Pretty fire agate chalcedony on matrix with druzy specimen

[Steve1236]

Just thought I'd share...

 

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[Kray Gelder]

That's a really special specimen. Beautiful!

 

[DDancer]

Very Nice

 

[ToddsPoint]

It reminds me of a sno-cone! Gary

 

[Steve1236]

Thanks everyone, ha ha it does resemble a snow-cone, good one Gary, Maybe I should build a nice snow-cone shaped stand lol, if ya made it cool and not cheesy I think that would be actually awesome. Here's a few more specimens, I apologize for the lighting, I took these pics real early in the morning, its unbelievably hot in Az.

 

[hvacker]

Now put them back so I can find them, OK.

 

[IAMZIM]

Thanks everyone, ha ha it does resemble a snow-cone, good one Gary, Maybe I should build a nice snow-cone shaped stand lol, if ya made it cool and not cheesy I think that would be actually awesome. Here's a few more specimens, I apologize for the lighting, I took these pics real early in the morning, its unbelievably hot in Az.
View attachment 1722530 View attachment 1722531 View attachment 1722532 View attachment 1722533 View attachment 1722534

I HATE being hot, glad I live in Montana! LoL! However, I would suffer the heat just for a little while in order to find stuff like you have been! Great stuff!

 

[Kray Gelder]

The others are really nice, too! Great looking stuff.

 

[Steve1236]

The heat is awful, makes you literally sick if you're out in it for to long. Montana has great weather right now, how goes the hunting ZIM, what ya got planned for your next hunt?

 

[fuss]

Ok...so Steve....whats that??

 

[Steve1236]

Lol, that's Ozzy, hes my bearded dragon, he's real friendly, I let him stretch his legs out back in the mornings while I have coffee or I'm messing around...

 

[dsrtdwg1]

Just thought I'd share... View attachment 1722260 View attachment 1722261 View attachment 1722262 View attachment 1722263 View attachment 1722266

Steve, that piece is GREAT! Worthy of its own display stand....recent find?

 

[Steve1236]

Thanks, yeah I dug it up last time I was out, I actually didn't notice how special it was at first, I find a decent amount of fire agate chalcedony with druzy quartz out there but this is the first one I found with fire right under the druzy, I had it sitting in the specimens bucket, usually I pressure wash everything when I get home and separate what looks like lapidary material from specimens, this particular specimen I kept moving to the side never noticing the play of colors because I kept the bucket inside never looking at it in good lighting thinking it was just a pretty druzy specimen.

 

[dsrtdwg1]

Steve, was this float or did you knock it out of a pocket ? Have you tumbled any of your lesser pieces yet ? If so... show some tumbled stuff !

 

[Steve1236]

This was a floater but I do chisel out vugs or fire agate strait from the igneous rock on cloudy cooler days, there's some really nice pockets I need to get out one day but it's a lot of work and you have to be careful not to break the agate doing it, I'll tackle them next winter. I still haven't gotten around to tumbling anything yet, the problem with my fire agate is either its attached to host rock or it has druzy crystals on them, I'm going to have to pick out some good one's and use a dremel to remove host or crystals first before tossing them into the tumbler.

 

[Steve1236]

gold speck....

 

[IAMZIM]

The heat is awful, makes you literally sick if you're out in it for to long. Montana has great weather right now, how goes the hunting ZIM, what ya got planned for your next hunt?

Gonna try for some sapphires. When work slows down for me, I'm going to take a day and go down to Spencer Idaho to look for opal!

 

[Steve1236]

I know I mentioned this before Zim but when you go hunting for sapphires, what ever creek or river try something, look for a large foxtail, one above at least two feet in height with the thick strong grass blades that's close to the waters edge, in a spot where when it flash floods a lot of material would run over the foxtail, here in Az you'll always find small gold in those roots, there's always a lot of garnets and heavies as well, the gold is small always because the heavier gold will keep working it way to bedrock but I've found like 30 colors in some root systems up at Turkey creek by Mayer Az but I'm curious about the weight of sapphires, they might get trapped really well, anyway it can't hurt to try ya know..
Good luck on your hunts and keep us posted, I'm hoping to find some opal myself next winter, some has been found at burro creek by Wickenburg and some nice blue colored opal is found in southern Az, I dont want to mention the exact area my fire agate spot is but on mindat is says precious opal has been found out there and mentions nothing about fire agates lol, it doesn't say how much or when it was found though just mentioning it was a confirmed mineral found at pretty much that location so I'm gonna keep scouring that area next winter.

 

[IAMZIM]

I know I mentioned this before Zim but when you go hunting for sapphires, what ever creek or river try something, look for a large foxtail, one above at least two feet in height with the thick strong grass blades that's close to the waters edge, in a spot where when it flash floods a lot of material would run over the foxtail, here in Az you'll always find small gold in those roots, there's always a lot of garnets and heavies as well, the gold is small always because the heavier gold will keep working it way to bedrock but I've found like 30 colors in some root systems up at Turkey creek by Mayer Az but I'm curious about the weight of sapphires, they might get trapped really well, anyway it can't hurt to try ya know..
Good luck on your hunts and keep us posted, I'm hoping to find some opal myself next winter, some has been found at burro creek by Wickenburg and some nice blue colored opal is found in southern Az, I dont want to mention the exact area my fire agate spot is but on mindat is says precious opal has been found out there and mentions nothing about fire agates lol, it doesn't say how much or when it was found though just mentioning it was a confirmed mineral found at pretty much that location so I'm gonna keep scouring that area next winter.

Thanks for the tip Steve1236, in fact, there is alot of moss next to the streams here and it does trap small colors. As far as sapphires, they are pretty deep, and I have never found even garnets in the moss. Sapphires were an annoyance to the original miners here in the 1800's, many miners were looking for gold, and would get angry because "heavy glass like rocks" kept plugging up their sluice boxes and they thought they were loosing gold because of it, so these miners would angrily dig out the sapphires and "toss" them away from mining operations. Supposedly, someone here recently found an entire bucket full of sapphires that had been tossed off to the side of an area they were sluicing for gold. So sapphires are pretty heavy, heavier than garnets. Most people around here use a seive to get sapphires, but I like to use a gold pan that has really deep sluice grooves. It's just what I prefer. I will be posting some finds from this week, just fyi!

 

[Steve1236]

Awesome, cant wait to see what you find, moss is good for small gold but not what I'm talking about, you should give it a try if you happen to come across a big foxtail, I've found natural led and bullets in those roots as well, just never any big gold, I always wanted to try for diamonds in Colorado one day, I watched a YouTube video with someone panning gold and diamonds with foxtail all around him but he wasn't checking the roots of them, long drive though so I'm trying to get someone who lives out in an area you can pan for precious stones to check it out lol. I'm also a gold pan guy myself, once again, good luck and best wishes you have some awesome finds Zim.