Bedrock Bob

It is an awesome rock! Looks like a quartz vein in some sort of country rock. The quartz was chemically and mechanically more durable and the country rock has mostly been eroded away. A rock like that tells a good story. It's not just a dumb rock that does not give you much info. It definitely represents change and movement. The passage of time. You can plainly see how the harder rock is persisting and the softer stone is weathering away. The quartz was once surrounded by the dark rock but now it holds it together. When you look at a rock like that you can actually hear the hubs of Hell spinning around and feel the eons passing.

Both PC7 and JB Weld are the same stuff. Duro 1000 is even better. But none of it will stick to plastic. You might build it up enough for a repair but don't expect it to adhere to the surface. Wipe it good with acetone and then rough it all up with 80 grit paper and the epoxy might adhere a bit better. But the takeaway here is epoxy won't adhere to plastic. The best you can do with epoxy is build a "cast" around the break and hope it holds for a while. Sooner or later the glue will pop loose from the plastic. The shafts are some type of thermoplastic. Probably nylon or pvc. If it softens when you get it hot it can be welded. Just use a like material for filler rod and get it just hot enough for the filler to coalesce with the part. PVC and ldpe will soften with acetone. HDPE and Nylon won't. So you can narrow down what type of filler you need by rubbing a spot with a solvent rag. You can get a cheap welding kit from harbor freight with an assortment of rods and it is worth the pittance you will pay. A heat gun and a wood burner will get you there though. If it is PVC it can be solvent welded. It is tricky to get a strong joint unless you use a sleeve or coupling. All my detector poles are PVC pipe. When I break one I just replace it with a home made one. It is better than trying to fix a snapped piece. I have never broken a home made one and have broken a few factory ones. So there is that. Just my two cents.

If there is going to be an argument I want in on it.

You misunderstood me I guess. That is a hunk of free metal isn't it? It looks like it is all metal in the photos. Maybe I am mistaken. I don't see anything except metal. So I am saying it is a suspect iron. Not a stone meteorite. If it is stone you can easily determine by the streak if it is a meteorite. But free metallic iron specimens are not readily identified. To be clear it does not look like terrestrial mineral or a stony meteorite to me. It looks like metallic iron. Which means an artifact or an iron meteorite. Both of which can be expected to contain nickel. If you see metal flecks in a stone you have an item of interest. I am seeing a solid piece of metal but I may be interpreting the photo wrong. If the "witnessed fall" was just a possible fall and there are no other specimens to compare it to then you need to keep looking. That is not a piece of it. That specimen has spent years and years rusting. It is a metal artifact. Good luck! Keep looking and don't waste much effort on nickel tests. You will recognize one when you see it and there will be little debate when you do.

The learning process is worth the price of an ICP analysis. And that won't tell you much. Differentiating terrestrial iron from meteoritic iron is tricky. It often boils down to visual indicators. A layman simply cannot do anything to prove a piece of (non mineral) iron is or is not from space. Only a professional can do that and even then it is often a soft sided approach. Tramp metal often looks suspicious. I have pondered a ton of it. And with little iron meteorites in a corrosive environment you honestly may not be able to tell the difference. Irons have a definitive shape and a durable crust. The ones I am familiar with are never rusted to shale. There is never symmetry. Always blobs and knobs and fingers. Always a bit of blue black crust. Mega hard shiny metal just under a fine, thin oxidation. That is how I decide whether to keep them or huck them over my shoulder. I hope that helps. In the end the only way you are going to be able to differentiate an iron meteorite and a chunk of tramp metal is by professional opinion. I would wager that most would discount it simply by sight. Now... That observed fall was an iron and not a stony meteorite was it not? Because what you have would be an iron. Another observation. Your photo looks a lot like an old wedge. The top looks like it was hardened from blows. The "nickel flakes" look a lot like crystallized metal at the head of the wedge. Since I try to ID what I see rather than look for meteoritic characteristics that would be my call. A wedge with hardened crystallization at the top and a deeply rusted and withering basal end where the unworked metal is softer.

It sure has a strange shape for an iron. I have been in your shoes my friend. It just does not look right to me. But that is just from my limited knowledge.

If an Australian speaks in the woods and there is no one to hear it does it still sound cool?

I think that word can only be pronounced with a mouth full of Vegemite. I once saw a video of an Australian kid reciting the alphabet. It was a lot like a Navajo spelling bee. Quite incomprehensible. I have never heard words like that spoken. I only recognize them by the printed word. It is a darn good question. What the heck does that word sound like?

Those don't appear to be meteorites Frank. Probably just slag. You need to rub them on your toilet tank lid and show us the streak. Great job Frank!

The only way to identify the rock is to identify the minerals it is comprised of and observe what physical state they are in (oxidized, crystallized, etc.etc) In you photo you can't see those constiuents. There is no way to know what they are. It looks like common field stone of the sedimentary metamorphic variety. But it could be anything. Pick up a good field guide for identifying rocks and get a hammer and a magnifying glass. Before posting a rock break a piece off with a hammer. Not at a natural fissure but into the solid meat of the rock. Take a look at the individual mineral grains and try to identify them. Use the field guide to take you through the process. You will be able to ID rocks a lot easier. And when you can't you will be able to give us the info we need to help you. Im not going to try and explain mineral ID typing on my phone with my thumb. You are going to have to take initiative on that one. There are lots of good guides out there and the process is not difficult to understand. The photos and info you post do not help to ID the rocks. You need to learn what differentiates one rock from the other and post info that we can use to help you. Rather than trying to identify rocks you have found, identify their mineral constituents. Once you can identify basic minerals then identifying rocks is a lot easier. Show us a few minerals and we can identify the rocks.

Without a streak, density and a close look at the material it is made of there is no telling what it is. It is not a meteorite. And if it is not slag then the overwhelming odds are it is volcanic.

The answer to your question is yes there is a market for silver in "nugget form". Meaning a lump of native silver and not necessarily a natural piece of free metallic silver. Native silver nuggets are generally black as coal. White chloride are common on the surface of finished silver shot. If your specimen is indeed silver it is not a natural nugget. But man made lumps of silver in odd forms are very common too. Probably much more common than native silver nuggets. My advice is an xrf test. That is the quickest way to find out just exactly what you have. If it is silver it is an alloy.

In order to identify any mineral we need to have a bit more info. Is it magnetic? Hardness and streak? It looks a lot more like slag or a volcanic than a meteorite to me. There is lots of slag in the Chesapeke bay. With nothing but a photo to go from I would say it is foundry slag from a maritime casting operation.

Six senses and no sense in all six. I think the indigenous folks and ancient cultures knew a heck of a lot more about "that side" of things than we ever will. They accepted the impossible as something "not of this world" meaning outside of the physical plane. Not from "outer space". I think that is a righteous conclusion. We seem to have a tough time with that in our culture. Western man clings to this physical plane with tales of extraterrestrial origin. I honestly think this conclusion is much more far fetched and coming from a much more biased point of view. Still, the lights over Phoenix were probably flares. Most likely a UFO wrong IMHO. As are most "lights in the sky" experiences.

I think that is an astute observation. Wavelengths and vibration seems to be key to perception. Or at least defining the boundaries of it. I think there are natural forces that change vibration as well as ways to alter it. And possibly pause or flatline the vibration for an instant. Like a pause in music. We can't hear chirping birds over background noise, but when the noise stops they sound clear and loud. It may not be a matter of changing a particular vibration rather than pausing others so one can be perceived. The only thing that I am certain of is that what we witness is always subject to the filters of our mind. And our perception and even more importantly our recollection is dramatically affected by this. Especily when confronted with the "impossible" and unfamiliar. We grasp and struggle to coil our minds around it using the only tools we have. In cases like these we simply cannot come to any conclusions about what is happening. The very best we can do is realize that we are simply an highly biased observer peering through an warped and cloudy lens at something we simply don't understand.