Rock Saw Discoveries

Over the past year or two, I have been collecting rocks from a variety of sources - from the deserts of Idaho, to the Pacific coast, to the beach just below my house. Most end up being polished in my two Lortone rock tumblers with terrific results.

However, until this week, I was never able to cut into the middle of larger pieces: I needed a rock saw. Well, after hemming and hawing, I finally bought one last week on Craig's List. It is an antique Lortone LS-10, well-used, but still working - and I have been cutting ever since. I had a large box of large rough under my workbench that I had been waiting to cut into, and now I am finally getting to see what is inside these pieces.

Examples above : a pale jasper from western Idaho, and a piece of Succor Creek Jasper from the Owyhee country.

Cutting a rock is like Christmas: you never know what you're going to get. Sometimes you find great stuff - sometimes you get nothing. Still, it's another tool in the arsenal. Next, I'll have to start polishing the slabs.

Owyhee Agate Vein

Agate vein, Succor Creek, Oregon

Although most of what I found in the Succor Creek area of the Owyhee mountains earlier this summer was jasper, I did come out with some other interesting pieces. One of the most intriguing was this thin agate seam cutting through another rock I don't recognize. The agate is bright and colorful, and completely unlike anything else I have found in that area. Who knows where it came from, but the Owyhee country has so many spectacular rocks, both agate and jasper, that nothing should be surprising...

I'll be heading out there again next month for a week of rockhounding. Can't wait.

Rialto Beach Redux

Poppy Jasper, Agate, and....? , Rialto Beach

Last year I made a pilgrimage to Rialto Beach, not far from Forks, Washington (aka "Twilight" Town) to beach comb for orbicular "poppy" jasper. This has been a well-known location for jasper beach cobbles for decades, and every time I'm in the neighborhood, I make a point of stopping by.

I spent a happy hour or two looking for jasper, but also stumbled onto some other nice things as well - some petrified wood, and at least one piece of yellow plume agate. It takes a while to train your eye here: the weather was uncharacteristically dry, so all the beach stones had that pale, scuffed look, making them very hard to identify. I did carry a water spray bottle to test stones -and licked a few - but after a while, I began to see the characteristic smoothness of the harder rocks (mixed in with a lot of rough-surfaced sedimentary rocks, the most common thing on our outer coast).

In the end, I got a nice stash of poppies, and some other things I'll look forward to polishing. Always a great place - and the best part is,  after next winter's storms (profound on this wild coast) there will be a whole new crop of rocks thrown up onto the beach.

Gravel Galore, Rialto Beach

The Tip of the Iceberg

Succor Jaspers - polished

A nice batch of Succor Creek Jasper came out of the tumblers today, which shows you some of the diversity possible in this area, and the quality of the polish that the rock takes. Yes, there are a few nicks and scratches from the tumbling process; hopefully these will come out by the end, but a few still remain (usually the result of having some over-size rocks mixed in - these tend to break chips out of one another.)

The obvious question its "why not slab this stuff and enjoy the patterns in 2 dimensions?"  Well, I might if I had a saw, but I also get some pleasure out of the random-ness of this process, which seems somehow more "natural." Probably just a case of rationalizing my own equipment deficiency - but that's how it goes. I tend to scavenge for small tumbler pieces, preferring them to large hard-rock excavation, the kind that produces good slabs.  Maybe that will change one of these days.

Out of the Tumbler

Cayucos Jasper - Revealed

Tumbling stones, esp. hard jaspers and agate, takes patience.... and I am not a patient man. So when a batch's time in the grit is up (and maybe a few hours early) I open it with all the enthusiasm of a kid on Christmas morning.

This batch was one I particularly looked forward to since recent months have generated some exceptional collecting opportunities. A sharp reader will recognize these, for example, as polished Cayucos jasper : I posted some of the rough in this blog on May 2. All are of red jasper, with quartz/agate intrusions. Handsome stuff.

Also included in this batch were some pieces of Idaho Japer-Agate I collected in late June (see my July 4 post). One of them came out of the tumbler today with some lovely patterns and colors.

Idaho Jasp-agate

Skokomish Jasper

Skokomish River Gravel Bars

I set out this morning on the trail of poppy/orbicular jasper on the South fork of the Skokomish River.  It is only about a two-hour drive for me, and an easy day out. I used to go salmon fishing on the Skoko many years ago, and not been back in several decades. I was tempted this time by posts made by a fellow NW Rockhound Charley Price on his blog : Compass Mentus.  Charley recently posted about finding orbicular jasper on the Skoko, so I thought I would give it a try.

I hiked in about 1.5 miles on the Skokomish River Trail which begins at Brown Creek Campground, some 16 miles upriver (mostly paved).  It is a steep up and down (and VERY steep at the end with whatever you have collected on your back!) but eventually you get access to the river, which runs very clear, and has lots of interesting rock to look through. I kept my eye out for really bright orange-red rocks which is usually a tip-off for jasper.

Orbicular Jasper (on left) and another type

I came out with a backpack of about 35-40 pounds - most of it without clear orbs, but a few nice pieces.
I would say it's definitely worth another trip sometime and exploring further upstream.  However, I have to say that the cougar warning sign at the trailhead had me looking over my shoulder!  ("Never Hike Alone" it says...)

Another thing Charley tipped me off to was the presence of some truly weird pieces of mudstone, eroding out of a cliff at the water's edge. For reasons that are not entirely clear to me, these pieces are in some pretty wacky shapes, but are hard enough to make it home intact.  Something for the grandchildren at the very least...

Mudstone animal : Platypus?

All in all, a nice day out in bright overcast 75 degree weather. Pretty much perfect!

Succor Creek Wood

Petrified Wood, Succor Creek OR

Haven't been out into the field lately, but I am still working on the material I collected at Succor Creek in early June. Although most is high-quality jasper, including some with nice "picture" designs, I also found a fair amount of petrified wood.  Here are just a few of the pieces I gathered along the creek.  I'm sure there's a lot more out there...

Hope to make it back to the area later this summer. In the meantime, I will be exploring some locations closer to home. Stay tuned.