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 Dec 31, 2017 11:18:06 GMT -5
Cool "black mat" reference Dave. Remembered reading something about that and I went back and read more articles. Interesting hypothesis and it sounds more and more like the comet, along with the cooling that followed, that cut off a warming period, pretty much devastated much of North America at the time......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 Dec 31, 2017 9:51:52 GMT -5
That looks very much like the Franciscan Formation breccia we used to find on the beach by the Ventura County fairgrounds....Mel
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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 Dec 30, 2017 23:13:47 GMT -5
Wow, that's nice for Q. I've been there when it was quite hot, when there was a massive sand/dust storm covering all the rough rock, and when the trays of slabs were all frozen solid. Weather is really odd there....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 Dec 30, 2017 14:31:41 GMT -5
I finally stopped using E-Bay a couple of years ago. For selling they got real expansive and for buying, just too many shady sellers out there that send the wrong stuff, don't send anything, or misidentify or misrepresent items. And interestingly, no one seems to misidentify an expensive specimen as a cheap one. It's always misidentifying something cheap as expensive to their financial advantage. I pay way more attention to customer reviews now and really limit the number of outfits I deal with online....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 Dec 30, 2017 9:16:29 GMT -5
Wow, those kitchen knives are awesome. The Pakistanis have been making Damascus steel for hundreds of years and still are. Many of the modern knives for sale at more reasonable prices are made from non meteoric billets from Pakistan. I sold off all my expensive knives when I moved to Texas but I still have a good collection of the less expensive ones that I bought just cause the steel is "danged pretty" and I like lookin at them. Colt knives came out with a good line of reasonably priced big knives of various sorts and man do those blades take an edge. The billets are folded in many traditional Damascus patterns too. I'll have to post a pic of my "raindrop" pattern Colt Bowie. Sometimes the luck of the draw yields you a really pretty 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 Dec 29, 2017 21:22:59 GMT -5
Scott, 85 degrees! Man that must be nice. I still remember one year in Ojai around Christmas, it was something like 90. I love the hot Texas weather, though we are in kind of a cool part of Texas, so it's not like south or west Texas. I count the days till winter is over. Supposed to plunge good ( 17 degrees) on Sunday and I'm not looking forward to it. Hoping the forecast will change.....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 Dec 29, 2017 21:16:26 GMT -5
Wonderful field trip report! That Pom pom agate is off the charts nice and your slide show from Singleton real needs to come with a drool warning. Man, you got some nice plumes from that place....Mel
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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 Dec 29, 2017 17:59:04 GMT -5
Wow those came out great James.....Mel
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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 Dec 29, 2017 16:29:21 GMT -5
Man, I do not know how you cold weather folks stand it. Not super cold here this morning in the low forties but with quite a wind chill in the open pastures. Had to take guests out on two trial rides today and I was wearing a heavy Henley T, a lined long sleeved shirt, my Carhardt ranch coat, gloves and my warmest felt hat and I freaking like to froze to death. Couldn't even feel my toes in my cowboy boots. I cannot even comprehend how it must be in subzero temps and that ugly white crap too. You guys are tough as nails, that's for sure......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 Dec 29, 2017 16:17:05 GMT -5
I had a buddy used to tell me about the agate that was dug out along the Panama Canal. Lots of fine agatized coral from there and fine banded material too. Really an agate fanciers dream. Thanks for all the cool pics....Mel
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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 Dec 29, 2017 16:11:48 GMT -5
Dalmatian stone is a black spotted rhyolite type material out of Mexico. The black does not sparkle which would be more typical of a rock, perhaps a black and white granite, with biotite mica crystals in it....Mel
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Sabre52
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Member since August 2005
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Post by Sabre52 on Dec 29, 2017 16:05:16 GMT -5
At least some, if not most all of those are nice agate nodules. Some even show nice banding. Should make a fine tumble...Mel
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Sabre52
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Post by Sabre52 on Dec 28, 2017 23:23:01 GMT -5
The are a least two rock quarries in Eagle Pass. Local clubs go on field trips there several times per year but I don't now how they are about allowing individuals or non club groups in. Best thing would be to go to the yellow pages, get a phone number and look them up. Just look up decorative rock quarries or rock quarries in Eagle Pass, Texas. It's a small town after all. My buddy's decorative rock yard handles Eagle Pass gravel. Good rock at his place runs hot and cold depending on which layer of the pit they send him rock from and he only has a truckload at a time to look through. Never get totally skunked though it is kind of lean on Rio Grande agates some times. Gravel contains some petrified wood and various rhyolite and jasper and some Devil's Toenails too. I imagine hunting the oversized piles right at the quarry would be pretty cool. When we first were moving to Texas the motel we stayed at was doing some landscaping and my favorite butcher shop got some gravel from that pit layer too. The piles at the motel and shop were almost solid Rio Grande agate. Have never seen a load of gravel that good since. Based on my experience with what my buddy gets in, the agate content in the gravel seems to decline as the pit gets deeper....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 Dec 27, 2017 21:16:59 GMT -5
Yeah, I've been told they are not coral too, but then the guy who said that could not tell me exactly what the inorganic pseudomorph was a replacement of. They are very organic looking to me but then they also look kind of flower like and are not of uniform size like I would expect of coral polyps. I notice yours are not uniform in size too. The stumbling block for my location is the lower cretaceous is not full of colonial coral examples. We do seem to have some stromatolite looking stuff but then that might be inorganic pseudos too. I've found no one to confirm the stromatolite either but it does resemble some in my Texas index fossil book. I'll try to post a pic of the stuff from my creek bed....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 Dec 27, 2017 19:30:40 GMT -5
Fernwood, Those are pretty cool, especially the coral. Now you've got me wondering if some of the rocks I find in my stream bed are coral as, with the exception of color ( mine are always blue or gray which is weird as all the local flint/chert is brown or black) my examples show a lot of similarity to yours....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 Dec 27, 2017 15:07:40 GMT -5
Overcast and 31 here today. Wish I was in Florida with Bob! I hate cold weather!....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 Dec 27, 2017 15:03:01 GMT -5
Neat write up. Many of the Damascus style Kris knives and swords from Indonesia have blades of meteoric iron. Really makes a pretty blade when folded into many layers....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 Dec 26, 2017 16:06:16 GMT -5
Bob, As I understand it, shrink wood is petrified wood that was first totally petrified While in various stages of decomposition, then shattered by pressure into breccia and then resealed with additional chalcedony. Pocket rot wood was decomposed while still unpetrified wood leaving voids. Those voids were then refilled with chalcedony and in some cases appear even with fortifications in the filled pockets. That's why filled in examples often look like dino bone and explains the other common name "dino bone wood". What's cool at George West is, you find examples of pocket rot wood with hollows often filled with tiny quartz crystals, where the chalcedony did not completely fill the rotted out pockets in the original wood. Those examples show you exactly how the pocket rot wood formed. Sharon had me drag home one of those for her garden. Clayton as even brought in one or two from the Rio Grande gravel where they also occur. Also, a lot of the George West wood is in limbcast form. Looks like wood on the outside but the inside pretty much totally decomposed, leaving no wood pattern, and was filled in with various forms of agate....Mel
PS: If you google "hexagonally fractured petrified wood" you will find an excellent article on how shrinkwood is formed. he correct scientific term is the Hex fractured wood. Shrinkwood is just a nickname.
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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 Dec 26, 2017 13:38:06 GMT -5
Wow, fantastic variety of cuts! Ain't it neat what a variety you find out there? #19 is what they call paint wood. Got some nice mossy/plumy wood casts too. I'm clueless on #17. New type for me. #16 is freaking awesome, more cast than strictly wood replacement, one of the neatest pieces I've seen from there. #7 might be pocket rot wood if cut the other direction. #8 I'm thinking palm root too and that other palm just may be fern bud of some sort. As i've said, lots of strange wood specimens down there and seems you scored a bit of everything. Great pics. keep'um coming.....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 Dec 26, 2017 10:54:55 GMT -5
Cool write up! One of the first rock collecting trips I went on was for T-eggs in the Berkeley Hills at a site old Buster Sledge told us about. Always been fascinated by T-eggs and have hunted them in several places, California, Oregon, Washington, Nevada, Arizona and New Mexico. Even found a couple here in Texas one time though no place compared to the Baker Ranch in the olden days. My big wish was to someday hunt Templeton Biconids but even with my AG connections, I could never get access. Only one of the California locations I never got to. very frustrating. Met the Geode Kid and his buddy back in the dark ages at Quartzite and had a ball talking with them too. T-eggs are just a flat out interesting part of the rock hobby!.....Ml
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