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Quartz varieties
The University of Nebraska has done a great deal of research on these varieties of quartz especially banded agates. Flint and chert also from in nodules in sedimentary deposits mainly limestone. Some researchers have proposed that the Flint and chert are formed in a acid solution instead of an alkaline solution that agate forms. Flint is a chert that is very fine grained and flakes off easily into conchoidal pieces. Jasper is a non scientific term for any opaque cryptocrystalline quartz that can be used for ornamental purposes.
Bill
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Posted:
Dec 30 2008, 5:29 PM EST by
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Family fun
You didn't say which way you're coming from. With a whole month to spend, you might want to come over to the grasslands in N.W. Nebraska
and S.W. South Dakota to try your hand at finding Fairburn Agates. Some of the most beautiful agates in the world. They aren't easy to find, but
well worth the hunt. You'll also find prairie agates, jasper, petrified wood and possibly some dinosaur bone and other fossils.
Don
Posted:
Feb 11 2009, 11:07 PM EST by
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Uncut agate?
I have hunted agates for decades - all over the country. Most agates have a weathered exterior that hides the beauty. Some have a rind of host rock. I have hunted along the Cumberland collecting the sedimentary agates. Kentucky agate generally does not look like agate (full of colors and patterns) on the exterior. Generally it looks like a ball or egg shaped cauliflower. There is no way to be 100% sure you have a great agate or a so so one. That is part of the fun. It is a little like a present - sometimes it is more than you expected . Sometimes you are disappointed. Thundereggs , Texas plume , Paint Rock, Tennessee Agate, Kentucky Agate, Nebraska Blue Agate, Brazilian agate are all hidden by the exterior.
I know of no sure way of knowing what the interior will look they. Jake sent me some Washington Thundereggs from Naches Creek. They looked like Tan footballs (nothing special) . He also sent bright red Lucas Creek (no question about the rocks being agate). But when I cut the eggs open, they were far more interesting than I had anticipated.. The t-eggs were bright blue with horizontal bands (typical of T-eggs). Experience will help you to discriminate. There will come a time when you will easily tell a Kentucky agate from a common rock. That will not take long. But even after years there will be surprises. One of my most beautiful Cumberland agates looked like hundreds of junk agate around it. Toms idea of carrying a rechargeable dermil to remove a little rind was a good ideal. Some hounds whack a little off with a hammer to see if it worth hauling out, I do not recommend this. Lot's of great agates have been distroyed this way. I get up your way from time to time. Maybe we could hunt together?
Bill
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Posted:
Mar 31 2009, 9:40 AM EDT by
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Slab Saw Love
"More reason to move to Oregon ;)" Nah, just want to move to western S.D., where the Fairburns and all kinds of cool stuff is found. I'd also be near N.W. Nebraska, Wyoming and Montana. All great hounding territory. I brought over a ton of west coast material with me when I moved up here.
Don
Posted:
Nov 12 2009, 1:07 PM EST by
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Patagonianstar
You have a spectacular collection of agate from Argentina/ The question I have is: Do you sell slabs or nodules? Thank you for sharing your finds. Some of those specimens should be posted on the University of Nebraska web page.
Bill Reynolds
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Posted:
Jul 28 2008, 5:43 PM EDT by
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GREAT 1872 Diamond Hoax
"My great grandfather was in the Klondike gold rush. He told stories of gold claims being salted and of shotgun salting of old mines. He made a good amount of money on his claims and when he came back to Washington he was smart enough to invest it in the Puyallup Valley land. Most of what is now auburn and several commercial sites used to be his. He bought it cheap and passed it down to his kids as investment property and they only sold a little at a time here and there. My Grandmother still has a good chunk left and now she is getting ready to pass it to my mom. the city of Puyallup wants to buy it but grandma ain't dumb. She knows if she transfers it to mom and they wait out our current economic slump they will get a better price. so some of those old Klondike claims are still paying off today,,lol
tom" Hi Tom,
Exactly right - mining scams are just like congressmen - too many & crooked as an old creek. I have been amazed at the various scams in recent years. I was contacted by the secret service and a NJ bank rep a few years ago because of a possible transfer of 100 million. The Money was coming from Germany. The SS got involved because of the large amount of money - but it was stopped as it was to be invested in a platinum-palladium scam in Wyoming. And then just this last year, the same thing happened - some guy from Nebraska was promoting a rich platinum-palladium-diamond property in the Medicine bow Mountains of Wyoming - the German investors were ready to start sending him money ($120 million), site unseen. They contacted me for my opinion and that killed the deal. The area has no gold, platinum or palladium. And I always thought that Germans were suppose to be smart.
Dan
Posted:
Apr 5 2009, 2:22 PM EDT by
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Agate Formation
My friend Lowell Zoller and I have done scientific research on Agate Formation. Lowell is the former director of the space shuttle program (now retired) I have lectured on the topic and have been in contact with Roger Pabian at U of Nebraska about his book on Agates. It is a must read. The research was conducted with a Dow Chemical silica gels. I wrote an article on agate formation for Lapidary Journal in the April issue a few years ago. I will post the information on the dummies page. I have had to create a new profile inorder to be able to up load pictures from my computer. There is a bug in Wet Paint with the new photo format that has hit a large number of users. So if you see PyriteCube that is me and not Yosemite Sam.
Bill
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Posted:
Jul 28 2008, 9:01 AM EDT by
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Letting go...
It would be a cool tread. Shows vary greatly. A swap meet at a gathering could be and is often free. It is more like a tail gate party. Some sell and trade out of the back of a pick up, others have an elaborate set up. Swap meets are great fun where hounds swap tall tails ; site information and the general public is invited to come. Quartzite AZ is the largest swap meet in the nation but there are many others. Rock and Gem shows charge a fee to set up. The fee varies with the show and can be $50 per table up to $8000 for a booth at the Denver Show. Billie was invited to the Denver show but we did not go. Then there are craft shows and festivals. The price to set up varies greatly. $50 to $250 would be typical in this area depending upon the show. Finished goods sell best at craft fairs and festivals. Although mineral specimens and fossils also sell. Reserve the rough cutting material for the Gem and Mineral Shows and Swap Meets. The generally public is looking for bling: polished thunder eggs, jewelry. flashy mineral specimens. One exception is geodes or geode thunder eggs. If you have a chain puller, a dealer can sell geodes in the rough and crack them open after the sale. Everybody loves a surprise. Out door shows can be fun but they can also be a bust depending on the weather. We work mostly indoor shows because of Billie's jewelry. It has to be cleaned every time we work a out door show. Our best show is the War Eagle fair which attracts 200,000 - 300.000 people. When picking a show ask what the traffic count is. Small crowds mean small sales. One exception would be a specialty show like an agate gathering. Hounds have come from long distances to buy great material. If you have it will sell. These folks know their stuff. Crawford Nebraska is one example. Agate collectors gather at the Black Hills for several days. One Agate at Crawford was $13000 and there were people there willing to pay that kind of money.
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Posted:
Dec 30 2008, 10:44 AM EST by
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What is your A #1 best rock hunting place in the southwest?
"Being 73 is not all that bad. I want to go rock hunting in the western states as I have spent some time out there when working in mines and mills and on construction jobs. My parents traveled a lot and we lived in allmost every state before i was 8 years old. I owned the Deer creek \" Welcome to the Wiki!
I definitely think Western Montana might be affordable and is a great locale in terms of rocking, as it is close to Canada, Idaho, Washington, Oregon, Wyoming, Nebraska. Western Washington is a beautiful place but no place to live on a fixed income.
Thanks,
Aaron
Posted:
Oct 27 2009, 11:47 PM EDT by
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Hellection 2008
Thank you; that's the way I believe and live. My kids were big into sports - football, wresting, baseball-you name it. David wrestled at Oklahoma State. We always had a house full of teenagers from the teams along with their friends, To that generation race was unimportant. David talked to me on the phone this morning and he had no real understanding of where the nation had come from. Last night Obama carried the capital of the old Confederacy ( Virginia) along with the deep Dixie states of North Carolina, and Florida. The race was close in Georgia. Where I live has as great a diversity as any where in the country. We had an 80% turn out in the county and the majority voted their views and not race. Where McCain had 20 point leads were in the far west (Montana, Idaho. Utah, Arizona, South Dakota, North Dakota, Nebraska , and Wyoming which had 2 out of three votes for McCain. I do not think with that Westerners voted for race but more for their conservative values. Western Arkansas is as much western as it is southern. There are mountains ,cattle ranches, elk hunts, Texas style Bar B Que and the capital of the Cherokee nation in Oklahoma is forty mile from here. It a great place to live as is the Great State of Washington.
Bill
PS I love rocks!!!!!!
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Posted:
Nov 5 2008, 11:02 PM EST by
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Who Has Any Good Ideas for Kirsten's Next Trip?
I left out:
1.Graves Mountain Georgia
2.South Caroline Amethyst - new finds are dark purple
3.Ohio Flint Ridge - hey Flint Knapping with Roy Miller schedule the program during the knapper gathering
4.The Largest Gypsum Cave in North America and then dig selenite crystal clusters in Oklahoma on the Great Salt Plains
5.Agate Fossils Beds Nebraska and collect Pliocenes fossils at Homestead Cookshack & Bunkhouse real Western Hospitality and fossils for sure - after appraising the fossils donate them to the SD School of Mines.
Much much more
Bill
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Posted:
Apr 11 2009, 11:12 AM EDT by
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What is It. ??
"LOL sure sounded good though. :-) You know I may have that book somewhere around here. I may have to check that out. Ok it is Graveyard, right??? lol
Paul " An excellent source of pictures of agates, state by state and country by country is the University of Nebraska - Lincoln. I don't know their Email, but just type in the school name, in the menu, click on Geology & Soils. Then click on Agates Database. Lots of good info, including locations to collect for most.
Don
Posted:
Jul 28 2009, 11:25 PM EDT by
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Ellensburg Blue Agates
A rare blue agate can be found near Needles, California, that would rival any other blue agate. There are some pics of it on the U. of Nebraska Agates Database, cut as cabs.
Don
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Posted:
Oct 30 2009, 11:15 PM EDT by
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