I took a group of people to a while back and a month later when I went back all the orange chalcedony and most the purple chalcedony had been removed. Pretty sure it was someone from the trip I led as the area is so remote and difficult to find. Unfortunately, they went back and this time about 99% of the chalcedony ha been removed, so I only got a few pieces. I was really shocked as the whole ledge of the mine was purple chalcedony and it had been all removed except to tiny spots.
That was day one, then we drove up to Tonopah and spent the night there. Next day I took them to a location North of Tonopah that has a variety of cool stuff including various rhyolites, jasper, nodules, pet wood, geodes, common opal, blue agate, etc. Unfortunately, there was a big thunderstorm by the mountain right next to us, and it started to rain on us after about an hour so we left and went back to Tonopah to get gas, and eat. While gassing up the truck the rain started coming down really hard mixed with hail. So we had lunch while waiting out the storm.
Then we drove back down to the Gemfield area and I showed them the areas I collect outside of the claim.
Wanted to camp and go to a couple other locations the next day, but the weather was not cooperating, so decided to head home since I am going back that direction anyway soon.
Been taking pics of the finds as I wash them and put them away. Will post pics soon.
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Post by vegasjames on Apr 26, 2024 14:02:18 GMT -5
Welcome from Southern Nevada.
Personally, I would not tumble turquoise. Turquoise can run from chalky to naturally hard (very rare), and can run from a penny a carat all the way up to $1,000 per carat.
Price varies based on a number of factors, but hardness being a major one. Naturally hard turquoise, which could be tumbled, is too expensive to really tumble. The cheap stuff is too soft to tumble, unless maybe stabilized.
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Post by vegasjames on Apr 26, 2024 13:53:29 GMT -5
Welcome from Southern Nevada.
Nice tumbles.
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