Colorado Thundereggs Options

[Denise]

Cant wait to see whats inside them.

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[Denise]

Here is a big one! One we found was so big, all we could do was look at it. Nice seat to picnic on though.......hehe

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[Denise]

ooooooo Dan cut a few of those eggs open, and wow!
Amazing colors, with fantastic plume! Almost looks like colored feathers.
I'll post pics later.

[Denise]

Almost forgot to update this thread also. I added the picture to another Thunderegg thread here in the CP forums.



Colorado sure has some amazing plume Thundereggs!

[gold_tutor]

That is AMAZING! Great Photography, again, DENISE! I've never seen a plume TE before. WOW!
Megan

[CP]

Thanks for the kudos on the pic.....that one is actually one I took and I guess it did turn out ok.
Here is another site we found recently with some more awesome photoghraphy of killer Colorado T-eggs. Collected by the photographer (Joe) over the last 45 years.

Be warned though, you will need 30 minutes ....or more, refill the coffee first then sit down.
Some very nice looking stuff!
Colorado Thunderegg close up pictures website
Enjoy

CP

[jim]

Thanks for the kudos on the pic.....that one is actually one I took and I guess it did turn out ok.
Here is another site we found recently with some more awesome photoghraphy of killer Colorado T-eggs. Collected by the photographer (Joe) over the last 45 years.

Be warned though, you will need 30 minutes ....or more, refill the coffee first then sit down.
Some very nice looking stuff!
Colorado Thunderegg close up pictures website
Enjoy

CP

wow dan, and some say rocks are no fun.

[nm jack]

Hmmmmm!! I thought New Mexico had the prettiest ones. Are we there yet???

[Gat-Wa.]

WOW WOW WOW I want some of those !!!! very cool. hope i find some on the loop trip ill be doing this winter.
Gat.

[Denise]

Here is a closeup of another Colorado beauty after cutting it open. These sure have great plume!
I made this picture a bit bigger so it can be used as a desktop background.
Enjoy!

[Denise]

Colorado sure has some of the best goodies!

[CP]

Here's a final finish on the Thunderegg in the first picture. About the size of a softball......didn't turn out too bad at all.
Picture is full size for details if ya' like.....just click on the pic.

[Denise]

While out prospecting yesterday, Timmy found this Thunderegg! It was half in the ground, but my little prospector spotted it.
Pretty nice find Timmy! Cant wait to see whats inside it. I hope its one of the best! He deserves it.

[jim]

WOW Timmy. Your a chip off the ol' rock. Can I have it?

[CP]

Nice try Jim, but sorry no can do. That's his first thunderegg find so we'll cut it and polish it out for him.
It feels nice and solid, we'll see when it's cut open. Good news is, he found that on one of the new researched areas that will soon be posted for ColoradoProspector club members! I got a hankerin' to do some more diggin after all this research!
Anyone want to know if there are more to find? Check out the club members researched areas updates to be posted over the next few days.

CP

[Denise]

Here is what I found for Thundereggs that day. Isn't it cute?!!



Its probably all shell with no agate, but sure is cute! We did find pieces of Thundereggs all over the place though.
Here is a small broken piece I found on the ground. I cleaned it up so you could see the small plume inside a little better.
Cool bands around it!

[chadrack]

That second picture is an awfully pretty indian artifact - probably a scraper of sorts. Don't cab it, it has already been cabbed! C

[CP]

Thanks chadrack, it is a neat little piece for sure.
Don't think it's an indian artifact though......it's size is just a little bigger around than a quarter and the area it was found in has many nodule pieces that have weather out of their natural host material.
If it were a bit larger then it could have possibly been used as a scraper but it just seems to small to be held onto at this size.

CP

[Denise]

It is a beautiful piece chadrack! I have it sitting on the table as is on display.

We went out yesterday, and the weather was great! We were finding large pieces of eggs all over the place.
Timmy sure has the eye for Thundereggs. Here is a huge piece of one that was sticking out of the ground. I helped him dig it out, and wow what a find!!


The whole bottom half of it is crystals below the bands. This one is sure going to clean up nicely!
Pictures of it cleaned up coming soon.



Good eye Timmy!

[Denise]

Amazing the broken pieces of Thunderegg all over the place. Here are a couple examples of some broken ones on the ground.





Colorado Thundereggs are known for having alot of shell. Whats inside them will just blow you away though!

[CP]

That's a very cool spot to visit for sure! The crystal piece Timmy found and Mom helped dig out is very cool! Nice find Timmy!
Be prepared to carry some weight if you visit this spot though, these pieces can get rather big. This one we left behind, that's alot of weight!
Mostly shell though as you can see with a small agate star in the center. Was found just like this, probably cracked by freezing water.



We also found some nice weathered out chunks with awesome agate and a couple whole eggs. More pics of those coming soon, but I can tell you that one of the whole eggs is 15 pounds and the second one weighs almost 8, Hopefully they have some purties' inside when cut. Stay tuned for updates.

CP

[Denise]

Be prepared to carry some weight if you visit this spot though, these pieces can get rather big.

Definately big pieces Dan! Not all the pieces found were big though.
Here is a cool little piece that I thought was a keeper.



Several small broken pieces we found had crystal pockets like this lower one in my hand.

[Denise]

Timmy sure scored though!
Here is another of his bigger finds. Weighs about 10 pounds, and the agate seams are about 2 inches wide, and about 4-6 inches long.
Whats inside is definately worth keeping!



Here is a view of whats inside. Several spots with this Dendritic agate.



Sweet find Timmy!

[jim]

WOW! The dendrites in that piece is really cool. Yep! Timmy is most definately a chip off the ol rock. Uh uh I mean rocks.

[Denise]

Hes definately a little rockhound.....almost literally!
Hes kind of cute to watch. He slightly bends over walking around staring at the ground like a hound looking for a bone.
With him knowing the snakes arent out right now, he moves a little faster too.
He finds what hes looking for too!!! He loves prospecting!

[CP]

Thanks Jim, he really is into prospecting for his age.
Here are a few family X-mas presents that were made from that last one pictured. Each of the guys in the family now will have a piece made from Timmy's first t-egg cuts, all the way from Grandpa, me, his brother and him all got one. Grandpa gets the keychain since he's not a jewelry wearing person, brother gets the teardrop pendant, and he got the hexagon pendant.
He thought that it was very neat to have these going to the family for presents this year that were made from his finds.
I'm getting a very cool thin guitar pick for my piece which isn't in the picture. All the pieces cut so far look to have the iris effect but we haven't caught an actual iris rainbow yet.......more cuts to come though, these were some large pieces to cut.



Here is another pic of two whole eggs (grade AA mediums) that we found that same day. Can't wait to see what's inside them too, but a bigger saw will be needed.

[Denise]

You did a fantastic job on those Dan!
Timmy was extremely proud to be able to give that kind of gift to his brother, dad and his grandpa.
The look on his face when he saw the one for him was priceless!! Im sure he will cherish it and the memories forever.

[Denise]

We went out yesterday, and the weather was great! We were finding large pieces of eggs all over the place.
Timmy sure has the eye for Thundereggs. Here is a huge piece of one that was sticking out of the ground. I helped him dig it out, and wow what a find!!


The whole bottom half of it is crystals below the bands. This one is sure going to clean up nicely!
Pictures of it cleaned up coming soon.



Good eye Timmy!

Here is a picture of the piece cleaned up a bit. Looks like large yellow calcite crystals on top of the brown and clear agate bands.
Being a surface find sticking out of the hillside, lots of the crystals are damaged, but he loves it!



He likes it so much it ended up in his room. All 17 pounds of it!

Good thing hes cute. We need to make sure we balance out the weight of these rocks in the house anyways.

[CP]

Gotta' watch your toes walking around this house in the dark for sure.

Thanks for the compliment honey, I am very proud of Timmy's rockhounding and being able to make something for the guys.

Here is a pic of what Denise made for my piece to go with the "guys family set" right after the holiday, a sweet thin guitar pick. Nice work on my piece from Timmy's Colorado thunderegg Denise. All the guys will cherish these pieces, especially me.

[Denise]

Here is a cool keychain that Timmy's grandpa (my dad) will get from the thunderegg piece he found. Dan wrapped it.
Im sure he will love it!



I know the pieces were going to the "guys family set" , but I snuck in a beautiful small heart from a piece trimmed off.
I couldnt help myself!

[Denise]

Here is a sweet find Carol made here in Colorado. Looks like several eggs stuck together.







Sure will be cool to see whats inside after she cuts it.

[Denise]

Here is a little lovely that a neighbor said he found in his yard, and was wondering if it would be worth cutting.
I took one look at it and knew right away that it was worth picking up.

Can anyone tell me what indicators are showing that would make this a good find?
Hint- It might help to click the larger image for a closer look...

[swizz]

I know very little of Thundereggs and have never found one, but.... looking at that one, I would think that the bubbly Quartz oozing, possibly several different mineral inclusions, and a nice symmetrical shape might be good indicators.
I also see a natural fracture but not sure if that means anything.
Post a pic when you guys cut that one, can't wait to see what's inside!

[Denise]

Good eye Swizz, those are definately indicators! One can also see the pressure ridges in this stone. I asked the man that found it the same question......What made you think this was a good rock to pick up and have cut? His reply was the shape of the rock, and he could see in a spot where it had broke, that there was something very different inside. Here is the face that he was looking at.




I handed him the 20x loop and told him to take a look at the face I was showing in the first pic. His jaw dropped when he looked through the loop and saw the small pinkish clear botryoidal bubbles. That just hightened his excitement to see it cut to reveal whats inside.

Me.............. I kind of want to go look for the sourse of this new undiscovered Thunderegg bed. Weather is perfect for it!



Ok, lets cut this baby and see whats inside. One never knows, it may be a dud.........but then again, it may have amazing beauty just waiting to see first light.

Stay tuned while we cut this find.......

[CP]

Dodging the weather is tricky but we did have one day that was nice enough last week before several days of -20 to -30 lows that followed.....BRRRR!
I agree good eye on that Swizz, those pressure ridges (seams) you noticed are a dead give away on the T-eggs. The ridges form from the slow filling of the silca (quartz) material into the gas bubble of the rhyolite flow. Over a very long time the layers formed enough to swell the bubble beyond it's original size causing the pressure ridges to crack the shell of the bubble.
First pic is on the saw for cutting, alignment is just about how Denise has it in the first pic above. Ironically enough the cut ended up right between the bubbles on the outside in that picture too.






Another 30 minutes later or so here is what showed it's pretty face to the sun for the first time ever seen, we'll be looking for more of these soon to verify this might be a new thunder egg bed locality for Colorado too!
Nice contrasting colors/blend of banding and small plumes with a very solid form. Not to bad at all for a surface/aluvial find......enjoy.

[Denise]

So now we can go look for the source?

[Denise]

Neighbor wasn't so hip on digging up his yard "yet", so that source will have to wait. Amazing how we are still working pieces from that Thunderegg chunk that Tim found. This is a piece that we are going to work into another key chain for my brother Dean and a heart for his love Kristen.
He plays guitar so I made him a guitar pick from a piece and wrapped it so he could wear it but he hung it on his wall because he said "it's too beautiful to use". This piece for a key chain will work great for him when finished.

[Crusty]

Great thread!

I posted this on our Facebook page, but hadn't gotten to posting it here. Here's my haul from Rockhound State Park in Deming NM. Don't have a saw, so I need to figure out to crack these goodies open to see what treasures await!

https://www.facebook.com/groups/17031449317...1/?stream_ref=2

[Denise]

You like this thread....your really going to like the other thread we have going with the New Mexico eggs!
We really like the Teggs and they have some pretty nice one there. Thanks, post up those pictures in that thread when you get a chance. We would love to see them.


Just don't crack them open with another rock or a rock hammer..... .......Not only is that really dangerous for you but destructive for the inside of the Thunderegg.
Not to mention I would have to turn you into the Thunderegg abusers cop squad.

[Crusty]

You like this thread....your really going to like the other thread we have going with the New Mexico eggs!
We really like the Teggs and they have some pretty nice one there. Thanks, post up those pictures in that thread when you get a chance. We would love to see them.


Just don't crack them open with another rock or a rock hammer..... .......Not only is that really dangerous for you but destructive for the inside of the Thunderegg.
Not to mention I would have to turn you into the Thunderegg abusers cop squad.

I did find a very cool one that someone had "ruined" by cracking it open. I think it can still be cleaned up, so I kept it. I guess that is the difference between someone doing it for the love of it instead of trying to find commercially valuable specimens. I've picked up some of the coolest stuff I have from other people's tailings.

Need to do some learnin' on what saw to get to buzz them open.

[russau]

Some people i know use a cast iron pipe cutter to cut these geodes in two. does anyone here use one of these?

[Caveman]

What about a tile saw? One that is of the top cutting persuasion should do nicely.... Expensive, though.

[Crusty]

What about a tile saw? One that is of the top cutting persuasion should do nicely.... Expensive, though.

Might look in to seeing what I can get at a rental joint.

Off to read the NM thread and post my pics there, since that is where I found them :)

[CP]

We definitely would not recommend cutting geodes or thunder eggs with a pipe cutter.
Thunder eggs and geodes are not the same thing, which is which depends on what situ it forms in. Either way though, T-eggs nor geodes would turn out good at all if you want to polish it after opening using pipe cutters.
Tile saws will work though with the water for dust control. Trick is to keep that stone absolutely still while the cut takes place, other wise every slight movement will cause a wave or inconsistency in the cut surface. With thunder eggs which are normally solid (but not always) this makes more of a difference on the cutting. Geodes which are normally hollow with a crystal pocket (not always though) can be a bit more forgiving in that sense because it's only the outer rim that gets polished after cutting usually.

Small 4 or 6 inch rock saws are not all that much either, for those of you who like to see what's inside those finds. I'd definitely say a small saw would be worth having around.

[Denise]

Here is a cap to a busted Colorado Thunderegg. Looks pretty normal on the outside till you flip the piece over revealing the Agate star points (3 in this pic.)






Pretty plain but still a keeper in my book.

[Denise]

Almost forgot to update this thread also. I added the picture to another Thunderegg thread here in the CP forums.



Colorado sure has some amazing plume Thundereggs!

Colorado does have some amazing agates! One of my favorites is found in Thundereggs though since you never really know what you have till you look inside.

Here is a link to Agates With Inclusions. It has some AMAZING pictures to drool over.
Check out what kind of Agates with inclusions you may have in your area and with the "proper research" you could have some of your own.