Any rockhounds out there in TW?

There are a couple places an hour or two from my house that are loaded with obsidian. If you are looking for massive quantities, I know a spot.

 

I’ve got plenty of obsidian, I’d rather have the gold!

 

Replying because I have some pretty cool rocks at home.

 

Bust 'em out!

 

I plan on it!

 

It's out there, if you know where to look. It doesn't come easy, though...

 

Trade for my OEM OR skid plate? Shipping included.

It’s really not that easy to come by, I once took two of my friends out near Angel’s Camp to look in a stream channel flowing over uplifted shale (a perfect slucebox) where we pried the cracks open with crowbars and picked out the little rocks stuck at the bottom all day to get about minimum wage worth's of payback (market price was low then). People with dredges or metal detectors find the good stuff.

 

Rock talk,I like it.
I got boxes of raw rocks...and lots of tumbled rock. Here's a sample.

 

I’m a geologist of course I rockhound. I guess it’s not fair if it’s from an active mine though

 

Lots of pegmatites in NH and ME. World class beryl, tourmaline, lepidolite

 

We like taking our UV mineral light whenever we go camping to look for fluorescing minerals, and scorpions (they really glow under UV!), around camp after it gets dark. Lots of calcite, mostly, glowing green and red, but we’re trying to id some others we’ve found. Basic UV lights are pretty cheap, but get a light that can do both shortwave and longwave UV. These typically require a bulb, not a LED, so don't waste money trying it with a purple colored LED only “blacklight” flashlight.

Here’s the place we got ours, also get the UV glasses to keep your eyes safe.

http://www.ultraviolet-tools.com/
UV

 

Hard to tell from picture, I think its native copper ore or does it have gold in it too? ... a lot of it.

 

We do polish some of them. The ones in the strainer are wet, the ones in my hand were heated up to 250f in the oven after being soaked in mineral oil. The oil coats them, fills in small cracks and with a lot of agates, it's all they need. An addictive hobby

 

They sure do look purdy!
I used to tumble rocks years ago but I never did keep after it.

 

Wow that’s great, do you have to cook them for a while or just until they hit 250? How long do you have to presoak them for? They’re beautiful! Pretty cool realizing that glaciers carried them down, I wonder where the source was?

 

The source was the Lake Superior basin. About a billion years ago there was a rift in the earths crust in that area and all this magma flowed out. The agates were created in it as it cooled and mineral rich water seeped in.

I give the agates a soak in mineral oil, the put them in the oven until it reaches 250f, then turn it off and let it cool. After they are cooled down, I’ll wipe the excess mineral oil off.

 

Both are copper oxide ores. Left is mostly malachite. Right contains chrysocolla, azurite, malachite, magnetite. High silver in piece on right, maybe very very trace gold.

 

I do some rock hounding, not as much as I want too though. Mainly drive over the mountain to Franklin NC and mine for native rubies, sapphires and garnets. Occasionally come across kyanite and emeralds where I go..... always have a good time.....

 

I like to rock hound but never have time it seems. Here is some of my geodes.

 

Those are beautiful. Out here in California, we collect geodes and “thunder eggs” at the Hauser Geode beds near Blythe. They are really agates. Cool thing about them is that when there is any uplifting or disturbances to the bedding plane during their formation, you find some with different layers in different directions within the same agate. It’s really pretty when that happens.

I think you’re holding that one upside down in terms of how it was formed, the cavity probably filled up with solution and slowly drained leaving the deposit only on the sides until it reached the flat bottom from the previous deposit. Looks like it was in stable material the entire time it was formed before the glaciers moved it.