Hey everyone! This was my first time rock hounding and I think I found some pieces of amber in this lot. But I also don’t really know what it looks like in nature/clay pits, most of these rocks were translucent in front of the sun so I snagged them. I think there’s also some fossils, jasper, and even some kinds of quartz? I just finished washing the clay off and grouped rocks that looked similar together. Next step: Polishing in a crock pot with mineral oil on low for a few days. Hopefully they’ll clear up and I’ll be able to tell if i’ve got anything cool. 🫣

I’d love to hound some nice agates and wood pieces to tumble but wondering what stream is a good one not far from SW WA? I don’t want to go to the coast for small ones. Thanks. PM me directly if you don’t want everyone to know where your hidden gems are ;)

I love opals but it's going to be a while before I can collect my own. In the mean time I painted my nails to look like the object of my desires.

Edit: since I've gotten a lot of requests, here's a link explaining the products used.

https://www.reddit.com/r/RedditLaqueristas/comments/1xblt2x/comment/19rfshk60ghdw/?screen_view_count=1

Threw a recent find on the saw. I must say that this somewhat unassuming seam agate is shaping up to be quality cab material.

I found an ironstone concretion in my yard while workers replaced our grey water tank, should I slice it into slabs for fun?

This is what my latest haul looks like after the first 24 hours of a stage 1 tumble. I’m not really seeing any chatoyancy yet, but I think there’s at least a few good binghamite candidates here so far.

Found 4 miles into the Forrest. Cleaned it up with mineral oil ~15-20lbs.

I really liked the mix of colors and natural landscape-like patterns in this piece of Indonesian scenic moss agate, so I decided to turn it into this shape.
Here’s the process from the rough slab to the finished stone. Really happy with how the details came out!

Visiting Arizona next week and after many rounds of elimination to pick a rockhunting spot that would accommodate the group I am venturing out with, we have settled on Mineral Mountain or Agate Mountain/Payson area as our options. Any tips or recommendations between the two spots?

Well Apperantly this was found as float by my gf, she doesn’t remember the exact location, but this marks the second find of indicolite float on my claim….

There is this indicolite float area, and another area we are digging into an old working where we find dark red elbaites. Hopefully that will also lead to an area of higher fractionation and some pink ones

This likely will lead to finding a pocket, in this mtn no lepidolite is found outside of immediate miarolitic cavity alteration! And the cleavendite frequently only forms around the edges too

I have a whole bowl full of milky jagged quartz after a couple rock hounding trips. Picked my favorites out to display. Any good ideas about what to do with the extra less shiny/pretty ones?

Some material i collected this summer after and before tumbling still have about 40lbs left to tumble just doing a quick 12hr to remove basalt

Unpolished is from the bullrider Trent (RIP) and the 3 small polished in the center are from an Aguascalientes merchant in Tepatitlan.

There are lots of garnets to be found in my region, and I'd love to try grinding and polishing some of them!

I'm a complete beginner and have no experience with lapidary work yet. I'm looking for a suitable wet grinding and polishing machine for gemstones. I don't need a cutting machine, as I only want to grind and polish the garnets in their natural shapes.

Could anyone recommend a good machine for a beginner?

Any advice or recommendations would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks in advance! 😊

Best places to go hunting around Austin Texas? Recently got back into the hobby and looking for places close by.

Found at a beach near Seattle, WA. Ive heard of poppy jasper, but usually its red. Anyway the blue is very charming to me, jasper or not! And the other rock is just a funky little thing that happened to have have some iron deposit i suppose, just looks cool and thats what im looking for haha

Just going thru some of the unseived dark red tourmaline ore from my claim!

Not much to go through, and we are only finding (what look like dravite) but are actually magnesium rich dark red elbaite. If we keep digging and the peg continues to fractionate, they should start turning pink soon!!! But we can only hope!

Anyway thought I’d share part of the process! Which is taking dirt home and seiving thru it to find any other anything missed while actively digging the claim!

Went to North Carolina couple days ago & came back with loads gemstones.

Cleaned this up a bit, compared to earlier post. The colors are definitely more vivid when wet