I took my 24 pounds of Dallasite out of coarse grind in the tumblers today. No matter how many times I tumble this jasper, I am always blown away by some of the pieces that come out.
Blown away by Dallasite
Month: August 2014
24 pounds of Dallasite tumbling
I was a bad boy recently. I stopped in my local rock and gem shop not planning to buy much, and I walked out with a Lortone QT12 rotary rock tumbler, my fourth rock tumbler.
Opening the rock tumblers is like Christmas!
Opening the rock tumblers is always like Christmas. I waited almost a full two weeks to pop these three barrels and let my old rocks see the light of day. The two Dallasite loads in my Lortone QT66 went amazingly! I was super impressed with how smooth and fracture-free these rocks came out. More time,…
Went to a river, found Dallasite
Dallasite is everywhere on Vancouver Island. It’s on the beaches, at the lakes and in the rivers. I had to bus from Nanaimo to Port McNeil and drive a car back for work recently and I stopped by a river near Woss.
Dallasite rockhounding video
I stuck a GoPro on my head on a recent kayak trip to a local Vancouver Island beach. My girlfriend and I hunted for Dallasite while the dogs swam, puked and played on the beach. There’s a giant Flowerstone we found on the beach near here that we will come back to later to haul…
Beach rockhound with a deer
I went on a quick trip to my favourite Vancouver Island beach as the sun came up one recent morning. This is the beach I found my first piece of Dallasite on. It still yields more than enough beautiful rocks for me and anyone else who would be interested.
Agate, Jasper, Chalcedony, Chert – How to tell the difference
The difference between agate, jasper, chalcedony and chert is one of the biggest stumbling blocks for people getting into the hobby of rockhounding or mineral collecting. I know because I was tripping over it for months, and I’ve seen other people struggle with it as well. The truth is, even the best rock identifiers can’t…
Setting the tumblers, need more!
I’m badly in need of more rock tumblers. I set both of my rotary tumblers last night and had my vibe going the whole weekend. But it’s not enough. My rockhounding hobby is dwarfing my production capacity. I am looking for a warehouse of some sort and operations headquarters.
Sorting the rocks that are ready for round 2
Here’s a collection of all the rocks that have survived coarse grit in my rotary rock tumblers and are now ready to go in the vibe. They’re split up into groups of Dallasite, quartz, speckled opal, greenstone (some of it jasper), a few porphyries and Flowerstone, and a pile of river rock/gneiss/quartz/petrified wood.
Rocks and elk on Cowichan River
My girlfriend and I had a real wilderness trip to Cowichan River the other day, where we found a few rocks, smeared ourselves in clay, swam, threw rocks for dogs to catch and ran into a herd of elk.