u/lapidary123

Hello, this is the lovely moonstone we find here in central WI. If anyone is nearby the landowners have secured the proper permitting to offer "fee digs" on their land. Apparently listing prices flags it as a sales post. I am not the landowner or affiliated with them in any way! I usually leave with around 100 lbs. Easy collecting off the surface but you can dig holes as well.

It's very brittle material. I always run everything through at least stage 1 to let it break up naturally and show the shine. I mostly make cabochons but this load went all the way in a rotary tumbler (qt12). It is a trickier stone to tumble as grit tends to get stuck in the cleavage points and its prone to bruising. But it's a very unique "blue flash" true moonstone (orthoclase feldspar). One of the only known locations worldwide that produces blue flash k-feldspar!

Seeing all the valuation posts crack ms me up. Here's one for everyone, what would you value this 9lb 1oz piece of Congo malachite at. It has excellent banding and a polished divot/cup...

....I bought it with the intention of slabbing it up for cabochons but have since decided it's cooler as is. There is plenty of smaller chunks of malachite for cabochons!

If this generates enough comments I'll come back and say what I paid for it on ebay 3 years ago 😉

Here is a display of Montana agates I threw together to take fir show & tell at rick club. All were made this summer. The cab on the bottom row, 2nd from left is Very unique with it's plant looking dendrites! I have never seen one like this before. Actually (imo) beats the two scenic landscape looking obese on the left ...

Do you like Montana agate and if so, which ones are your favorites? I was always kind of "meh" toward them but realize when you get a good one they're Really good!

Thanks for looking 😀

So I know that "yooperlites" are fluorescent sodalite and that lapis lazuli often contains sodalite and fluoresces amazingly but I've never noticed the typical blue sodalite fluorescing at all, let alone with this cool pink color. It's so cool I figured I'd share 😀 this is with a cheapo short wave flashlight!

Ten years ago or so I contacted a guy who did rockhounding trips in KY and he took us to a spot along the highway leading north toward Fort Knox and we proceeded to climb over 100 feet up (still on the public road cut) to fi d these interesting geodes. They are thin walled and break easily but they fluoresce and even phosphoresce Very nicely. I believe its mostly calcite in the geodes. Thanks for looking.

What are your favorite phosphorescent minerals and where do they come from?

I had intended on posting this on the other forum but after my conversation with u/augustianstones decided I'd post it here. Will likely share over there as well. . .

Anyways, I keep my genie, pixie, and a 10" trim saw at home. My MIL is gracious enough to let me keep some stuff in her garage. Here is my 14" framtom slab saw, raytech glassworking grinder with expandable drums (I use this for lapudary), and a machine I refer to as "the beast". It is a star diamond GP8 retrofitted with custom 8x3" sintered wheels 35 & 60 grit, as well as an 8x2 180 grit sintered wheel, also has an expandable drum and polishing pad on the ends.

"The beast" has been Sooo much more work (and money) than I had originally imagined. Still working out the final kinks with it, I may need a slightly larger belt as the one on it is Tight and it's causing the pulleys to get Hot. But it grinds amazingly well! I also have an 8" lortone trim saw but I don't think it's in any of these pictures.

The beast is a good example of what can be done with some of the older combo units out there just before you jump in head first you should realize that it's almost Always necessary to remove & replace the bearings when changing wheels out so putting resin (nova style) wheels on a machine like this may not be the best approach. The old bearings were incredibly difficult to get off! I then needed to reroute water valves to go over the wheels if I ever decide to use a submersible pump. Also had to get a motor, and then a different motor because the initial 3/4hp motor i bought didnt have capacitor start. Ended up putting a 1/2 hp motor on With capacitor start and it can handle spinning up the approximately 50 lbs of weight from the sintered wheels nice and easily.

I'm happy to try and answer any questions so ask away. And as always, thanks for looking!!

Here are a few cabs I've made recently of some "B" grade velvet obsidian from Mexico. I'd personally argue this is more of an "A-" grade but I was happy to get a good price! These were shaped using sintered wheels and then sanded using silicon carbide belts followed by a cerium oxide polish.

Thanks for looking!

Cleaning out the thumlers model B I was pleasantly surprised when I saw this guy!! It is a thin Montana agate producing the iris effect 😀

Here are a few of the cabs i made last night! The one on the left has an actual name and I'm sure someone knows what it is (I just call it marshmallow jasper). Long oval is a Turkish seam agate. Two free forms on right are alimajo (baby malawi).

These have not had a final oxide polish applied yet. They will go in my vibe fir finishing when I have a full load.

Thanks for looking 😃

I got 4.5 pounds of larimar rough on ebay. Here are a few cabs I've made. This material (and *almost all larimar I've worked) has been very chippy and brittle so free forms are the way to go. Hoping I can sell around five or six of these to recoup my $150 (not a sales pitch) just an observation. Some of these glow yellow/orange under ultraviolet as well.

Thanks for looking!

These are the result of running my cabs through a vibe tumbler. Most had been finished through 8,000 on the wheels but took them back to 600-polish in the vibe. My opinion is the finish is SUPERB!!

Hello friends!

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This is one phenomenal piece of Montana agate. I actually have another cab off of the same rock that's very similar but this one is in my pocket today at work and I have a spare minute to share 😃

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Also, a rather strange piece of "amethyst sage" from a chunk i bought on ebay a year or so ago. I have quotes around it because it looks different than the amethyst sage I'm familiar with. Could it possibly be burro creek or purple cow? I'm not familiar enough with the west coast materials to make a proper id...

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What do y'all think?

Hello friends!

Here are a few recent cabs I made. First one is a scrap off an owyhee jasper slab, second is Indonesia "chopstick" agate, and the third is a crazy lace agate.

I haven't used a final polish compound on any of these yet. I wait until I have a basket full of cabs and then spin on my other spindle and finish everything at once. These cabs were worked through 8,000 grit (I took my 3,000 grit wheel off and replaced it with an 8,000).

Thanks for looking, lemme know what y'all think of them 😃

Hey fellow agate lovers!

I just was going through photos on my phone and saw this beauty that I figured would be appreciated here. It is a coyamito agate and the color and patterns are superb in my opinion. Tell me what you think!