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Confession Booth I'm into rock collecting
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Author | Topic: I'm into rock collecting |
Nitrozac Moderator Posts: 518 |
posted July 26, 2002 23:16
It gets me up in the morning... the idea that it's low tide and a whole bunch of new rocks are out there waiting for me to pick them up and take them home. At this very minute I'm tumbling three pounds of rocks, it's only half way through step 2, only 20 more days to go. The stupid tumbler has to tumble for 24 hours a day, for a month to make those rocks really shiny. Today, I found an awesome piece of Dallasite, with the coolest geometric patterns. It made my day. Who knows what tomorrow will bring? Maybe a prize flowerstone, or an egg-shaped quartz crystal that lets light through when you hold it up to the sun, maybe some dark jade, or...more freaky dallasite.... ah, I can't wait! *claps hands in rock collecting glee!* Soon I will be graduating to chipping rocks with a prospector hammer and chisel! IP: Logged |
Janeway Alpha Geek Posts: 321 |
posted July 27, 2002 00:34
Rock collecting is cool! I've collected a bit, mainly minerals and fossils--quartz and amythest and petrified wood and crinoid stems, also a few fossilized crab claws at one point. The coolest part of my collection (though technically not rocks) are some seashells that are about 70 million years old--yes, the original seashell! Several (several) years ago, I got to go on a dig. We would cut out a cube of clay and then pick away at the clay for the shells, carefully get as much dirt off, and then clean them up. That's also where I found the crab claws. It was really cool. Also, down the stream a ways (though we didn't get to see it), they were digging up a mososaur. IP: Logged |
neotatsu Highlie Posts: 651 |
posted July 27, 2002 01:32
Cool...I used to go up into some mountains up some logging trails to an area where we would chip away at rocks with our hamers and chisels and find all sorts of quiggy stuff. The area was full of jade of all different sizes, lots of quarts all un-broken...there are some pretty cool looking ones out there, like whole rocks that are hollow filled with purple quartz, the cavaty measuring about 2 feet in diameter, with a single long stem going through the center..pretty spiffy, though it's too bad to discover it requires the rock to be split in half, eh?...there was one boulder there that became an obsession for me and my friend, we would spend at least two hours a trip sitting chipping away at the rock, it was a massive boulder that had a solid quartz center that we were trying to reveal...oh well, that was the good ol' days from when I was 5-9... IP: Logged |
DesktopX Geek Larva Posts: 25 |
posted July 27, 2002 20:08
So Nitrozac, do you have an MP3 player? Because it look like "I collect rocks" http://www.livetourartists.com/al_simmons/music/i_collect_rocks.mp3 (I'm sorry, I had to ) ------------------ IP: Logged |
ilovemydualg4 Highlie Posts: 539 |
posted July 28, 2002 09:58
i've found fossilized fish near my house (in clay cliffs) ------------------ IP: Logged |
Snaggy Moderator Posts: 1708 |
posted July 28, 2002 18:51
LOL! Desktop X!! That is sooooo rock-collecting Nitrozac. IP: Logged |
Erbo Super Geek Posts: 191 |
posted July 28, 2002 23:09
No shame in that, Nitrozac! My father is a big rock collector...or, rather, a gem and mineral collector. There are a number of mines in northern San Diego County, CA (where he lives) that produce good-quality gemstones and mineral specimens, chiefly tourmaline, beryl, and other semiprecious gemstones. He likes to go pick through the dumps of those mines (where they dump the rock they've been removing from the mine) and look for any small crystals that the miners overlooked. He's found many fine specimens. All of us in our family have accompanied him on those expeditions at one time or another. One time, he had my brother with him, and my brother found a chunk of pink tourmaline maybe 1-1/4" in diameter, and 1" high. It turned out to be gem-quality tourmaline, so Dad had it cut and faceted into a 23-carat heart-shaped stone (worth maybe $10,000!) and set in a pendant. Quite a find...I understand they're still talking about that one... IP: Logged |
Nitrozac Moderator Posts: 518 |
posted July 29, 2002 10:24
DesktopX, LOL! I love that song! It's so true too! Thanks for posting that song! Erbo, OMG, what fun that must be to go with your Dad! Whoa, your brother is quite lucky. I've got rock envy! IP: Logged |
quantumfluff Uber Geek Posts: 927 |
posted July 29, 2002 18:32
I collect rockers. I've got a fossilized Keith Richards and some Iron Ore Butterflys. IP: Logged |
plastic Super Geek Posts: 171 |
posted July 30, 2002 01:54
Thanks for the trip down memeory lane Nitrozac, I just had a hapy memeory of all the buckets of rocks I had when I was a little kid. I used to sit in the street or down by the river and pretend they were all crystals or fossils, hapy times..... ------------------ quote: IP: Logged |
Erbo Super Geek Posts: 191 |
posted July 30, 2002 23:23
quote: It was kind of fun a lot of times. The mines are located in the mountains of northern San Diego County, so it's a nice hike up to them. And you'd find all kinds of minerals in the dumps...tourmaline, quartz crystals, big mica flakes, a few other things. The mine that my brother was at when he found that tourmaline was the Stewart Lithia Mine, on the south side of Queen Mountain near Pala. There were several mines on that mountain, including the Tourmaline King, near the summit on the northwest (as I seem to recall it). Here's a page on the Stewart Lithia Mine, including some pictures of specimens dug up there. This page also has details of mining in the Pala area. This page talks about the Tourmaline King Mine. IP: Logged |
Nitrozac Moderator Posts: 518 |
posted July 31, 2002 11:33
WOw! Great links! Those are gorgeous specimens! Now I want to go there and rock hound. I'd love to go to the Australian precious opal site too. Isn't rock collecting the coolest? It's like searching for hidden treasure! IP: Logged |
ZorroTheFox BlabberMouth, the Next Generation. Posts: 1804 |
posted August 01, 2002 17:33
I'm a rock collector too, I have all the classics. Kiss, Iron Maiden, Black Sabbath, Judas Priest, the list goes on and on......Z IP: Logged |
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