Jadee

Mr. 4Meter, I did soak it in an 1 teaspoon of CLR and 1 gal of distilled water for about 5 days and gave it a good scrubbing with a firm tooth brush. I worry that if I soak it in anything stronger that white part would get ruined, it is so soft. Not so sure if I want to keep it or use it for a garden rock?

Wow Thank you very much for letting me know. I must get in touch with him and pay him plus I want to give him a few Minnesota treasures some Lake Superior agates to apologize.

Found this rock in a glacier moraine deposit in central Minnesota: the greenish rough part is hard - if I were to guess the Moh's scale rating it would have to be about a 7. The white rock coming out of the formation has a soft waxy feel to it (Moh's of about 4-5). I have never seen anything like this before. I'm scratching my head on this one

I was taking practice shots indoors with a new camera lens and this agate was one that turned out good. It is called a whorl or hurricane Lake Superior agate for the the way the banding formed:

Thank you for all the compliments, everyone! Yes, Morlock these are Lake Superiors that I found near where I live. Bob - I tumbled a batch a long time ago but ended up having some damage done to the basement due to a small flood. It has been a while but as soon as I get my shop up and running again I will be doing more lapidary work: I am still learning about cutting and faceting.

Here are some cabbed Ethiopians. I bought them from a lapidary company some years back, I am not too sure if we are allowed to say the name of the business on here, but if we can I would love to share it. They did such a beautiful job on these!

More of my summer finds this year Note *: In the fourth photo up to the last it is the same agate just taken at all different sides

Okay, I will cut a window and show what I find

This is that seller's letter he sent me after I asked for a refund:

I sent the seller a message just simply saying that there are some doubts as to the "meteorite's" authenticity and that I needed more substantial proof. I got this through a bid auction. Did a test on the rock on the back of some porcelain and it was a black streak What should I do next? I am going to contact Ebay and tell them about what I have found along with as many pictures and posted facts as to what meteorites look like; I will do whatever it takes to make sure no one else fall prey to scam artist's like these!

Here are some of my opals from Ethiopia - they are raw of course; I have yet to learn about polishing these on my wheel and I would rather I would have an expert standing near by to guide me. I have been trying to find a rock club near where I live but there aren't any that I have found one yet. There is Minnesota Mineral club but that is a good 25 miles from where I live. If I found a tutor how much would it cost?

Thank you, guys for being honest with me and I will look into saying something to ebay about this. I had a kind of sinking feeling when I opened up the box with the meteorite there and only a card from the business

I broke these geodes open yesterday and it was a lot of fun! In the second and third picture I was trying to get a clear shot of the crystal formation hanging down in the front. If you can see the tip is actually a cluster of some tiny crystal spear points. The third I focused more on the inside. Hope you like them and there are more to come:

Here are some Oco agate geodes I got the other day. Enjoy

This is a big silver sheen obsidian piece that I want to cut into and make into some cabs but that is a ways out in the future - I need to learn how to cut it and work with it first. Are there any books, sites, or videos that would be a good start?