Hey everyone, welcome to this week's box of rocks
there's some really cool stuff in here, really excited about this batch
there's some things that I have never tumbled before, and therefore have
never shown you before
because it's new to both of us
these are from several different Michigan beaches, and I'll show you a little glimpse
of each beach as we go through these
and I even have before and after pictures of all of them
so let's get started
okay, this first set of rocks is from Vermillion Point, which is in the eastern UP
I went there with my wife Nancy
and we found some neat stuff, it was a really rough day that day if I remember
correctly
so this first one has lots of fractures, but it's still a really cool rock, it's
almost like a moss agate
it's kind of neat how you can kind of see down into it a little bit
not sure what that is
I'd say quartz, but I don't know what the inclusions are
pretty cool looking though
kind of undercut a little bit on the black parts, but it's still a really neat rock
this one, I remember Nancy finding it, and it looked like an eyeball
like an eyeball
but I tumbled the pupil right off of it
there was a black dot right in the middle there
guess you'll see it in the pictures to the left there
it's green, don't know what else to say about that one either
not a super interesting rock, I think I just like the
that it's a little bit translucent there
you can't really see through it, but
kind of interesting material
I like that one, it's plain
kind of, but
it's got that
kind of subtle banding inside
just quartz I believe
really shined up nice
show you the glare
this one
I think I've got the right before picture, but if I do it really changed color a lot
so this
it's just sort of black back here, but
I think that's a thin layer of agate on there
sometimes you'll find it where it's like a seam agate, and it's broken along
the seam
so I thought I'd try tumbling one up
so if you ever wonder what one of those looks like
now you know
and then there's the ones with the stripes
so I never know if that black stuff's going to shine up very well, I'm not
even sure what that is
but it looks
pretty good
not as good as some other rocks, but not bad
call that the oreo rock, I guess
alright, and this one's banded iron
formation
that's jasper and hematite
jasper would be the red and hematite's the silver part there
see through that one a little bit
oops
here's another one that looks sort of agate-y
on this part, but not
not really
maybe an agate, or a "magate", as I call them
lot of quartz
a lot of agates have quartz in the middle too, so I don't know
looks a little bit metallic right through the middle there
that's just quartz
little tiny one
alright, new beach
this is Point Iroquois
with the lighthouse, and I got a really bad case of swimmer's itch here
I remember this really really clearly
that was not fun afterwards
but we found some cool rocks too
so that one's neat, I just love that squiggly line on there
took a pretty good shine too
I like that one
okay, this next one
is probably the pinkest rock I've ever picked up
it did not tumble well, you can see it's undercut all over the place, but look
how pink that is
back here is better
so
it's not a great tumble job on it
I guess I could try doing a better job on my
on my
cab machine
or maybe even if it shines up really well on the cab machine I could cut
a little slab off the back there and make a
a pink pendant
kind of cool
and that same day
I got this pink rock, now this one seems to be quartz
and it's not nearly as pink, but it still has a pink hue to it
we don't get a lot of real pink rocks around here, so
those catch my eye when I see them
green is the other color that catches my eye, and this is
granite-y, you can see those black parts, that's always the bad part in a granite
type of a rock
but they've undercut a little bit
but it's an interesting color of green, so it's kind of fun
so on a rock like this
I always wonder if it's going to tumble, and
that black, all the black parts are kind of dented in a little bit
so they're wearing away faster in the water here, so in the tumbler they'll
do the same thing, that's called undercutting, when one mineral is
softer than the other and wears away quicker
so, although I really like that color
I don't think that would tumble well at all
this appears to be like a
maybe a brecciated
unakite
and then there's this one
kind of has some agate qualities
but I wouldn't call it an agate
alright, new location
this one, this is from Marquette
my sister lives in Marquette, and one of my other sisters from Florida was
visiting, so I had
two sisters and my wife with me this day
and there were a lot of these rocks that looked
they also had an agate-like quality
but
certainly not an agate, took a lot of tumbling to get this to look this good
lots of undercutting
I took this just because I was curious how it would tumble
sometimes I have no idea how a rock is going to tumble, and the best way to find
out is to just bring one home and try it, so
I will not be bringing any more of this home
alright, next one
probably my favorite out of this whole batch, well one of my favorites, I've got
a couple others
also found in Marquette, can you guess what it is?
I believe that is slag glass
from iron smelting
a long time ago, there was a lot of slag in the area
and this was the coolest piece by far
really neat swirls and stuff in there, it tumbled great
I just tumbled this the way I do other rocks, I've had some people ask me how
to tumble slag
and normally I would do it like glass, or like obsidian
but this was just in with a regular batch, it went through my rotary tumbler
and then went to the Lot-O tumbler
for a week in the Lot-O, and it
just mixed in with other rocks, it came out like that
and speaking of glass
I picked this up from that same beach
it's this multicolored glass, and I thought it'd look cool tumbled, and it does
very very cool
once again, just in with the rest of these rocks
all mixed up, nothing special, and you can see it's really really shiny
here's another piece of slag glass I believe
and then a little stripey guy with speckles
those speckles I think are mostly undercutting, but
kind of look cool
another piece of slag
you may have heard of Leland Blue, that's the very famous slag, but
I'd say the stuff in Marquette has
has some potential to make stuff out of too
woops, sorry
alright, here's something you don't see very often
this is an agate that my wife picked up
and usually I don't tumble agates, but I think I threw this one in accidentally
and it's pretty cool
I don't tumble agates just because they're so hard to find and they're so small
that I hate to wear them away, and I kind of like them just the way they are
naturally
I'll tumble other people's agates, but I don't tumble my own agate finds
just because where I hunt they're so so hard to find
I think this is banded iron again
hopefully you can see the stripes in there there's some really nice stripes
and
another piece of slag
little one
but not as little as this guy, this one really looks like Leland Blue to me
which is why I tumbled it
alright, next location is
a place in Lake Michigan, and somebody told me about this beach and asked me not
to share it on YouTube, so
I'm just going to say it's on Lake Michigan
you don't get anything more specific than that, but
picked up a lot of these fossils, these first three, and then there's one later
are some sort of fossil I find on the beach there
there was a lot of this stuff, and I was really curious if it would tumble
and it tumbles great
this is not
your typical like soft limestone fossil, this is very hard
here's another one, I was really hesitant to tumble this because
all those little holes in there, so I had to be careful to clean those out
really well
a whole bunch of people have suggested I use a waterpik
or an ultrasonic tumbler, or an ultrasonic cleaner I mean
to wash out the holes
I did read once that the ultrasonic cleaners can crack a rock sometimes
I've never tried one
and the um
the waterpik idea is a good idea, I just
I don't need one more thing cluttering up the basement, so usually when I
tumble things I don't have the little holes, once in a while if I have to scrub
one out it's not that big of deal
there's a little crystal vug there
and here's another one of these fossils
they've got a great shine on them
and then that
seems to be a red quartz
I don't think it's jasper
a little too translucent to be jasper I think
and then we've got
another one of these fossils
and you know I love banded chert
that's a very nice banded chert
I like all the different colors in it
I mean they're all kind of tan colors, but
enough different shades to make it interesting
this is more of that fossil material
kind of has a bad spot on the end there but
a lot of people think that makes rocks more interesting, so
there's the interesting part
and a nice little banded chert
pretty little green rock
and this one
really small, and that is not a hole in there, that's just really clear
quartz I guess, right there, you can see
you see it doesn't actually go down in there, but it looks like it goes down in
there's a little
kind of an eye back there
and one more little tiny one
another banded iron formation, that's really pretty even though it's
tiny
if you missed any of the videos where I picked these rocks up you missed some
good stuff, so I've got links to all the different beaches right here, so
click on one of those and I'll see you over there
(waves lapping)