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Looking for crystals

After seeing the latest Gem and Mineral show I find my passion for interesting crystals and minerals is white hot. Here is a chance for you to do some rock collecting at interesting sites in your area, and trade for a nice assortment of CP! My main interest is in precious and semiprecious minerals especially with well formed crystals and I will give as good as I get. They don't have to be cutting quality, huge specimens, or museum grade. So, if you have anything you want to swap, PM me - I got rocks in the head folks!
 
is there Utrics on the trading list by chance...................hmmmmmmm big nuggets of Montana moss agates........nice lil garnets in matrix...........i need to get out to the badlands and gravelbars on the creeks
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Rattler
 
Tamlin,
I'm not sure if it was you who had posted about fossils awhile ago. I could trade you some fossils for CP's.
 
how 'bout a piece o' crytalized haematite I just got from australia, or some opals...I too have a fluctuating passion for stones!
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I usually buy my stones overseas since not many shops in singapore sell them, and the ones that do sell are at cuthroat prices. Same for the fossils...

In where did you see the 'rock' show Tamlin?

Jason

Ps. Is crytalized haematite rare? My brother's got a piece of magnetised haematite, or natural lodestone magnets, polished and moulded.
 
Jason. if you would be willing to send me a couple opals i will send you a nice nugget of raw Montana moss agate, it must be rare over in your neck of the woods.........pm me if your interested.

Rattler
 
i have an amethyst stone (purple quartz) its used to make rings and things like that, its looks really cool has different layers top later is rocky and purple then the next layer is white then the last layer is really thin and is just the rock where it was carved from. its about an inch thick 1 and a half across and 3 inches long. it weights about 2-3 pounds. what can i get with that?
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Jason,

LOL, international shipping and restrictions are a bit steep for this sort of trade, but thanks for the offer. The show was in another larger city near to me home. It's an annual affair, and it is a huge show. Some of the prices on specimens are in the multi-thousands of dollars. It is so neat to be able to see such stones. The best exhibit was of aquamarine crystals from Pakistan, but that was another show. There were pale blue transparent crystals the size of Coke cans and the matrix was wafer layered calcite and other goodies. It was a boulder!
 
Tamlin,
Have you been to the Mianis (sp?) River Gorge in CT? They have a large mica deposit there....may have even been a mine at one point...I remember picking up cornflake sized pieces of it and BIGGER there when I was a kid.
 
Dave,
I have never hounded in CT.

At Power's Farm here in NY I was digging out mica crystals big as your palm and 4 inches thick! I found a great Topaz xtal there, and some very good Rutile xtals. Like so many other cool spots this is now closed to collecting.
 
  • #10
Yeah, we weren't allowed to take any home, either.

You ever grow your own crystal? Not exactly a gemstone, but it's cool to see them form nonetheless.
 
  • #11
I have grown some different xtals....alum is pretty neat. I was working on Halite too but it took too long. My attention span as a kid was measured in nanoseconds.
 
  • #12
[b said:
Quote[/b] ]My attention span as a kid was measured in nanoseconds.

Ha! And now you grow plants that take for freakin' ever to do anything! My how we change....
 
  • #14
You have to make a supersaturated solution by dissolving the specific chemical in water. A string is suspended with a single seed crystal on the end of the form you want to make. As the solution cools, the water can no longer hold all the salt in solution, and it gets elecrtochemicaly deposited on this seed crystal. Over time, the molecules stack up into the typical crystal form. It takes a lot of time to produce a good sized specimen.

Yeah Schloaty I have changed a lot since I was 9. I have a lot of patience now that the rust has set in.
 
  • #15
[b said:
Quote[/b] ]My attention span as a kid was measured in nanoseconds.

LOLZ
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I have heard of growing crytals b4 though...off to Toy'S rus!
 
  • #16
Man, I'm getting so jelous of ya'll finding gemstones on your doorsteps...
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Rattler, sorry, I forgot to mention that the opals were raw stones, not yet cut and polished, still engraved in rock. Some are boulder opals...

Jason
 
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