Our special British Columbian rocks have been travelling all over the United States lately, and between that and my own tumbling, I felt justified doing a quick rockhound on the weekend.
Tumbling away, short hound at the beach, defining “high grade”
Tag: breccia
Dallasite, inside and out
Here’s what Dallasite, our lovely British Columbian jasper of green, white and black, looks like rough on the outside and then cut up to reveal the inside. That’s all for today. These pictures and rock are thanks to Tommy Lay, who was generous enough to slab and cab some Dallasite for me.
Tumbling away, Dallasite out of the rotaries and into the vibe
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.
Blown away by Dallasite
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.
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.
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.
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.
Vancouver Island beach rocks
Had a weird sleep schedule this weekend and couldn’t help myself but get up at the crack of dawn today to pick up some tumbling material at a local beach.
Stumbling on Dallasite
On a whim I decided to check out a local lake today, a secluded one I would hang out at before I got into rockhounding. I didn’t expect to find any good rocks, but I wanted to expand my geological knowledge of the area. It wasn’t long after my girlfriend and I arrived that I picked…