Sabre52
Cave Dweller 
Me and my gal, Rosie
Member since August 2005
Posts: 20,490
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Post by Sabre52 on Nov 4, 2024 19:53:12 GMT -5
The jade buckles are sold. As an aside, I looked up the screw-on bezel buckle mounts online and it seems the cheapest I found were $11.95. My how inflation has hit even the lapidary market.
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Sabre52
Cave Dweller
Me and my gal, Rosie
Member since August 2005
Posts: 20,490
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Post by Sabre52 on Nov 3, 2024 14:03:17 GMT -5
Howdy folks, Have four Jade belt buckles from the big box of buckles. All in the more modern screw-on bezel mounts so If you want to use the stone or buckle for something else it's easy to switch them out. All 30 x 40's. Pink jade from Nevada, scarce green Jadeite from Washington state, dark green jade from the old Janoko Jade mine at Porterville, CA. This has magnetite inclusions which tend to undercut a bit, and pink and green jade from Wyoming. $60.00 for all four, shipping included in US where priority mail works. Pal Pal works best for me. Thanks for looking....Mel  Jade buckles by lonerider652000, on Flickr |
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Sabre52
Cave Dweller
Me and my gal, Rosie
Member since August 2005
Posts: 20,490
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Post by Sabre52 on Nov 3, 2024 13:51:23 GMT -5
Howdy folks, Still cleaning out my ole rockshop. Many moons ago I used to sell rockstuff at a swap meet and belt buckles were real popular. Ran across a big box of stuff while cleaning my shop and thought someone might like a bunch of findings. These are all the old vintage prong type mounts in calibrated sizes. 16 buckle mounts, 6 bola tie mounts, with a few extras- 3 glue on tie clasps, 4 pairs of glue on cuff links and a couple extra pendants/pins. six prong mount buckles with stones also included. $130.00 for the lot shipping included where US priority mail goes. I use Pay Pal. Just send me a note if interested....Mel  Prong buckles by lonerider652000, on Flickr |
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Sabre52
Cave Dweller
Me and my gal, Rosie
Member since August 2005
Posts: 20,490
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Post by Sabre52 on Sept 24, 2024 15:41:50 GMT -5
Yeah, cobble is just a common term for a rounded river transported stone Lots of those green and yellow jaspers and jasp/agates in the Rio Grande material. I probably have a few in my discard piles The yellow often undercuts if there is not enough silica so they are often not good enough to spend saw time on. Check out Darwin Dillon's flickr website if you want to see some spectacular examples.
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Sabre52
Cave Dweller
Me and my gal, Rosie
Member since August 2005
Posts: 20,490
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Post by Sabre52 on Sept 24, 2024 15:34:22 GMT -5
Black and white one is oolite or pisolite. Those differ in orb size with the pisolite being larger orbs.
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Sabre52
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Me and my gal, Rosie
Member since August 2005
Posts: 20,490
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Post by Sabre52 on Sept 24, 2024 15:16:50 GMT -5
Wow, that's a nice Rio Grande agate. Always good to check out landscape rocks even in the Hill Country, as many of the rock quarries they come from are in the Uvalde Gravels of the Rio Grande Valley. The other common gravel sources are around La Grange and contain some nice fossils and pet wood, even palm.
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Sabre52
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Me and my gal, Rosie
Member since August 2005
Posts: 20,490
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Post by Sabre52 on Sept 9, 2024 10:40:49 GMT -5
Definitely a Rio Grande jasper-agate cobble. The actual name of the Beds is the Uvalde Gravels, I guess because that's where they were first cataloged. The beds extend from south of Uvalde Texas all along the Rio Grande Valley and in ancient times huge rivers drained an enormous area. My theory is a lot of that green jasper agate originated may have come from out towards Needle Peak in way west Texas.
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Sabre52
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Me and my gal, Rosie
Member since August 2005
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Post by Sabre52 on Sept 9, 2024 10:27:00 GMT -5
Hmm. I'm thinking consecutive slabs off a limb cast. Have seen similar for George West, TX but there are similar ones from the Pacific northwest too.
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Sabre52
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Post by Sabre52 on Aug 26, 2024 16:51:55 GMT -5
Oh man, these T-eggs are giving me a headache. I know I've seen them but the matrix is bugging me. If I had to guess, I'd say Little Naches Blue t-eggs from Washington or MT. Airy Blue t-eggs from around Austin Nevada but around Deming New Mexico there are some similar blue ones too.
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Sabre52
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Me and my gal, Rosie
Member since August 2005
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Post by Sabre52 on Aug 26, 2024 16:04:17 GMT -5
My God I am old! I remember when many of those prices were even way less than that. As a young enthusiast, a buck or two a pound was way out of my price range. African stuff was always kind of expensive but shoot, domestic and northern Mexico stuff of very high quality used to all be under a buck a pound. If I had purchased a few tons of the old crazy lace, or Chihuahua agates as a teen, it would have outperformed many of my stocks. But then again, if I had bought certain stocks when they first came out, I'd be typing this from my mansion on my 300,000 acre Brewster County ranch full of plume agate right now. Oh to have a time machine huh?
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Sabre52
Cave Dweller
Me and my gal, Rosie
Member since August 2005
Posts: 20,490
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Post by Sabre52 on Aug 26, 2024 15:49:58 GMT -5
Wowser! That is a nice hunk Of Hornitos! If it is from Morgan Hill, it is obviously not Hornitos and that boulder is. That boulder looks to be from the old Flora pit or the original pit we called the Holy Grail pit that yielded a really big lens of jasper and some huge hunks with that color combination. Unfortunately, Hornitos poppy comes in a multitude of patterns and color combinations and each pit often contains several types. Same with Morgan Hill poppy and the other central coast range types. They all have many variations too. That is why so much Hornitos is mislabeled Morgan Hill or vice versa.
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Sabre52
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Me and my gal, Rosie
Member since August 2005
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Post by Sabre52 on Aug 16, 2024 9:55:52 GMT -5
I'd say Moctezuma too.
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Sabre52
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Me and my gal, Rosie
Member since August 2005
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Post by Sabre52 on Aug 16, 2024 9:53:23 GMT -5
There is fine picture petrified wood near Pet Forest in AZ. I used to hunt it on Greers Milky Ranch adjacent to the park. What you've pictured does look like the Saddle Mtn stuff.
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Sabre52
Cave Dweller
Me and my gal, Rosie
Member since August 2005
Posts: 20,490
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Post by Sabre52 on Aug 5, 2024 15:54:23 GMT -5
If they are small geodes, they may be Tabasco geodes from Mexico. They often have that greenish exterior.
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Sabre52
Cave Dweller
Me and my gal, Rosie
Member since August 2005
Posts: 20,490
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Post by Sabre52 on Jul 22, 2024 17:38:21 GMT -5
Wow! What a show. Especially Kabamby and those small orb OJ's.
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Sabre52
Cave Dweller
Me and my gal, Rosie
Member since August 2005
Posts: 20,490
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Post by Sabre52 on Jul 22, 2024 17:34:23 GMT -5
In my experience, cutting marcasite in agate is often problematic as metallic inclusions do seem to create more drag on the blade. So, oil is usually the best bet for lubrication. The downside is, some pieces of this material when slabbed in oil seem to absorb a lot of the oil requiring much more washing and drying after the cuts and after drying some pieces, actually rust, while oddly, many do not. Very pretty material though.
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Sabre52
Cave Dweller
Me and my gal, Rosie
Member since August 2005
Posts: 20,490
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Post by Sabre52 on Jul 15, 2024 16:02:51 GMT -5
Wow! Very nice cab. I had the opportunity to dig at the Dryhead site many years ago and it was both my hardest and most interesting dig ever. Those multi- fortification examples seemed to be more often found near the top of the agate nodule layer and often were very druzy and almost without matrix. About four to six feet down in the limestone was another layer of regular nodules with the nice dark chocolate matrix that mostly had single centers. Owner's machines were broken down at the time and no undercutting was allowed so all limestone overburden had to be removed by hand. The fee was for a 24 hour dig and it stayed light almost as long as when I was fishing in Alaska in the spring and we had a severe lighting storm the entire time. Really hard work and the agates were very spotty. The guys right next to me found a couple hundred pounds while my hole yielded about a quarter of that, but it was still very exciting, and I had the time of my life.
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Sabre52
Cave Dweller
Me and my gal, Rosie
Member since August 2005
Posts: 20,490
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Post by Sabre52 on Jun 24, 2024 13:58:13 GMT -5
Wow, you got some great shrinkwood cuts in that batch. Texas wood is one of my favorites!
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Sabre52
Cave Dweller
Me and my gal, Rosie
Member since August 2005
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Post by Sabre52 on May 27, 2024 10:44:10 GMT -5
You might try Iron-out. I've used pool muriatic acid too but it's more dangerous to use.
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Sabre52
Cave Dweller
Me and my gal, Rosie
Member since August 2005
Posts: 20,490
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Post by Sabre52 on May 20, 2024 14:58:50 GMT -5
Wow, awesome cabs Goldfinder. I only ever found one piece of that flowered stuff. The small red orb stuff we found came from the Stinky Horse Hole and from our own ranch where that, along with the big red orange poppy, was the main type found in situ. I pegged the metallic stuff as hematite as some of the clear agate sections in the poppy jasper actually had specular hematite crystals. In my examples it ranged from silvery to purplish. Your breccia is dead on for what we were getting and some actually had some poppies and dotted type effects. Incredible what the area yields. The most frustrating spot I found was near the old digs and was a beautiful example with big golden poppies. Found it on dumps and never found another example. I have a small boulder of opalized material from that location too. I also hiked the hill above the old pits on the east side of the road and found poppy signs back in the manzanita thickets. That belly crawling hounding sucks though. *L*.
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