Treasure Hunting

Well, this might seem a little off topic, but I wanted to take a break and write about my new DSLR camera. It’s not completely unrelated, though, because you’re going to want a decent camera to take with you when you’re out on collecting trips. Not only do you want to be able to take pictures of the scenery surrounding wherever you’re visiting, but there are a lot of other things that you’re going to want to record visually. When you find that great new bed of rock that’s housing a nice big pocket of amethyst quartz, you just have to take a picture of it.

There are a lot of digital cameras on the market, and more are emerging everyday. I think it’s important to be willing to invest a little extra money in a good digital camera rather than a cheap one, so I’ve done a ton of research recently on the topic. I can be pretty lazy so I wanted something that I didn’t have to spend ages trying to master yet something that would also take great photos. After narrowing it down to the Sony line, I ended up with the Sony DSLR-A300.

This camera is definitely marketed towards those who have never used a DSLR before. It’s incredibly easy to use. If you want, you can just put it on automatic and shoot away. But if you want more versatility, it has that too. I’m learning more and more about its capabilities everyday, and I don’t think I’ve even scratched the surface.

My favorite feature is the tiltable viewing screen. For a lot of the photos I take, I hold the camera pretty far away from my face - either high in the air or off to the side depending on what I am trying to shoot. With other cameras, it was mostly luck if I managed to get a decent shot. Now, with the Sony A300, I can actually see what I’m taking a picture of when I do this.   It’s like a whole new world.

If you’ve always wanted to go gem hunting for opals, you’ll have lots of places to choose from in Nevada’s Virgin Valley.  In addition to the numerous small privately-owned mines in that area, there are several places that offer fee mining opportunities.  These include digging through tailings piles as well as getting out there and digging in fresh areas.  Take a look at this article for some more details or see our Nevada page for a list of some of these Nevada opal mines.

Not too far away from this area of Nevada is the Juniper Ridge Opal Mine in Oregon.  Juniper Ridge does have a restriction that you can only carry out a gallon bucket full of opals for the initial $200 digging fee.  However, if you do find more that you want to keep, you can do so for an extra charge.  A gallon bucket full of opals is a lot of opals, though!  The mine is located between Klamath Falls and Lakeview in Oregon.  They do have a very limited capacity so reservations are necessary.  Crater Lake isn’t too far away from this locale so this would be a great activity to incorporate into a longer trip to Oregon.

I’m always looking for more places to add to the Fee Digs and Fee Mining page (both fee and free) so if you have any suggestions, please let me know.  I have a few that I will get added to the list during this week - they are free sites and I am trying to get some better maps before posting them since they’re out in the middle of nowhere.  There’s nothing more frustrating than hearing about a new place to go gem hunting and then have no idea how to get there!

Ever wonder why there were so many ghost towns out west, especially in California, Arizona, and Nevada?  A lot of these places are old mining towns that were abandoned when the mines ran dry.  Some of these towns have been recreated to give visitors a feel of what it was like to live in the Old West.  Places like that can be fun to visit, especially if you have children, but I much prefer the ghost towns that have been left alone and abandoned. 

The site Ghost Towns and History of the American West keeps very detailed lists of ghost towns that fit both these categories, abandoned and reconstructed.  One huge plus that I love about this site other than the maps is that it provides information on best time of year to visit, what kind of vehicle you need to get there (if you need 4WD or not), and the state of decay of the location.  Their list for California is so comprehensive that it’s been broken down into two subcategories - Northern California and Southern California.  Within each of those categories, you can choose to view the listings by county.  This is particularly nice if you’re planning a trip and want to try to hit several ghost towns in California that are fairly close together.  There are also some great photographs there for several of the ghost towns - these will give you a feel for if that location is a place that you’d like to visit.

If you’re planning on doing a little treasure hunting during your ghost town explorations, make sure you find out if the site has been designated a national park or historic area first.  While it might be okay to pick up a rock or two at such a place, you won’t be able to do much else.  These areas are protected by the government and a high emphasis is placed on preservation.  So, if your plan for visiting ghost towns is to look for interesting souvenirs, you’re much better off looking for those that are off the beaten path.  

Although geodes are found all over the world, a region surrounding the area of Keokuk, Iowa is considered by many to be the “Geode Capital of the World”. In fact, this area is so productive and famous among mineral collectors, that Iowa adopted the geode as the state rock in 1967. But what exactly is a geode anyway and what makes Keokuk geodes so special?

Basically, a geode is a rock formation that has a cavity which contains crystal formations and/or some type of banding. The photograph to the left, taken by Daniel Milaczewski and hosted at Wikimedia Commons, is a nice capture of a geode. Don’t let the picture fool you though - geodes can be found with a wide array of coloring and banding depending on what part of the world they are found. In fact, Keokuk geodes alone display an amazing variety of colors, natural bandings, and sizes. This website contains a number of photographs of Keokuk geodes in addition to a plethora of other information on the natural wonder.

While most geodes found are around the size of tennis balls, there are some notable exceptions. The photograph to the right is of a large geode on display in Carefree, Arizona. The glittering quartz inside almost makes it look like it was a secret hideaway for some pirate treasure trove. But really, all that crystal is attached to the interior of the rock cavity and formed naturally.

Typically, collectors cut geodes open so that the cross-section displays the unique banding and crystal formations found in the hollow of the rock. A “matching set” consisting of a geode that has been cut in half can have the flat sides where the cut was made polished. The resulting two pieces can then be used as a unique set of bookends or simply shown off as a decorative accent.

I received an email today from someone asking about the various types of grit for a rock tumbler.  The type of grit you use can make a huge difference in your final polished stones, so I thought I would write up a little more about the various choices.

First, before going into the specific choices, there are some general things about rock tumbler abrasives that are important to know.  Although the abrasives used in rock tumbling are commonly called “grit”, the term grit actually refers to the size of the grains in the abrasive.  So, just like with sandpaper, the smaller the number for the grit, the more coarse the grains.  For example, Silicon Carbide 120/220 includes grains that are between 120 and 220 grit.

When using a rock tumbler, you go through a series of cycles starting with a coarser grit and moving towards a finer grit.  A coarser grit does a heavier grinding and sanding of the stones than a finer ones.  The finest grits are reserved for the polishing stages of the rock tumbling process.

Silicon Carbide - This abrasive is a compound formed from silicon and carbon.  Although it can be found naturally, it is usually man-made.  Various grit sizes of silicon carbide are basics for any rock tumbling project.  It ranks around a 9 on the Mohs scale of hardness, so it is effective as a grinding and sanding agent on most stones.  If you’re putting corundum (rubies and sapphires) in your rock tumbler, you should check into a different substance because you want your grinding and sanding grit to have a higher hardness rating than the materials you are tumbling.  However, in general, silicon carbide does a great job on other materials.

Boron Carbide - Composed of boron and carbon, this abrasive has a hardness of about 9.3 on the Mohs scale.  It acts very similar to silicon carbide, but it is much more effective if you’re tumbling corundum.  You could certainly use it in place of silicon carbide on stones other than corundum, but you’d be spending a lot more money.  Boron carbide can cost up to 10 times more than silicon carbide.  It’s also quite a bit messier to use so I definitely recommend only using it when you absolutely need it.  In fact, if you’re new to using a rock tumbler, you might want to stay away from corundum altogether for awhile and practice on other stones that are easier to polish.

Aluminum Oxide - This compound composed of aluminum and oxygen also has a hardness of about 9 on the Mohs scale.  It is most commonly used as a pre-polish and polish because of its availability in finer grain sizes.  Although it may not be the absolute best polishing agent for all material types, aluminum oxide makes up for that by being a good all-purpose polishing grit.  If you are putting a lot of mixed loads in your rock tumbler or if you just want to purchase one general compound for polishing, this is the one you want to get.

Cerium Oxide - This abrasive is reserved as a choice for a polishing agent.  It works best on stones in the 5-7 hardness range.  It’s also a good choice if you’re polishing glass pieces in your rock tumbler.  Cerium oxide gives a beautiful polish to quartz.

Chrome Oxide - This substance is another that can be used in the polishing cycle of rock tumbling.  It’s generally reserved for softer stones with deeper colors such as jade and lapis lazuli.  

So, if you’re just starting out, what are the best choices to get for rock tumbling grit?  I would recommend getting three types of Silicon Carbide (60/90 grit, 120/220 grit, and 500 grit) for the grinding and sanding cycles, Aluminum Oxide 1000 grit for the pre-polish cycle, and Aluminum Oxide Polish for your final polishing stage.  As you practice more and want to do some additional experimentation, you can try out some of the other polishing agents.

If you’ve recently found an old bottle, probably one of the biggest questions in your mind concerns how much the bottle is worth. Even if you haven’t found anything yet, but are thinking about going out looking for old bottles, knowing what bottles are worth can help you decide if the endeavor is worth your time. As with most collectibles, the worth of an antique bottle can fluctuate quite a bit depending upon the condition, rarity, and demand. Some antique bottle specimens continue to increase in value as time passes and others jump around in worth a lot. Just like with anything else, the worth of the bottle depends on what people are willing to pay.

If you want to know the current value of an antique bottle, one good place to check is eBay. Searching through the listings of recently sold items can give a great idea on what the going rate is on any particular bottle. For those that have little experience with eBay, I’ll give some hints on how you can use the search tools there to get an idea of how much your antique bottle is worth.

First off, to get the most out of the search tools at eBay, you need to have an account there. Before you start pulling out your hair and looking for some other way to appraise your antique bottle, stop a moment. Creating an account at eBay isn’t as bad as you think, and you do NOT have to provide any financial information to create a simple account. All you have to do is provide basic address and email information. It only takes a couple of minutes and it’s well worth it just to search the listings completely. The only time you will need to provide any form of financial information is if you intend to buy or sell or item. So, if you don’t have an eBay account yet, you can create one in just a couple of minutes here. Remember to keep this page open while you’re doing so. That way, you can see the rest of the steps you have to take to search for the value of your antique bottle.

Once you’ve created your eBay account or signed into your already existing account, go to the search page at this link. Now, so that we have an example to work from, let’s suppose that you have an old amber coca-cola bottle and you want to figure out how much it’s worth. Click on the picture below to see a bigger version of the screen.

To search for this on eBay, enter the information as we did in this screenshot. Don’t forget to check the boxes in front of the options “Search title and description” and “Completed listings only” so that you will get as many related completed listings as possible. You want to restrict your search to completed listings so that you can see how much was actually paid for the bottles. After you’ve entered this information, click on the “Search” button and you’ll see a sampling of the amber coca cola bottles that have sold on eBay and how much was paid for them. Now you can have a rough idea of how much your bottle is worth on the current market.

You may have to go back and refine your search a few times, putting in different key words in the “Enter keyword or item number” field to narrow down your search. You can also narrow it further by choosing “Collectibles” from the category drop-down list.

Remember, there are a lot of factors that go into determining how much an old bottle is worth. Just because you see that one sold on eBay for $100, that doesn’t mean yours is worth the same. But it’s definitely a great place to start to get a rough idea for what your antique bottle is worth, and then you can continue your research from there.