Rock Finds

We have been away in Idaho for a couple of weeks and while I was there, like I do everywhere, I looked for rocks. Its always exciting to find cool rocks yourself, especially when you can't afford to buy them from anyone else. I was able to find quite a few really nice ones that should help to keep the tumbler busy for a while.

I found these at a family reunion in Pine Idaho. These are not for tumbling, they are really interesting just the way they are. I think they are mostly quartz but they have that cool silvery stuff in them which I think is mica.

I found lots of rocks like these in Pine. I think they are quartz and at the reunion I was trying to find a piece of glass to scratch with them to get some idea of how hard they are. I also wanted to rule out the possibility that they were really just white marble which is too soft for tumbling. I wasn't able to find any broken glass or anything so when my wife wasn't looking I used one of the baby's bottles. They scratch glass quite easily so I'm pretty sure that this is quartz.

I also found some granite (I think). The pink granite is from Pine and the black is from Blackfoot. Most people don't bother tumbling granite because it is a bit on the soft side but I can't ever seem to say no to an interesting looking rock and beggars can't be choosers as they saying goes. I'm going to try it with a fifth stage (1000 grit aluminum oxide, if I can get it).

These are some more interesting rocks I found in my parent's back yard in Blackfoot. I really have no idea what they are (I really don't know much about rocks or identifying them) if any one does, let me know. I can't scratch them with the quartz so they should be hard enough to tumble.

I also found a bit of obsidian. I was especially excited to find some that was a greenish blue. I've never seen any but the black or the snow flake varieties. I was really excited. I'm going to wait a while to tumble this. I understand that obsidian is fairly difficult to tumble well so I'm going to practice for a bit first.

Here's a close up of one of the pretty green ones.

So that wraps up of the trip. Be sure to click on the pictures to see them their full sizes. If any of you know what these rocks actually are or have any tips on how to tumble them leave a comment.