Sabre52
Cave Dweller
Me and my gal, Rosie
Member since August 2005
Posts: 20,487
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Post by Sabre52 on Nov 27, 2021 16:17:11 GMT -5
Gemfeller, You may be right as I moved to Texas in 2008. May have gone downhill since then as the cooks were some of the original people back then. I knew Mexican food was regional but had no idea how much so till we moved to Texas. Was expecting better than California but generally it's not. It is all the cook though, as the best place we've found here has a couple of locations and one of them is godawful bad while the other is pretty darn good. Both are kind of mom and pops. The fanciest Mexican place in town is Tex-Mex and has a wonderful atmosphere but the food in no way resembles what I'd call Mexican food. Hard to please a kid from the wrong side of the tracks in Hayward, CA who worked his way through school at Hunts cannery which was like all Mexican workers and had great cooks in the cafeteria. *L*. Now BBQ, there Texas rules!
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Sabre52
Cave Dweller
Me and my gal, Rosie
Member since August 2005
Posts: 20,487
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Post by Sabre52 on Nov 26, 2021 21:52:30 GMT -5
Gemfeller Dude!!!!!!! Good God are you insulting the Somis Market ( Name may be changed now, I forget) my favorite Mexican food place ever. Man, after I moved to Texas that is the only eating place I miss. No atmosphere but great food. Used to eat tacos, burritos and chimichangas there several times per week. When I first started eating there, it was a mom and pop market and burritos were two for 85 cents. When I retired from the dept, the folks that owned the store had expanded hugely, owned most the block, and the lunch lines were very long and prices way higher of course. Figured moving to Texas, I'd find food I liked just as well. Found one place that comes close and that's it. Texas love Tex-Mex crap that to me tastes more like some weird Italian-Mexican food hybrid which I dislike *L*. If I ever return to sucky Commiefornia, Somis market is the first place I'm heading. Only place that came close was I think named Tommies or Johnies or some such in Camarillo and Oxnard. Excellent food there too.
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Sabre52
Cave Dweller
Me and my gal, Rosie
Member since August 2005
Posts: 20,487
|
Post by Sabre52 on Nov 26, 2021 11:12:23 GMT -5
I've heard Shaver Lake has good quartz crystals but uphill, just south of Dinky Creek and Camp Ducey there are some great pegmatites with smoky quartz, rose quartz, garnets and epidote near Exchecker Bluff sp?
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Sabre52
Cave Dweller
Me and my gal, Rosie
Member since August 2005
Posts: 20,487
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Post by Sabre52 on Nov 26, 2021 11:08:21 GMT -5
Nice finds! You're not all that far from the Horse Canyon area and all those mtns between you and the Mohave Desert are loaded with various types of agate and even palm root. You live within easy driving distance to tons of of great hounding areas. Good luck.
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Sabre52
Cave Dweller
Me and my gal, Rosie
Member since August 2005
Posts: 20,487
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Post by Sabre52 on Nov 26, 2021 8:40:17 GMT -5
My wife captures all the pretty leaverites for her garden. She also captures a good deal of my "good stuff". Usually not as problem cause I can steal it back if she doesn't catch me, but man, when we moved from Commiefornia to Texas, I later realized I left a lot of incredible boulders in our yard that were in the gardens or walkways. It especially hurt that I forgot to hunt up a fifty pound lens of nice Porterville jade that was used as a stepping stone, a huge Big Sandy poppy jasper boulder along the pond, and an equally large boulder of Oaxaca Travertine in her raised garden. A guy has to guard his rocks or ya can lose'em. Dang!
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Sabre52
Cave Dweller
Me and my gal, Rosie
Member since August 2005
Posts: 20,487
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Post by Sabre52 on Nov 26, 2021 8:31:23 GMT -5
Great cab! One of my favorite materials too.
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Sabre52
Cave Dweller
Me and my gal, Rosie
Member since August 2005
Posts: 20,487
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Post by Sabre52 on Nov 25, 2021 8:39:09 GMT -5
The days of surface collecting Lagunas are long gone. Hard rock mining with heavy equipment these days. Heck though, Lagunas were expensive when I first started rock collecting back in the 1950s. If you adjust for inflation, it's probably cheaper now than then, cause 2-3$ per pound was a lot of money in those days.
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Sabre52
Cave Dweller
Me and my gal, Rosie
Member since August 2005
Posts: 20,487
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Post by Sabre52 on Nov 25, 2021 8:34:17 GMT -5
Quartz is harder than sodalite so the two do not mix well in the tumbler. When running soft stones, it's important to use materials of the same hardness for good results. Some sodalite is of mixed hardness to which complicated the problem. I'd do a short run in rough grind in a rotary to round the stones, then normal runs in fine grid and prepolish in the vibe and try tin oxide as a polish with lots of plastic pellets to cushion the load. That being said, softer stones to me, always seem like a crapshoot and every batch is different.
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Sabre52
Cave Dweller
Me and my gal, Rosie
Member since August 2005
Posts: 20,487
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Post by Sabre52 on Nov 25, 2021 8:26:13 GMT -5
Aside from bloodstone which often has the red inclusions, I'd look at green imperial jasper from Mexico. Tumbles to a nice mirror polish with ease and comes in a nice dark green color.
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Sabre52
Cave Dweller
Me and my gal, Rosie
Member since August 2005
Posts: 20,487
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Post by Sabre52 on Nov 22, 2021 14:29:25 GMT -5
Wow, tough call. I love Woodward, Rio Grande, and Bishop Rch ( Marfa) from Texas, Bloody Basin from AZ, Owlhead, Cady Mtns (north and south), Paisley, Wingate, Horse Canyon, and Valley Springs from Commiefornia and of course Priday Rch but there are just so many.
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Sabre52
Cave Dweller
Me and my gal, Rosie
Member since August 2005
Posts: 20,487
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Post by Sabre52 on Nov 22, 2021 14:09:40 GMT -5
Best jade working advice I ever got was to always use very worn wheels in the sanding stages. New wheels just cause too much undercutting. That being said, I've only ever cut one cab from Wyoming black jade and that was the easiest to polish of any jade I've tried. Took a mirror polish with ease and zero undercutting compared to other Wyoming jades I've cut.
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Sabre52
Cave Dweller
Me and my gal, Rosie
Member since August 2005
Posts: 20,487
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Post by Sabre52 on Nov 17, 2021 21:41:11 GMT -5
Mossy, plumey limb casts like that are fairly common around George West Texas. Some are totally moss agate replacements inside with only slight evidence they were ever pet wood. Colors in your example look like the ones from that part of Texas too.
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Sabre52
Cave Dweller
Me and my gal, Rosie
Member since August 2005
Posts: 20,487
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Post by Sabre52 on Oct 13, 2021 6:45:05 GMT -5
Great cabs! Just as an FYI, many of the wood examples from George West are wood casts where the actual internal structure of the wood is not preserved. Essentially, I guess you'd call them jasper- agate or moss agate. Some examples actually resemble Graveyard Plume. Very odd material.
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Sabre52
Cave Dweller
Me and my gal, Rosie
Member since August 2005
Posts: 20,487
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Post by Sabre52 on Oct 12, 2021 6:54:39 GMT -5
Nice cabs but I can see why you are disappointed with the jasper. You sure the first one is crazy lace? Matrix and color scheme sure looks like a Dryhead agate to me.
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Sabre52
Cave Dweller
Me and my gal, Rosie
Member since August 2005
Posts: 20,487
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Post by Sabre52 on Oct 11, 2021 14:09:24 GMT -5
Very nice aragonite pseudomorphs in that dogtooth lace.
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Sabre52
Cave Dweller
Me and my gal, Rosie
Member since August 2005
Posts: 20,487
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Post by Sabre52 on Oct 11, 2021 14:07:27 GMT -5
Awesome structural replacement in that third palm cab! Looks like a textbook illustration.
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Sabre52
Cave Dweller
Me and my gal, Rosie
Member since August 2005
Posts: 20,487
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Post by Sabre52 on Oct 11, 2021 14:04:49 GMT -5
Very weird but also very cool cab.
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Sabre52
Cave Dweller
Me and my gal, Rosie
Member since August 2005
Posts: 20,487
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Post by Sabre52 on Oct 11, 2021 14:03:56 GMT -5
Very nice! Sure looks like a Rio Grande cobble to me. Gold moss with hematite is very abundant in those deposits.
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Sabre52
Cave Dweller
Me and my gal, Rosie
Member since August 2005
Posts: 20,487
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Post by Sabre52 on Sept 29, 2021 15:04:29 GMT -5
Nice! Seldom seen these days.
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Sabre52
Cave Dweller
Me and my gal, Rosie
Member since August 2005
Posts: 20,487
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Post by Sabre52 on Sept 29, 2021 15:03:29 GMT -5
I agree. I saw a guy with a truckload of Sarape Jasper at a show a few years ago. Very intelligent marketing scheme. Take the low grade discards from the crazy lace pile and rename it. Still a hard and interesting material and in these times of good rock shortages, waste not want not. Kudos.
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