North East Vic Agates

[Rivarat]

Went out for a search today to look for some local agates. Known to occur in glacial deposits.
I found a small deposit, and a few agates scattered through the patch. Small deposit only about 200 meters by 50 meters so I'll keep the spot to myself at the moment. Well I might take the brother in law and his son next time.

A few other rocks crept into the backpack (as they always do) were interesting but not strictly what I was after.

Had a great day first local agates (excluding Beechworth)

 

[ktmman]

Nice finds Rivarat, love fossicking for Agates.Do you cut them?

 

[Rivarat]

I've never had enough. But now I'll be looking to cut some into small slabs and polish maybe some cabs.

 

[Rivarat]

Cut a couple of open and gave them a rough polish to see what they were like.
The first was very plain on the outside and a little better on the inside.
The second a nice grey with hints of red and brown, interesting the healed fractures at the top.
a couple of other were nice small marble sized agates inside a crumbly / fractured agate mix like they had been re agatised.

I think I need a bigger saw most of them are >45mm where my little saw cuts to almost 35mm.

Well I needed an excuse to go out tomorrow, I'll have to find some smaller ones (don't you hate that)

 

[Rivarat]

I didn't do that well finding many smaller ones today. Most of them were bigger than the ones I found on Tuesday.
Heres a few pics of the day

Typical of the gravel bed that I'm wandering over, picking up likely stones and wiping with a damp cloth.

Spot the agate

 

[Colin&Lee]

Some great looking material there Rivarat. Would it be worth tumbling some of them up?

 

[Rivarat]

Thanks Colin & Lee I don't have a tumbler yet, but there maybe one on the way shortly. I was going to build one but a friend said that his father has one that he hasn't used for over 20 years. He is going to ask about it this weekend. So I decided that I may want some more to help fill the barrels if the tumbler finds a new home.
The largest of the day. just over 1.7kg probably pretty light coloring in the banding.
I think I'll just sit it on the shelf rather than break it up. Not a great photo but the top half is all brecciated agate

 

[AtomRat]

That's the biggest agate rock I've ever seen found Rivarat, that's cool as mate! Lots of nodules all over it! Do you have a chance of finding any with some blues or reds, or another color? I never got the chance to dig there, but I wasn't far from doing it. Mabey one day. I was interested in the beryl and ( possible ) uranium

 

[Rivarat]

They mainly seem to be yellows, greys, whites, black and some murky reds. Although I have one that is steely blue grey with yellow and white and I cut in half a brighter red quartzite today and it seems to be an agate couldn't tell from the outside I was just cutting some material down in the chance I get the tumbler.

 

[Easty]

They look very similar to the ones I found in Tassie!

 

[scottlucky]

interesting
I have found a fist size black and green one.

what do you end up doing with them?

scotty

 

[Rivarat]

I just stuck a load of them in my new (old robilt tumbler) they are a mix of small slabs, preformed shapes small and broken agates and quartzites.
Interesting about the black and green one Scotty.
I sliced up a couple of small nodules yesterday, one black and one green

The yellow/orange areas are translucent sliced at about 5 mm thick, shown wet off the saw.

The milky blue green areas show some depth into the stone but it is not translucent when held to the sun light also about 5mm thick

 

[silver]

That looks like an agatized skull Rivarat.

 

[Rivarat]

Had a few hours to spare today (while the wife's away, I will play)

There were a few agates but the grass has started to grow a bit and making them a little harder to find.
Picked up a couple of jaspers. Not many mixed up in all the rocks, or maybe that I have just not been looking for them.

A nice surprise reds orange and yellow, the outside was all red with a hint of yellow on one corner.

 

[Elusive]

Some really nice agates there Rivarat! My Mrs loves them, shes found quite a few about the north east area too, not as impressive as some of those though.
Love the orange one with white and pink!

Cheers,

Elusive

 

[Rivarat]

Finally got around to having a play with some of the rock I've been finding.
I've only done a few cabs before, done with about 120 wheel, then to 600 grit lap, sanded to 1200 then polished ? on felt. I forgot I even had some polish in a small bottle, don't know what it is but the part label looks to be Gamma polish
The special background is our old trailer (it needs a paint) but is was the only spot the was catching the last of the sun light

 

[Rivarat]

Another I did today

 

[Rivarat]

I've had some in the tumbler for a while now, with a few other bits. Maybe could have done a little longer in the polish but I got sick of waiting.