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Post by tims on Sept 9, 2021 19:56:56 GMT -5
That's a load of nice finds Tim! Congrats on the ammonite! Okay, in the pic above, what are the pieces that look like a Hippo on its back with its legs sticking straight up - in the center of the pic is a good one? (Best way I could think to describe them! LOL) I find a lot of pieces that look like those and have always dismissed them as I didn't know what they were! Those are Buffalo Stones. Individual segments of the baculite body, separated at the suture line. In life each was a mostly hollow chamber that the baculite could use to control buoyancy, but most fossilized segments have been filled solid. From the side they can resemble a bison, hence buffalo stones, but hippo stones is pretty fitting too
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Post by tims on Sept 9, 2021 18:45:20 GMT -5
Kind of a fun one: Muddy baccy Barite baccy Same baccy and some pieces with void or nearly void chambers, light and delicate as egg shells
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Post by tims on Sept 9, 2021 14:36:54 GMT -5
Haven't hit my baculite spot all summer but finally got out yesterday for a couple hours. Lots of muddy pieces, but some freshly exposed with colorful nacre intact. The brown and yellow ones i think are barite replacement. And a little ammonite that is a rare find for this kid: Just curious, does anyone have hints for cleaning up pieces with colorful nacre? I'm afraid to even use a toothbrush on them, just gave these a light rinse.
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Post by tims on Sept 9, 2021 14:23:39 GMT -5
Great collection. Wow. Thanks for sharing.
I found my first full exposed ammonite yesterday while picking baculite, it's muddy and broken but still made my day.
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Post by tims on Sept 9, 2021 11:58:43 GMT -5
Grats jasoninsd, that's about as nice a finished Teepee as a guy could ever hope for. Inspirational piece.
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Post by tims on Sept 8, 2021 23:52:24 GMT -5
You know you did a great job polishing if you can’t get a picture without your reflection in it. My double-plus unfavorite for the TA is when one of the snails pops out of the matrix at the last moment. If the whole thing blows up, somehow that feels a little better (or less ungood). I did have a turitella in my first batch that had a small round shell pop out around 8,000 ... at least it didn't wait all the way til polish.
Oh, and i assume Jason hunts all around the Black Hills and that's my usual go-to, either hunt around Teepee Canyon or just pick a road / direction and hunt wherever i happen to end up. He's on the other side of the hills and closer to the fairburn stuff but i think there is much similarity in many of the rocks in and surrounding the hills.
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Post by tims on Sept 8, 2021 23:30:28 GMT -5
tims - Those are really some amazing looking cabs! Your polish on those is outstanding! - The Jasp/Agate is like a lot of material I find all over out here. I have a tendency to categorize it as a jasper Prairie Agate (as opposed to a chert Prairie Agate...so NEITHER is agate! LOL). Those cabs are outstanding! - Green and White Moss Agate from India. I'd put money on this being the correct ID on this one. I picked up a couple pieces from the Fairburn rock swap and had to do a lot of asking and some sleuth work to come up with the ID. - Obsidian - It looks like you did a fantastic job on the polish of those! I have some Obsidian that I struggle with finding the right angle to cut them in order to get the sheen to show up the best. I messed up several chunks trying to get the angle right. - Turritella Agates - You did a flat-out, hands-down fantastic freaking job on those! That material is so amazing when it ends up looking like yours...and so depressing when it blows up during the process (or pits appear out of nowhere!). Prairie agate sounds fine for that rock but the semantics bug me because i found it on a hill I concur with the India moss ID suggestions too. It sure is pretty, and hard stuff ... made the obsidian feel like warm butter by comparison. I tried and failed tumbling obsidian but it seems to do much better on the wheels. Hate cutting it still because i feed rock manually, and little shards of obsidian on the deck get really bitey. Thanks on the turitella, i had no idea what to expect. The slab i bought had some visible pits and there are a couple pinholes in those cabs, but overall it was ok to work.
Thanks for all the feedback.
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Post by tims on Sept 8, 2021 14:06:29 GMT -5
Nice work, I love the look of that self collected jasp agate. From what I can see on the obsidian you cut parallel to the layers which should be perfect to show sheen, it may not be rainbow. I'd first read that just off parallel was the way to cut it, but have also heard that just off perpendicular is best, and also 35-45 degrees off perpendicular lol. Hadn't even considered it might not be rainbow, i know zilch about obsidian and assumed if it had the layers it must be some kind of sheen if worked correctly. Thanks for some clarification, that was driving me nuts.
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Post by tims on Sept 8, 2021 13:59:05 GMT -5
Thanks for the encouragement hummingbirdstones I had another large cab of the turitella going but it exploded on like the 600 wheel, not sure what happened. I got a slice of that at a local rock show and we're having another show next week so hoping to get some more, it's neat stuff.
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Post by tims on Sept 8, 2021 13:58:36 GMT -5
fernwood I'll try resizing those, I've just been cropping the pics, dumping them on my domain then linking them. They are obnoxiously huge Thank you.
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Post by tims on Sept 8, 2021 6:09:07 GMT -5
Nice work. The jasp-agates look like Prairie agates. It’s hard to tell with the glare, but your moss agate looks like India moss agate, with maybe two pieces of Maury Mt (the two with some red). I found the jasp-agate on the western edge of the Black Hills and it's more translucent and colorful than the prairie agate i see around here. Wasn't sure what to call it but figured jasp-agate covered the bases. Thanks for some possible IDs on the moss agate, that was gifted to me by a buddy who buys on ebay and he couldn't recall what it was so it might have come from anywhere. There's actually no red in either of them, that's either reflection or weird glare from the hurried pics, both those were cut from the same slice. Looking at google images of India moss it sure looks like similar material, so i'll go with that until corrected Thanks Stephan. This is that Black Hills agatey stuff in the rough
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Post by tims on Sept 8, 2021 0:42:22 GMT -5
You did a great job on that one Tim! I've done a couple this week that have several spots of "quartzy" areas. In each of my cabs, the quartz area was extremely unstable - very fractured. I'll post some pictures in a day or so. You got a great polish on those areas! I've resigned myself to taking whatever a Teepee is willing to give, they sure can be fickle. There's a crack just under the quartzy spot in the lower right of this stone and it's not so pretty viewed from the side >< If the quartz has completely filled in its vug they seem to do far better than if there's a void in it, but even then there's a good chance it will crack up when it's worked. But your pre-forms look more like finished cabs than many of my cabs lol --- i'm sure you'll end up with some beauties out of that batch regardless.
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Post by tims on Sept 7, 2021 23:09:01 GMT -5
I glanced back and don't see that I ever posted a picture of my basket of goodies! Here's some preforms I cut recently...just waiting to be cabbed! Wow, yummy. Really solid looking stuff, and some beautiful fortifications. Looking forward to seeing some finished those are gonna be killer. I sliced up that 1.5" thick chunk and got zero cab-able pieces ... a few chunks that might survive the tumbler and that's it. Didn't have any other rough i was brave enough for yet except this little piece, so just freehanded it in an odd shape to keep as much banding as possible
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Post by tims on Sept 7, 2021 22:48:04 GMT -5
Too lazy to set up lights so took outdoor pics with my phone. Wiped these all dry with an old terry towel so there's plenty of pretty white lint.
Jasp-agate another a little piece of Teepee Canyon Turitellas Rainbow (?) obsidian that I need to learn how to cut for sheen Unidentified green stuff, will edit with ID when i find it ... India Moss! We think.
another, weird cut / freehand cab
thanks for looking.
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Post by tims on Sept 4, 2021 22:26:47 GMT -5
I could have swore I responded to this! What the heck! I have noticed there being a difference in matrix...it's NOT all the same. I believe I can tell the matrix that would be difficult to tumble, but I didn't know if it was impossible. I like the cat litter idea! My wife is the one who suggested this...and I haven't tried it yet. The "gumbo" clay we have out here - like at Railroad Buttes and out at Fairburn - might be a great addition to the tumbles. It would thicken slurry and cushion (I believe) pretty well. I'm going to try it one of these days. Any visible fractures in the matrix pre-tumble generally get much worse, in the actual agate not so bad. If you've got solid chert in the matrix it polishes up nice.
And i bet your gumbo would work great for slurry. We have bentonite shale here that i'm tempted to run, it's almost identical to the cheapo unscented cat litter i use if not quite as pure. I also think you're right that i should be padding out the later stages better ... i'm hating plastic beads, may try to find some good pea gravel as the last bag i bought was garbage.
Off topic but do ever see coral where you hunt? I ran across a handful of specimens and had a little broken chunk i tossed in the tumbler that is colorful and took a polish. Just a heads up if you see any coral it might be agatey.
editing in a pic:
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Post by tims on Aug 29, 2021 19:00:08 GMT -5
It's cool to finally see some tumbled Teepee Canyon Agates! Thanks for posting the pics!!! I wonder if there's a way to cushion these more during tumbling? Like a high percentage of smalls (ceramics) to rock ratio... You said it was a mixed batch, out of curiosity, what did you roll these with? Rolled them with Black Hills jaspers, jasp-agate and some misc hills agate, from ~ .5" to 2" diameter mixed. Most of these were very rugged looking going in and they got no prep at all, and the load was all rock / no filler. I've tried cushioning with ceramics / marbles / plastics before in different batches ... a couple loads it seemed to lessen the fracturing, while a couple ended up with severe chipping and breakage. Running a thicker slurry with cat litter in stage 1 seems to help the most from what i've tried. The matrix seems especially prone to damage.
I've got some better teepee tumbles, but i attribute those to better / more solid material going in than to the different methods i've tried while rolling them.
Here's a before / after of the best looking (to me) piece of the batch, and it had apparent fractures going in. Most of the fracturing in these was there before i tumbled them so i knew they'd come out with fracs, but i still like to tumble them as the patterns are at least more apparent tumbled than when rough.
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Post by tims on Aug 29, 2021 18:28:14 GMT -5
As far as the 1.5" thick piece...I have no idea what I'd do on that one. I'd probably set it to the side until I got sick of wondering about it, then slice it like you mentioned. In that top pic...the piece in the middle on the bottom...that one REALLY reminds me of a Dryhead pattern. I've seen quite a few Dryheads with that type of "busy" patterning going on. Pretty Cool! (Scratch that...Really Cool! ) Glad to hear that slicing the thin piece doesn't sound completely crazy. With my smallish saw and narrow wheels the cuts would be an ideal size for me to work, so i'll probably try that when i feel brave.
I'm not familiear with Dryhead at all. Hard to complain about lots of pattern but sometimes when there's a lot to choose from / between it's hard to decide how to proceed. I'm pretty sure staring at it while sipping coffee will provide an eventual answer ...
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Post by tims on Aug 29, 2021 16:53:47 GMT -5
Had a pile of tumble pics so put them in their own thread here if interested. Speaking of piles, i have several little piles of Teepee waiting for inspiration and / or a bigger saw. Here's some rough that got to my yard table but no further yet ... This piece is only about 1.5" thick. I'm thinking of slabbing it up while laid flat, cutting through all of the exposed faces. But i'm still undecided on if that's a really good or really bad idea lol. Suggestions? It's got some pockets of druzy quartz and amethyst and nice banding so hoping not to wreck it.
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Post by tims on Aug 29, 2021 16:41:46 GMT -5
Rolled these in a mixed 12# load. I always expect fractures with these and am happy they stayed intact.
only kept this because it reminds me of fried egg
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Post by tims on Aug 29, 2021 14:11:31 GMT -5
Turritella is a bear to work! I've got a ton of that material and have tried only a couple cabs...they're usually very heartbreaking for me! Great job on that one! I'm totally in love with that orb Teepee! I've got a bunch of jasper from hounding around here. It definitely takes a good polish! I think Obsidian is one of the biggest headache materials I've tried to cab! I have a couple pieces that are still on dop that I can't seem to get finished. LOL EDIT - I also forgot to say...I think you've got some great results with what you have to work these on! I loved the title to the thread..."Frankenwheels"! LOL Thanks Jason, I've tumbled obsidian before which didn't go well but it is surprisingly nice to work on wheels. The turitella is new for me so i didn't know what to expect and i'm happy with it, no fractures in the material which is nice. Stinky stuff though when you're grinding on it.
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