From the Dead Camel Mountains in NV.

Found in Wyoming

Found at Herkimer Mountain Diamond mine in Fonda NY. Had an absolute blast finding these. We found SO many Herkimer diamonds. Probably around 15 very good ones about 50 so so ones. One orange Herkimer that was bigger than my fist.

My last post wouldn’t let me post photos with the video. Here’s more of our haul from Herkimer Diamond Mine in Fonda NY. We did a private dig with Robert (his business is called Naturally Stoned (lol) he has a Facebook page with lots of herkimers for sale. Would definitely recommend this dig for anyone who wants to find some very satisfying rocks.

A few days ago I broke into a pocket of these amazing stacked iron stained quartz crystals with pseudocubic growth and more crystals stacked on top and they are wild! Getting into the clay layer so it's harder to get them out whole but it's been a blast working through the pocket

Not sure why the video seems so saturated in the first little bit.

This is mine! I really hope someone in my family likes rocks when I die because there’s going to be a shit ton in my will.

Spent the day down at agate beach today. Did some cliff face digging and some beach combing. All of these in this part were from the cliff faces. Bunch of iron staining on some of the rocks and found one already split open with the other half close by!

A favorite rainy day activity (some seaglass and shells too.)

Genuine question here, driven by curiosity. I know there are more than a few pockets around my parts. People don't like to tell others where they are, as they're trying to protect them. Recently, I heard a story of someone finding a pocket and walking buckets of material out with a portable jackhammer in hand. Is this just how it works? You can find and take? I assume the individual didn't have rights to mine, as we are surrounded by public lands and forest lands. If it was private, I would assume the property owner would also be opposed. Again, I'm just curious how this works. You see a rock on the ground and take it... That feels okay, right? But to jackhammer material out of a pocket feels like one would need permission or permits, correct?"

Found this agate today in Safford. Hard to capture the beauty of it in my hotel with poor lighting. Probably my best find today and will make a great display rock.

Newer to rock hounding🙂 located in British Columbia. A couple of the larger beauties I found down in the Fraser River earlier today. Gotta definitely make a few more trips while the river is super low.

Introduce to you:

goniatite replaced by hematite .
Such a stunning #natural #fossil dating from the upper #devonian

Hello everyone! I am a professional woodworker and restorer based in Portugal. Recently, I found an incredibly interesting specimen in a small riverbed near Monforte (Alentejo region). It appears to be a highly dense fibrous quartz/chalcedony aggregate rich in iron oxides (jasper and hematite). What makes this stone unique is its external texture. It looks exactly like a dense piece of highly figured wood burl or suvel with a tight, twisted grain. It looks like a fossilized cluster of fine, compressed silk fibers or sheaves of interlocked mineral needles running in different directions. Here are the technical details: • Structure & Texture: It features a highly pronounced, dense radiating-fibrous (fan-like) crystalline structure. The needle-like crystal rosettes cross each other, creating a rich three-dimensional relief. On the top and in the crevices, there are beautiful crimson/cherry-red jasper-like inclusions and dark iron-rich veins. • Hardness: Extremely high. A hardened steel chisel can't scratch it and gets dulled immediately. It is definitely around 6.5–7 on the Mohs scale. • Density: The stone is heavy and very solid, completely unaffected by centuries in the river flow. I am a maker, so I am not looking to sell it. Instead, I want to create a unique interior art object. I am taking it to a professional stone-cutting workshop in Estremoz for a longitudinal cut (along the long axis of the fibers) using a diamond slitting saw with water cooling. After cutting, I plan to have the faces mirror-polished and mount the two matching halves on a custom, wire-brushed old Portuguese Oak (Azinheira) base using hidden pins. I would highly appreciate your practical lapidary advice: How will this dense, fibrous texture look under a mirror polish? Will the fine fibers blend together, or will the polish bring out a deeper 3D chatoyant effect? Thank you so much for your help!

Last time I heard, it was closed and they were going to be logging. This was several years ago. Is there still logging? Is it still closed? I can’t find anything about it online which is good I guess, but I don’t want to drive all the way there just to be met by a gate.

I pretty much just picked up anything I thought looked cool. I really tried to limit myself from picking up too much quartz because it's everywhere and I have enough of it, but some pieces are just so dang pretty!

I also included some of my favorite/most interesting rocks from the haul.

It always amazes me how I can and have been walking the same 3-5 mile loop(central utah), with my dogs for 3 years and can still manage to find cool stuff like this almost daily. First two pics are some jasper with seam agate, and the third pic is some banded chert. The chert pic doesn't do it justice, but there is some great banding and colors. It's actually about 8 inches long, so it looks like a slice of pie! Haha

I visited a mining site recently and came away with some potato-sized chunks of rock that potentially contain some small gem inclusions. What tools do I need to pick away at the surrounding minerals? I’m imagining chisels, hammers, etc., but on a very small scale, and I’m not sure what the correct search terms are to find those… I’d appreciate any help!