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poo poo these look very similar to some mystery rocks in my collection that seemed too plastic and fake feeling to be actual rocks, I'll have to reevaluate them. Though I would not be suprised if they were fake given the source. To make a long story short I had an aunt that got in way too deep on some cable gem shopping channel in the late 90s and gave me some rocks for Christmas. Which was nice as I was super into rocks, but she had lost the invoice and didn't remember what rock was what. So she covered for this by telling me that I could "just identify them, you should be able to, it'll be a fun challenge!" Ten year old Turbinosamente could not identify them. Fast forward to now, when adult me gets a bright idea to organize the old rock collection, make it more accessible to look at rather than keeping it in boxes in the basement, and cull inferior and duplicate specimens. Google and the internet has helped quite a bit, but there are still some problem pieces I can't pin down an ID on, so I hope no one minds if I post some things I need help with. I also promise to post some actual rock hound finds, so glad to have been able to identify some honeycomb coral fossils I've had for 20+ years with the internet! And yes, I am suspicious of the selenite and other poo poo from some 90s cable shopping channel as there's things like a trilobite who's head is clearly carved to complete a fossilized butt, and the citrine l have now looks suspiciously like heated amethyst: more brown than orange. Really makes me suspicious of the whole lot from my aunt.
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Oct 10, 2023 19:16
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| # ¿ May 21, 2024 06:27 |
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FEMA summer camp posted:
It's been a couple of chaotic days but here comes an image dump of some of the unidentified shopping network rocks. I'm starting with the ones that have been bugging me the most for decades at this point. First a confirmation, is this just some sort of milky or cloud quartz cluster? is it anything more special than just quartz? It's also been hilariously misidentified for years as illinois flourite by kid me.   This one has been pissing me off for years because it has always looked fake to me: as in the green crystal bubbles always looked like an induced chemical reaction instead of something naturally occurring. if it is natural I assume the bubbles are the reason this rock would have been advertised for sale on cable television.      The next few groups are the same rocks shown on both white and black backgrounds to help visiblity. Starting with this pair:   Which I am not sure if it belongs with this other group of more transparent orange chunks:   And finally for this section I think this group of white and clear stones is probably a couple of different types that have gotten jumbled together over the years.   Back to single rock images there's this purple and white rock that might be on the softer side? I don't have any official hardness testing things rounded up yet. Also it is from a shameful period in which kid me called anything exhibiting any sort of vague banding as banded gneiss.   and the last for this round of ID request is this that I don't remember having at all, but is neat.  Now I promised some actual rock hound pics so here's two. Starting with my best piece of honeycomb coral I found in a neighbor's garden as a kid. I have a couple others from the beach, but they show the creature from the side where it looks more like a small net.  And this big old rock with three very visible chunks of crinoid arms, picked up along the southern edge of Lake Ontario.    Google tells me New York State is lousy with Devonian era marine fossils. Apparently there is also a pay to dig place south of Buffalo called the Penn Dixie fossil park where you can get them, but their season is almost over for this year, so maybe I'll try it next summer. It's the site of an old quarry which is what I'm assuming brought so many fossils up to the surface for easier picking.
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Oct 12, 2023 01:44
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Thanks for the ID help so far guys, gives me a lot more possibilities to google. So far I did dig up some picture frame glass and the quartz cluster did indeed easily scratch it, now that's triple confirmed and I'll scrub off the fluorite too. I'm also thinking My Second Rereg is correct that the one group of orange rocks that cleaves like glass is indeed glass. As far as I know there is no type of obsidian that is that shade of orange and some of the planes have a little ripple texture in them that catches the light which iirc is a sign of slag glass. I'm going to strike them from the collection and yeet them into the bin since this stuff appears to be sold as landscape glass for like $20 a pound. I'm also not surprised that something "fake" turned up either as my aunt was quite fond of scams, usually as the perpetrator but she fell for investing in gems hook line and sinker, swearing that all the stuff she bought would make her millions one day, and that the sellers she got them from didn't know what they had, they were totally undervalued etc, etc. Speaking of suspect stuff from the aunt's shopping channel addiction, what do you all think of this trilobite?    It's obvious the head is a poor carving of the rock the fossil is embedded into, and that assumes that what's there is even real and it was done to complete a damaged specimen. It also looks faker and faker every time I look at it, especially compared to my only other trilobite from an estate sale:  Which I'm leaning towards being a better example even though half of it is missing and it's an impression type of fossil. The questions I have about this situation are as follows: is the brown blob trilobite partially or totally fake? Would you even bother to keep it in your collection if you had it? And if not is it even worth giving to a 10 year old? I had planned to give my excess rocks to my boyfriend's nephew as he's just getting into it, and I would rather not knowingly give him fake garbage. Bonus mystery rock, is it yet another variety of quartz? It has that prism shape halfway embedded on one side.    edit: gently caress may have stumbled onto this one myself, ferruginous quartz maybe? Turbinosamente fucked around with this message at 00:08 on Oct 13, 2023 |
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Oct 12, 2023 23:11
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At the moment I've had to hurriedly pack away my collection for now, but how do you guys keep your collections? Just on a shelf or in a cabinet? I got nicer trays for the smaller stuff but need solutions for the bigger stuff. The answer I don't want to face is the prospect of cleaning off a shelf for them since I don't have a spot for the stuff on the shelf.
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Nov 8, 2023 20:16
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ohhyeah posted:They did go, and based on the pictures it looked like the coolest trip ever. The Grand Canyon was almost underwhelming because they saw a dozen other treasures in Utah before then? When I see them at thanksgiving I’ll have to ask what souvenirs they picked up. I've heard that Bryce Canyon is better/prettier than the Grand Canyon, but idk how true that rumor is, I'm not widely traveled enough to know. And thus far in organization land I've put my trays in a drawer and shoe horned a couple pieces on to my shelf of crap, but there's definitely too much crammed in there. At least the best part of my collection is accessible for viewing now.
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Nov 10, 2023 14:44
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