looking for materials

[carpsniperg2]

Yeah I would have had a couple beats of my heart skip if I saw that as well!!! It is a very interesting looking stone. I am not sure what it is to be honest. It looks kinda like a petrified wood but most times they are lighter colored and have lots of different colors to them. The one picture reminds me more of flint. Hard to say what the heck it is. Next time I talk with one of the guys that knows rocks, I will show him the pics and he will probably know.

[boneaddict]

I need to research what flint is, where chert falls into the ranks, and the difference of the petrified woods.  You have agatized, regular petrified and opalized.   I have tried some knapping on "agatized PW"  Its hard to catch an edge like obsidian, but it sure can be pretty.   You have to have patience though as it fractures very "sporadically" or randomly.    I think I used to know all this stuff 20 years ago, but those braincells have long since died.

[boneaddict]

most of the PW out here that is agatized is yellow or white.   Even it is fantastically different in color and texture.  Some is like glass and some is like "flint", or more "plastic" like.   VERY hard to find knapable pieces. 

[boneaddict]

from wiki.....

Flint is a hard, sedimentary cryptocrystalline form of the mineral quartz,[1][2] categorized as a variety of chert. It occurs chiefly as nodules and masses in sedimentary rocks, such as chalks and limestones.[3][4] Inside the nodule, flint is usually dark grey, black, green, white, or brown in colour, and often has a glassy or waxy appearance. A thin layer on the outside of the nodules is usually different in colour, typically white and rough in texture. From a petrological point of view, "flint" refers specifically to the form of chert which occurs in chalk or marly limestone. Similarly, "common chert" (sometimes referred to simply as "chert") occurs in limestone.

The exact mode of formation of flint is not yet clear but it is thought that it occurs as a result of chemical changes in compressed sedimentary rock formations, during the process of diagenesis. One hypothesis is that a gelatinous material fills cavities in the sediment, such as holes bored by crustaceans or molluscs and that this becomes silicified. This theory certainly explains the complex shapes of flint nodules that are found. The source of dissolved silica in the porous media could arise from the spicules of silicious sponges

Just like it is described EXCEPT how it would have been formed.   NOT found in limestone or chawl    POSSIBLY sedimentary or of an old swamp bed........ supposedly this area was that and thats how the PW formed as when it was covered in Basalt it didn't burn up becasue it was waterlogged.       HMMMMMMMM COOL

[carpsniperg2]

That is pretty cool! Most of the PW that I have bumped into over the years is that off white kinda yellow color. With the outside "cortex" of it being ruff and very serrated. We found a big chunk of a log when I was a kid and we had a couple of good chunks around the house when I was younger. I have no idea what happened to them. Had one cool chunk that was kinda a rootbeer colored chunk with some yellow veins threw it.

Another cool stone I plan on playing with is the mookite jasper. It's hard to  find a good stone that will knapp well but when you do the blades turn out really cool!!!

There is a lot of cool stone a guy can knapp only a few really work great.

I have one beautiful stone of the dragon skin obsidian that I have wanted to work with for so long but it is hard to find and really scares me! LOL I also have a piece of the coolest banded obsidian I have ever seen in my life. Both I would like to make spear points out of. I want to get a gems buck horn and make a spear with those points if I can get them to turn out.

[Gobble Doc]

Boneaddict,

The stuff in the vein wasn't from near the Vantage diatomaceous earth mine was it?  That is a fun place to get the opalized materials.

[boneaddict]

No, it wasn't.    Thats on my list to visit.   I want to check that out and a site above Mattawa.   I found some lime green stuff out by george once that was similiar, but it was way softer and dissolved(disintegrated) after awhile of it being exposed to water or the elements.   

[rasbo]

you  guys would love the desert around,Arco, minidoka in Idaho..I f you ever get a chance to get out that way,bear trap,split butte and big southern..Its like another world in there,the silence is loud...all kinds of cool rock and arrow head making suff.The lava flows made some real neat places...and some big bone in the areas also..Beware of No shoulders,the place is loaded with them

[boneaddict]

Sounds like possible adventure to me