Well I'm really excited about this box of
rocks. I have before and after
pictures of all these.
These are from the eastern U.P.
in Lake Superior.
These are from last summer.
My neighbor Sam and I went up
camping for a few days and picked rocks
for the whole time and
this is what we have.
It's been awhile getting them done
but I finally got around to
getting them done
and all the pictures taken
so let's dig in and take a look at them.
Ok, let's start with this one.
When I picked this up,
I thought it was unakite,
kind of a weird looking unakite
but that's what I thought it was.
And as you can see, it's undercut
all over the place,
and unakite doesn't usually do that.
So I don't think this is unakite anymore
I don't know what it is.
It didn't take a great polish.
It's a cool looking rock, it just didn't
polish as nice as
I would have liked it to.
Next up we have another rock that
I'm not too impressed with.
I guess this must have looked better
before it was polished because it's just
not all that cool. Not a very good shine
on it, not all that interesting.
And then we've got yet another rock that's
got undercutting. You can see it right
down in there.
But at least it's got some better colors
in it, kind of a Christmas theme
going on there.
It looks a little bit better on the back.
So I'm doing these in order from largest
to smallest. So if you're wondering why
I'm doing them in this order,
that's why.
I often pick up these rocks up in
Lake Superior, and I never know
what they are exactly.
They seem to have a little bit of metallic
kind of thing going on right where
that glare is there. But I really don't
know what this rock is. I've always
wondered and never found anybody
who could tell me for sure what it is.
Kind of cool.
A lot of time it has kind of a soft layer
in it. This one doesn't. It's got some
cracks but no soft spots like some
of them do.
Then we've got a green and white rock.
Not sure exactly what kind that is.
It polished up real nicely though.
Another green rock for you.
I guess that one's unakite.
It's got some nice colors in it.
I believe this one's banded chert.
Not the really nice, crisp bands you see
sometimes but I like it anyhow.
I just like patterns in rocks,
and that's got some good ones.
Good shine too.
This rock kind of looked like sandstone
when I picked it up, but it looked like
it had a much finer grain than sandstone
But it's got kind of the coloration
of sandstone.
And the pattern on there looks like some
sandstones, but I decided to give it a try
anyhow. It didn't polish up really great.
You might recognize this one and actually
a few of these were in a tumbling video
I did showing how to beach rocks, and
I used the National Geographic tumbler.
So this did not shine up quite as well
in the National Geographic tumbler.
That's a really fast tumbler
and I get better results from my Lot-O
tumbler. So I ran this back through the
last couple of stages. That whole batch
ran through the Lot-O tumbler
after I made that video. You'll see
a couple of them over again,
but they'll have a better shine on them.
This is another kind of granitey looking
rock or maybe gneiss. Gneiss with a G.
Not sure exactly. Looks to be a lot
of quartz in it anyhow. Nice shine
Nice colors. Cool rock.
And if I had to guess, I'd guess
this is some sort of a jasper.
Then we've got another chert.
I like the color of this one.
Most chert I pick up is gray.
Up in Lake Superior it tends to be
more this color,
whatever colors you call that.
On Lake Huron, it tends to be
more gray.
But I really like the bands in that.
I'm not sure what kind of rock that is.
And this one is epidote.
Love that stuff.
I like the green of epidote.
That's a pretty one.
This appears to be some sort
of jasper also.
Actually, I don't know if it's
jasper or not. I say it's jasper based on
the color more than anything,
which geologists tell me I'm not supposed
to do that, but I do it anyhow.
Very, very shiny.
I'm not sure what motivated me
to pick this rock up.
It's shiny, but kind of boring.
I mean it's not awful but
there were probably prettier ones that
I could have picked up.
The ones you hear plop into the water
as I'm on the beach
and then people are upset with me.
I should have picked up
one of those instead.
Maybe unakite, but a very
unusual one if it is.
I just like the subtle difference
in colors there.
Ok, on the slide show that
you're seeing over there to the left
I did my best to match up the rocks,
but I have actually two white quartz.
I have one right after this
that I'm not 100% sure.
They all look the same.
The shape changes a little bit
when you tumble them.
So that might be the right rock,
it might not.
Same thing with this one.
I like this one.
And this one just has some
kind of, I think they're
a little bit translucent parts there
the parts that aren't quite as green.
Nice shade of green.
Got a three color rock here.
And that I would guess is mostly
quartz, but lots of color in it.
So when I can pick up a rock like this
why do a pick up a rock like this?
I don't know.
Something must have grabbed
my attention about it while
I was on the beach.
This is a fracture around there.
You can see I probably should have
chipped that whole part off but then
the rock gets so small if you do that
that I just left it.
Kind of a subtle banding in that one.
See that little kind of brownish
line there?
I'm guessing that's a jasper.
Alright this is the one I'm least
sure about the picture.
It doesn't look exactly the same but
I had all the Michigan rocks kind of
separated and I couldn't find
anything else that was quite as yellow.
So this may or may not be
the same in the before and after
pictures.
Pretty. Pretty shiny.
That one almost looks agatey.
But I don't think it's an agate.
I like this part in this one.
I just like that little, uh, I don't know
what you call that...
Stripy thing.
And another piece of kind of clear,
clear-ish quartz.
Kind of see my finger behind there.
It's a little guy, but it's very shiny
and I like the translucency.
Ok, click on one of the videos here and
you can see where I picked up these rocks
last summer.
It's a beautiful part of the state,
and I think you'll enjoy the videos.