Sabre52
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Post by Sabre52 on Apr 7, 2021 7:51:03 GMT -5
Beautiful batch of cabs! For me, I think a natural void or vug or a little defect adds character to a cab. These are, after, all natural stones and seldom perfect. Cabbing them the way God made'em is not necessarily a bad thing.
PS: That Purple Passion....Wow!
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Sabre52
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Me and my gal, Rosie
Member since August 2005
Posts: 20,487
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Post by Sabre52 on Apr 6, 2021 13:46:57 GMT -5
Went through all three Sinkankas volumes my California minerals book and the mines list for Riverside Co and could not find any turquoise mines in the county Lapis and gemstone yes. There are also many copper prospects in the county. Since small amounts of turquoise are sometimes found in association with copper mineral prospects, I suspect one of those copper mines is what you are thinking of. If you google Riverside county, Ca mines, you can get a list that shows the copper prospects.
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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 Apr 5, 2021 13:09:52 GMT -5
Arizona wood is sweet. I was collecting near Woodruff, AZ one time and met a guy at a gravel pit. He directed me to a rockshop where the owner had just bought a big lot of "Pit Wood" which was rainbow wood from deep in the soil that had not been subjected to the elements. Some even ad a whitish patina om the outside. Really nice stuff and almost totally fracture free, much different from the larger pieces we picked up while surface hunting tumbling material. Even nicer than what we collected at the old Greer's Milky Rch fee dig. Never did get to cut much of it though, as my wife captured most all the hunks for her flower garden. They even made the move to Texas and are in her garden here *L*.
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Sabre52
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Member since August 2005
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Post by Sabre52 on Apr 5, 2021 8:54:25 GMT -5
That orbicular jasper seem to be pretty common in the same region the banded iron ( banded hematite and red jasper) occurs. A lot of orbicular jasper started out as ocean sediments.
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Sabre52
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Post by Sabre52 on Apr 5, 2021 8:46:52 GMT -5
Yeah I agree. Wingate, though beautiful, often has real issues with soft, pitted or porous areas, especially in the yellow zones. Lots of voids in the agate too. I cheat on the cabs by sometimes using super glue or some other filler. Works pretty well but way too much work.
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Sabre52
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Member since August 2005
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Post by Sabre52 on Apr 5, 2021 8:42:28 GMT -5
Odd. Does have a man made look to it. Some kind of factory waste, metallic or glassy slag of some kind maybe?
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Sabre52
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Post by Sabre52 on Apr 4, 2021 18:24:45 GMT -5
Not to sound too cynical but maybe that should be called the leaverite tumbling contest. Definitely not great material and definitely a challenge. Be happy you only have to submit the best pieces. Wow!
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Sabre52
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Post by Sabre52 on Apr 3, 2021 19:14:34 GMT -5
Interesting. I think those are actually water worn t-eggs. There are several locations for t-eggs in Quebec ie Mt Lyall. Perhaps some were moved by glacial action out Lake Huron way. Also, can't remember where but I think I remember reading there is a t-egg location somewhere around the Lakes too.
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Sabre52
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Post by Sabre52 on Apr 3, 2021 18:58:14 GMT -5
Definitely Wingate Plume, Six pounds of that is worth a good bit of moola. Great treasure find indeed!
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Sabre52
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Post by Sabre52 on Apr 3, 2021 10:10:18 GMT -5
Top one is gray green chert. Lots of chert everywhere including Texas and California. Bottom one is some kind of agate or even agatized wood which again could be from so many places and is very common south of San Antonio from Three Rivers to the Rio grande.
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Sabre52
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Post by Sabre52 on Apr 3, 2021 9:58:17 GMT -5
Wow, awesome batch. My favorite is the Prairie too. Gotta love that stuff, solid and hard as tacks too. That Wyoming dendritic piece is interesting. I've mot heard of Shell Canyon but Wyoming does have numerous locations for fine dendritic agate and jasper, Pine Ridge, Battle Mtn, Spanish Point and South pass to name a few.
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Sabre52
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Post by Sabre52 on Apr 1, 2021 15:41:30 GMT -5
Cold Mtn T-egg from Mexico.
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Sabre52
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Post by Sabre52 on Mar 31, 2021 22:26:50 GMT -5
Metamorphic rocks can have both layers and bands of various minerals caused by high pressure during metamorphism. Therefore, not all rocks showing bands or layers are sedimentary. Igneous rocks tend to be uniform in texture and not have bands or layers. Oddly, the agates we love so much, while formed in sedimentary and igneous rocks, are nether sedimentary, metamorphic or igneous but rather silica that has been deposited in voids.
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Sabre52
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Post by Sabre52 on Mar 31, 2021 12:05:54 GMT -5
I agree that if you are looking for specimens, cut through the middle so you will have two nice halves. For slabbing material, where I cannot see the inside, I start from the end to get the most slabs if it's good. Of course, when I field collect, I don't like carrying leaverites so I judiciously chip my finds that show no pattern and that usually gives some insight as to what's inside so I don't waste time carrying heavy useless rocks. I also chip ( especially larger hunks of rock) to see texture, fractures, pits etc because wasting diamond blade saw time on duds sucks too.
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Sabre52
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Member since August 2005
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Post by Sabre52 on Mar 30, 2021 22:13:24 GMT -5
Like the Noreena. The shape especially reminds me of the cabojohns of many years ago.
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Sabre52
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Member since August 2005
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Post by Sabre52 on Mar 30, 2021 7:55:57 GMT -5
Amygdule, Yep sourcing beach rock is difficult due to the fact that longshore drift can deposit rock far from a river mouth. I used to hound the Ventura beaches in Califoria and I'd find Stone Canyon type jasper cobbles far from the creeks draining the Stone Canyon deposits. That being said, the plume in your pebbles is a dead ringer for Willamette or Bear Creek plume agate.
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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 Mar 29, 2021 16:50:02 GMT -5
Wow those plume cobbles are excellent and obviously "of a type". From the smoothness they've traveled and been rolled a good long while. Do you now of an situ location for the plume deposit they traveled from? I'm going to have to go into my agate notebooks and see if I can figure that out. I love a good mystery.
Research done. Looks like a dead ringer for Willamette River Plume agate. Close to Bear Creek Plume from Prineville too but considering the Willamette dumps a lot of agate onto the ocean, I'll go with that one *L*. Oops, answered my own question, Bear Creek empties into the Willamette Valley hince could be the same agate source.
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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 Mar 29, 2021 12:35:19 GMT -5
Amygdule, *L* Good question. I suppose technically, jasper is opaque, agate translucent, jasp/agate a mix so most all "plume agates" are jasper/agate as they are part translucent, part opaque. I'd call your flower jasper plume agate though, as it is so like other so called plume agates. Yours really reminds me of Bloody Basin and Tonto Plume agate from AZ. Now there is a fine plume jasper that I mined a lot of in the North Cady Mtns of California. Golden plumes on an opaque red jasper. Zero translucency. Unfortunately, I have only a couple of rather plain slabs left and sold the rest. Here are a couple examples. Has some agate veining but very opaque still, more on the plume agate end of the scale. The plume jasper from the same location had the gold on red jasper plumes you see in these slabs but large one to two inch plumes against the opaque red. DSCN1315 by lonerider652000, on Flickr DSCN1314 by lonerider652000, on Flickr
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Sabre52
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Member since August 2005
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Post by Sabre52 on Mar 28, 2021 21:32:11 GMT -5
I'd agree with jadedvision. The fractures plus the zoned color on the plumes make me think of Canadian River Plume too. Years ago at Quartzite a rancher brought in a whole trailer load of plume from his pastures. Big pieces and fractured but the plume did seem to occur in zones or broad bands, reds, pinks, yellows , even blacks in zones in some of the boulders. Can't think of another plume I've seen that does that.
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Sabre52
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Member since August 2005
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Post by Sabre52 on Mar 28, 2021 7:59:18 GMT -5
Great job!!!!!In my book, Flint Ridge material is one of the nicest material to tumble. So many color combinations and patterns that it is amazing. I especially love the examples with fossils, fortifications or nice crystal vugs.
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