Sabre52
Cave Dweller
Me and my gal, Rosie
Member since August 2005
Posts: 20,487
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Post by Sabre52 on Feb 8, 2018 18:40:33 GMT -5
All sides of the stone are similar. What throws me is the portion that is non agate. Sightly softer than the little pink fortified cells as all the little agates are in relief and stand above the matrix, but it appears too irregular to be walls of the cellular structures you'd find in bone. Also seem too irregular to be oolitic formations. I'm leaning more towards a weird porous hunk of basalt??? shot full of tiny vesicles filled with tiny geodes and nodules. Under magnification, there do appear to be unfilled vesicles which would seem to support this but then I've seen plenty of bone with unfilled cells too. Whatever, it looks even stranger under my dissecting scope. Very odd piece.....Mel
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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 Feb 7, 2018 17:19:50 GMT -5
Wow, freaking awesome plumes....Mel
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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 Feb 7, 2018 17:14:43 GMT -5
Howdy folks, This one came in the last bucket of Rio grande agate my buddy dropped off. I'm almost thinking this one is fossil bone, maybe mosasaur as that's the most common bone in Texas, or maybe something else. Interesting and the first like this I've seen. Opinions from an of you fossil folks? Thanks for lookin.....Mel PS: Now that I look at the pic more, I'm kind thinking not bone because of the uneven parts that would have to be cell walls. Weird stuff anyway.
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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 Feb 6, 2018 22:08:31 GMT -5
Those are nice!....Mel
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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 Feb 4, 2018 9:44:00 GMT -5
I used to be in the Ventura Gem and Mineral Society in Commiefornia and worked the silent auction booth at the show every year. We received lots of rock related donations for the sale and some of the rocks went to the raffle showcase and most to the silent auction which did real well every year. Now at the clubhouse, there was a pile of donated rocks that members could buy real cheap. Seem to remember some folks taking advantage of that situation to high grade out some nice material at super cheap prices. Think there was a slab bin for members to buy from too. I don't now a lot about that as I always had such a surplus that I brought in a lot of stuff for the auction. I'd actually pick up extra in the field for that purpose. That is a great way to really stock up an auction booth. Club members had to bid on the auction same as everyone else. Gotta say that sometimes the fellers working the booth really drove up the prices if they saw something they really wanted. Donated small tumbles, and tiny fossils like shark teeth etc went into the sand sifting box for the kiddies and we made a large number of grab bags up every year too. Those contained a lot of tumbles, small slabs and all kinds of other stuff, all donated. I never did the financial stuff but assume they were a non profit....Mel
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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 Feb 3, 2018 18:42:13 GMT -5
That sort of thing is why I am not a fan of open carry even though it's Texas legal. Folks simply do no know what to think. Is it a bad guy intent on doing harm or is it a goofy pro gunner trying to make some kind of point? Makes it hard on the police too. They get a bunch of calls from panicked people. Is it someone they need to worry about shooting or someone they need to approach and talk to? Threat of a gunfight or no threat at all? Just seems a dumbass move to me. If folks don't see your gun they don't get all nervous and call the cops and bad guys don't know who is armed and who is not, which give the good guys the advantage of surprise....Mel
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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 Feb 2, 2018 16:41:11 GMT -5
Jeez, *L* I guess I've got to pay more attention to my slab pricing. Man, I've been selling good Rio Grande agate slabs for $6 per pound. Never really have sat down to calculate actual slabbing costs...Mel
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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 Feb 2, 2018 8:43:44 GMT -5
Yeah, here in Gillespie county, we're under a third of the thirty year rain average so far. Of course winter is our dry period here. Already having to feed the cattle though as we have little grass. Will sell off the steers pretty soon to decrease herd numbers. Saying here in Texas is our weather is long periods of drought followed by brief floods. Not unlike what we had back in Commiefornia...Mel
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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 Feb 1, 2018 20:44:54 GMT -5
Red palm root occurs at several California locations, though it's more often found in earth tones. Castle Butte, Yermo, Sperry Wash, Ogilby sp? etc. My wife unit has a huge boulder of red palm bog with scattered roots from Yermo in her garden and I sold one of our members some nice Castle Butte red, actually pink, material. My pics of it are hostage at Pee bucket but maybe Bob will post a pic sometime....Mel
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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 Jan 30, 2018 19:16:18 GMT -5
Yeah,I was also gonna say how, at the Woodward Ranch here in Texas, the plume biscuits form in vesicles just like that. There was one cliff we came across where the basalt showed dozens of embedded agates in cross section where the cliff had sheared away and sheared off the nodules at the same time. One of the agate books, maybe Zenz's has a picture explanation of how those nodules fill. Very interesting!.....Mel
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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 Jan 29, 2018 17:48:35 GMT -5
Wow, such clean wraps. Got to agree that Wingate is special...Mel
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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 Jan 28, 2018 10:48:57 GMT -5
Not good to finish cabs in the rotary tumbler as it tends to change shapes too much. Vibe does not change original shapes so it works well. I go to the vibe after the first three wheels. Run in fine grind only a bit to eliminate last few scratches. Should take only a day or so. Then do prepolish and polish in a separate tub in the vibe with a bunch of small polished stones to increase surface contact. Only thing you have to watch out for is undercutting in the fine grind tub if your stone has soft spots. Unfortunately, a lot of inclusions in jasper and agate can be softer. Can't usually tell till you try a particular stone type. Banded agates like Bots, Brazils, Lakers etc usually are a piece of cake. T-eggs with some matrix can have problems with the matrix portion as can moss agates, dino bone, some pet wood, and sagenitic agates. After you try a few, you will see what types will be problematic....Mel
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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 Jan 27, 2018 21:17:54 GMT -5
Wow, nice poppies in that first one.....Mel
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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 Jan 26, 2018 15:11:30 GMT -5
OK, no new pics from Bob. Wife unit must have found all the new rocks and Bob can't play with the rocks cause he's been grounded. If it were my wife and I brought all them rocks home, I'd be trying to pry them out of my arse along with her cowboy boot.....Mel
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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 Jan 26, 2018 15:06:30 GMT -5
Nah, not Sparta, Conan the Barbarian *L*....Mel
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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 Jan 26, 2018 12:19:48 GMT -5
Tough one to polish to a really nice finish. I use optical grade cerium oxide on a leather pad with just enough moisture to create a good drag against the wheel. This is one you have to be careful not to overheat too as it's kind of a dolomite type mix and can fracture if it gets too hot on the pad....Mel
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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 Jan 25, 2018 16:25:04 GMT -5
Like Scott says, that kind of jasper agate mix comes from so many areas it's just a tough one to pinpoint. Rough exterior rather than a rolled cobble would seem to eliminate the Rio grande gravels. Scott made a good guess with Brenda but lots of similar stuff in situ in west Texas and Mexico both....Mel
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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 Jan 24, 2018 15:48:08 GMT -5
That wood crotch is super cool! I'll bet that egg comes from Morocco. Lot of that kid of stuff from that region....Mel
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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 Jan 24, 2018 15:44:05 GMT -5
Wow, that is some nice bone, the first one especially....Mel
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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 Jan 23, 2018 19:03:43 GMT -5
I love me them scrambled eggs just as long as they are not runny. I find any goo in eggs revolting. A fried egg will never pass my lips. YUK!!!!! I like them nice and fluffy. I just mix them in a bowl with a little salt and pepper and lactose free milk. Pour them in a preheated pan and keep flipping and stirring them till nice and fluffy. I like them with a pile of microwave bacon and hash browns. Yum!!!....Mel
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