Another new one I would like identified

[hardtimehermit 320]

Maybe coasters for big mug of your choicest drink. 

[d_day 253]

Green crystals? Magnets have a slight reaction? Light grey powder when crushed? Sure sounds like basalt to me. Olivine (aka peridot) is often found in basalt. Again, it’s very hard to make an ID from pictures, so I’m not going to say 100% it’s basalt, but I’m certainly leaning in that direction.

And some tips for cutting: Cutting very hard stones, and trying to cut too fast can glaze your blade. Basically, steel from the blade is dragged over the top of the diamonds, which greatly reduces their effectiveness. You can deglaze the blade by cutting a silicon carbide sharpening stone or old grinding wheel. This WILL accelerate wear, but will actually make the blade last longer. 

[Jake7291 19]

16 minutes ago, d_day said:

Green crystals? Magnets have a slight reaction? Light grey powder when crushed? Sure sounds like basalt to me. Olivine (aka peridot) is often found in basalt. Again, it’s very hard to make an ID from pictures, so I’m not going to say 100% it’s basalt, but I’m certainly leaning in that direction.

And some tips for cutting: Cutting very hard stones, and trying to cut too fast can glaze your blade. Basically, steel from the blade is dragged over the top of the diamonds, which greatly reduces their effectiveness. You can deglaze the blade by cutting a silicon carbide sharpening stone or old grinding wheel. This WILL accelerate wear, but will actually make the blade last longer. 

Thanks for the tip! I'll definitely try deglazing.  The powder was a distinct blue, but I'll put my money on basalt too.  I'll still get an xrf, I have another to get looked at as well.  Any clue yet on the white one?  I'm about to turn a cut slab into a set of dice

[Sonja 3]

On 9/19/2019 at 11:32 AM, chrisski said:

I look at the first picture and I can't stop thinking of fruit cake or olive loaf.

Me too!! 🥮

[Jake7291 19]

So I think I finally figured out what the white one is, Montana Moss Agate.  After days of scouring around the internet I found a rock tumbling website that had an extensive list of stones.  I saw a piece that was similar to a polished piece of mine and it led me to search for the raw form.  I believe this is it, what do you all think?

[Jake7291 19]

Here's the comparison of my stone, I may be wrong now that I look closer

Edited September 22, 2019 by Jake7291

[Morlock 1,320]

Name it whatever you wish. Everyone else does. 

[Jake7291 19]

5 minutes ago, Morlock said:

Name it whatever you wish. Everyone else does. 

What do you mean?  I thought agates had sub classes for different patterns. I'm going to try and slice it length wise today if the weather clears up, i'm curious to see if the spheres have a depth to them or at least a better pattern.

[d_day 253]

That doesn’t look at all like montana agate to me. On top of that, agate is very hard. It runs between 7 and 7.5 on the mohs hardness scale. If it were agate, it would have been much more difficult to cut than what you indicated. 

[Jake7291 19]

5 minutes ago, d_day said:

That doesn’t look at all like montana agate to me. On top of that, agate is very hard. It runs between 7 and 7.5 on the mohs hardness scale. If it were agate, it would have been much more difficult to cut than what you indicated. 

Good point, I didn't think about looking up the hardness.  I meant it was easier than the black one, still ten minutes per cut, black one takes about 15.  On the green dots I noticed that when I rubbed it with mineral oil it would leave color on my paper towel.  

[Jake7291 19]

I have another stone I found today, this one  perplexes me as well.  I don't want to become an irritating poster, and don't know which forum to post it to.  It weighs around 150 pounds and seems to be made of a black iron, it has obvious metallic nodules, and their color is more like steel compared to the rest. It also has a thin brown crust. I'll either start a new thread for it or just post it here. I'm getting excited again