Sneaky Gems.

[SneakyCuttlefish]

Probably in someones private collection now Dihusky. There is a recent story floating around of a significant find of excellent crystals coming out of an Emuford mine up here.

I'd love to know where they are going also!

In my opinion the mount gibson area has been hardly explored for topaz. Im convinced there are some big veins to find up that way. Really good yellows come out of there and they fluoresce a bright pink. Bit hard to find clean stones though. They often have a lot of bubbles or cracks in them. Indicative of a lot of shaking whilst they were forming.

 

[Lefty]

I've never missed the opportunity to visit Mount Gibson whenever we visit the in-laws in Atherton - but although the track in off the highway is only 6km long, it definately isn't for the faint-hearted!! :argh: :argh: :argh:

 

[SneakyCuttlefish]

HI Wally. Missed you post. I've actually ordered a vibrating tumbler to do exactly that. Unfortunately it appears to be stuck south of Townsville due to the flood waters.

I'll be tumbling each kg of topaz as I acquire it. Should make cutting easier too as i don't have to spend a great deal of time looking for flaws.

 

[Wally69]

HI Wally. Missed you post. I've actually ordered a vibrating tumbler to do exactly that. Unfortunately it appears to be stuck south of Townsville due to the flood waters.

I'll be tumbling each kg of topaz as I acquire it. Should make cutting easier too as i don't have to spend a great deal of time looking for flaws.

A couple of metres of rain will do that SC.

Just picked up a second hand one myself after my brother tumbled our jellybean quartz and river tumbled points bucket and he discovered a couple of nice topaz had escaped our notice. Keen to go through the polished ones to see if there was any golden citrine hiding under the river washed surface.

Threw in some bomb zircons and garnets into mine to see how it went, it definitely improves the ability to quickly assess them for cuttable sections. I recon it will be great for frosty topaz.

Keen to see another line-up once you give it a crack. I havent found a dark coloured topaz yet and your story has me intrigued. :inlove:

 

[SneakyCuttlefish]

I was going through some old footage and found a short clip from a trip out a few years ago. 157 carat Topaz specked straight off the surface.

I had been hiking the rivers after some heavy rain. This find was about 6 hours in and I has pretty exhausted so you'll have to excuse the french. I never intended to publish but it was a great little find so I'll leave it up for a few weeks.

Filmed on a Garmin Virb XE action camera. Excellent little camera and comes with video editing software for colour adjustment and HD. Sadly my old laptop can't run it very well.

[video=480,360]https://youtu.be/3XeuHi0BJ2Q[/video]

 

[Lefty]

Definately is an effing humdinger there SC :lol: Did you get round to faceting it yet?

 

[Firepanther]

Damn thats an awesome find. Was thinking of investing in a pair of sunglasses with camera for this type of thing. I would of used a bit more French though

 

[SneakyCuttlefish]

Nah Lefty. I haven't faceted that one. Its a bit bomby inside. Its possible to get a good stone out of it but it'll only be around 15 carats. I'll probably throw it in the tumbler and polish it up though.

I'd definitely recommend the Garmin and a chest harness firepanther. It measure geometrics as you go as well and the video editing software allows you to insert the data into the footage. So for example if you take it skydiving or mountain biking it will record the location, altitude, speed, air pressure, temp etc. and its fully water proof without needing another case to put it in.