Storms are one of my favourite things in the world. I love being just hidden in safety from pouring rain and wind. I’ve been meaning to do some night rockhounding and these days that’s when the tide is lowest.
Stormy night rockhounding
Tag: mineral
A visit to Dallas Road, the birthplace of Dallasite
Well, not the birthplace, but the place it was first discovered and after which it was named. Dallas Road is in Victoria on the south end of Vancouver Island. My girlfriend and I had a kitten-delivery trip to Victoria this weekend and made sure we stopped for a quick rockhound before the 5pm darkness.
Rainy day hounding on Vancouver Island
It’s officially wet season on Vancouver Island and I managed to get a couple good trips in to my favourite rockhounding locations.
Tumbling away, short hound at the beach, defining “high grade”
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.
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.
Dallasite and Flowerstone cabochons and slabs
I received an early Christmas present from Tommy Lay, this fantastic lapidarist I connected with on a rock tumbling website. He was ridiculously generous. I opened the box with my mom and grandma and we were all oohing over every piece. I had inquired about getting some of my Dallasite and Flowerstone cabbed and slabbed…
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.
Late summer beach hounding
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.
Dallasite and Flowerstone cabochons!
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.
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,…