I’ve just been tumbling away over here. I took my 24 lbs of Dallasite out of my rotary tumblers after about 10 days in coarse grind and put a different batch of Dallasite in my vibratory tumbler on final polish.
Between sending some rocks away and tumbling, I’ve actually managed to reduce my stockpile a little bit, unfortunately forcing me to rockhound more. I went to a local Vancouver Island beach for Dallasite and Flowerstone again, though I found much of the former and little of the latter.
We’re breaking new ground at BC Rockhound. I sent some Dallasite and Flowerstone to Tommy Lay, the best cabochon maker I’ve seen on the internet.
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.
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 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,…
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.
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…
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.
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…