Rockwerks Lapidary Forum

Hello,

Here are some pictures of rocks that we are trying to identify. I have them broken down by color and where I found them.

This group are Blue stones that I think are Chalcedony. We found these near the Warshield Canyon area in Nevada. It is a real pale blue that does not seem to show up to well in picutes.

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Next are a group of red stones, I can not remember where we found these.

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Here are some brown stones that I believe might be Agate? I am not sure.

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I believe these are Selinite, or some sort of metamorphic rock. I found these in a desert wash. The largest is from a piece that was just Ooozin out of the side of the wash. There were layers of it.

[img][img]http://i263.photobucket.com/albums/ii150/epkinvegas/Selinite.jpg[/img][/img]

These are Lavender rocks that we found in an area that use to be known as the opal fields. This area is known for blue and lavender chalcedony, although I only found the lavender. It also is known for agates.

[img][img]http://i263.photobucket.com/albums/ii150/epkinvegas/Lavender.jpg[/img][/img]

Thank you for help in identifying these. I am real curious to see how close I was in my guesses with these stones. After we figure out what we have, the next question is how to work with them.

Thanks again for your kinds welcome and help with the identificaiton process.!

Eddie, Pam and Brenden

HI E,P, and B
Looks like you are pretty much right on the mark. Here are my guesses.
1 Blue Chalcedony
2 Possibly red Plume agate
3 Brown Jasper with agate? Nice looking stone
4 Selenite
5 Chalcedony Possibly another Plume agate?
They are all nice stones, those were my guesses, If I'm wrong I hope someone will correct me. Thanks for the picture. Let us know your ??? on working them, do you want slabs? Display pieces? Cabs? knowing that will help to figure out how to work it.
Thanks again,
Dan

I'm with Dan on all but #4. Not being sure what selenite is, I will just comment that I used to have a piece of stone almost identical to that, but it showed enough organic pattern to convince me that it was petrified wood. The white was very soft almost like a carbonate, and the dark was common opal, I think.

#5. The pieces on the right look a lot like pink limb casts.
Bob

Thanks for the great responses. Now that I have know what I have, I have been trying to figure out what I want to do with them.

I think for the Blue Chalcedony I just want to clean them up more - get the reminder of the "crud" off of them and polish them up. Same with the Brown Jasper and Agate.

The plum agate I think I would like to try to do a slab with it, the same with the red plum agate.

The selenite is tricky. I would like to get it cleaned up some more. It scratches real easy and breaks easy around the edges. It looks great with a light behind it, so I may try something real artsy with it. I've thought about trying to engrave on it, or perhaps decoupage? I have a couple of agates that have decoupage on them and the results were stunning - I did not do them.

Not sure about the rest yet.

Thanks again for the great responses!

Decoupage? Well I always seem to have to look up one word a day, and that was it. Looks interesting, if you try it you should take some pictures and show us what you did.