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Colorado Prospector - Gem and mineral prospecting and mining forums _ Fossil Finds, Processes, Adventures and Outings _ More pet wood and sep nods

Posted by: johnnybravo300 Oct 7 2017, 10:37 PM

We found another place to collect and hit the jack pot on pet wood today. The sep nods aren't anything of museum quality but very cool just the same and amazing to find. I did find the smallest septarian nodule ever today, about the size of an egg, which is a first for me.
This is the third place we've found pet wood around the property so I'm really pumped about new hunting areas. Petrified wood is one of my favorites and it's a beautiful transformation.
I'm worn out right now but I'll get it all washed up tomorrow and post pics. Some of the pet wood is gorgeous!
I should have taken a better pack, more food and some dang coffee.

Posted by: Crusty Oct 8 2017, 06:32 AM

Sounds like you're in a great spot!

Posted by: Denise Oct 8 2017, 08:26 AM

smiley-clapping.gif Very cool, glad you found a good spot! Petwood is one of my favorites also and Colorado has some beautiful stuff! greensmilies-012.gif Looking forward to seeing your finds cleaned up.

Posted by: johnnybravo300 Oct 8 2017, 09:55 AM

Some pics might load but my signal isn't strong and I'm having 4g issues. I'm trying to wash these and my hands are freezing out there haha.






 

Posted by: johnnybravo300 Oct 8 2017, 10:15 AM

These are all pics from yesterday. Some of the sep nods and a table of pet wood.

My wife had found a piece of pet wood out there while hiking the dogs so we went to check it out. We hiked in on the uphill side and started scanning the area. Wasn't long before we found the first sep nod, then another, then another.
We dug a few of those up and searched around some more, then worked our way on down further.
Once at the new pet wood spot we spent hours picking up what we could find and the area became bigger and bigger as we went along and as we found more.
I've noticed that the soil is different where I find sep nods than the average Colorado dirt. It's almost like a super fine grain clay/talc dust mix and I wonder what's in that layer that makes it so different.








 

Posted by: johnnybravo300 Oct 8 2017, 05:43 PM

Everything cleaned up.
The biggest pieces we found are behind the gold pans on the picnic table.
My best pieces with visible bark still intact are in the gold pans. Whoohoo!












 

Posted by: ChuckD Oct 9 2017, 09:07 AM

QUOTE (johnnybravo300 @ Oct 8 2017, 07:43 PM) *
Everything cleaned up.
The biggest pieces we found are behind the gold pans on the picnic table.
My best pieces with visible bark still intact are in the gold pans. Whoohoo!

Hey JB, please forgive my lack of knowledge on the subject- what do y’all do with the pet wood? Are y’all able to sell it, or do y’all keep it for your personal collection? Also, would a piece about 18” long and 8” in diameter be a rare find or do y’all find massive chunks as a norm?

Posted by: johnnybravo300 Oct 9 2017, 09:48 PM

We haven't found very big pieces, baseball or softball size on average. We've only picked them up from the surface.
It's just more to add to the collection. I've never tried to sell any.

Posted by: ChuckD Oct 10 2017, 12:03 PM

QUOTE (johnnybravo300 @ Oct 9 2017, 11:48 PM) *
We haven't found very big pieces, baseball or softball size on average. We've only picked them up from the surface.
It's just more to add to the collection. I've never tried to sell any.

10-4. thumbsupsmileyanim.gif

Posted by: Denise Oct 11 2017, 09:22 AM

Very nice petwood Johnny!! smiley-clapping.gif Some can also be made into cabochons and set into jewelry settings Chuck. I have even made a few guitar picks from some and they turned out great!! thumbsupsmileyanim.gif

Posted by: ChuckD Oct 11 2017, 01:21 PM

QUOTE (Denise @ Oct 11 2017, 11:22 AM) *
Very nice petwood Johnny!! smiley-clapping.gif Some can also be made into cabochons and set into jewelry settings Chuck. I have even made a few guitar picks from some and they turned out great!! thumbsupsmileyanim.gif

Well, I don’t consider myself an expert, but I do play guitar... I might have to buy one from you. There’s a very good possibility that I may be heading to Pagosa Springs around Christmas time... might have to make a detour and come see those picks!!!

Posted by: Denise Oct 11 2017, 05:22 PM

Sounds great Chuck, would be great to meet you. happy088.gif

Posted by: johnnybravo300 Oct 12 2017, 10:00 PM

I don't have any of that type of equipment but it's something I'd like to learn.
My daughter has a tumbled piece of septarian nodule in a necklace and it's beautiful. We have amazonite and lots of nice pet wood and other rough mineral rocks that I'd like to do something with.
I don't really know what I need but I'm guessing some kind of wet saw and a tumbler to start with? Some of them I need to cut and some I'd like to tumble.
I looked at tumblers at rock doc last year and he explained how you add in different beads for different minerals depending on hardness and to only tumble like minerals or the hard ones will crush the softer ones. I hesitated on buying anything because I like to shop around but it would be fun to have a few more inside projects at home this winter while I'm off. Those tumblers sure aren't cheap.
My wife and daughter want to make some jewelry from the smallest bark pieces but they want the raw form of course.
I do have quite a bit of the colorful inner wood sections that Id like to tumble and polish. They are basically just broken shards and pieces that were everywhere.

Posted by: Denise Oct 13 2017, 09:16 AM

Equipment can get pretty expensive but worth it in the end I think. We had to put our tumblers away for now since we are off grid these days. Takes at least a month of non stop running to finish a batch of tumbled stones. Each stage needs at least 7 days. There are 4 stages of grit and a stage to burnish them (tumble with soap to take cloudy residue off). Here is a thread we started for "http://www.coloradoprospector.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=1962" that can help you. happy112.gif

Here is a thread that was started for "Beginning Lapidary Equipment" suggestions. Some good info in there that can also help when deciding what kind of equipment to get. El Dorado started a fun thread a while back when we lived in Fairplay where you can see our workstations and the equipment used. Check it out if you get a chance. It's titled "http://www.coloradoprospector.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=1765" giggle.gif Can even see in one of the pics, that I took smaller specimens and I added magnets to them for decoration. (displayed on a metal gold pan) happy088.gif So even the shards are handy for projects!

I can honestly say that working my finds into a finished piece is very rewarding!
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Posted by: johnnybravo300 Oct 13 2017, 09:24 AM

I didn't realize it took that long in the tumbler. My solar system and battery storage probably wouldn't like that very much, especially without much sun in the winter. I doubt I'd have the energy to spare. Scratch that project haha.

Posted by: nate Oct 13 2017, 12:12 PM

JB, i bought some sand paper to play with the pet wood we found with you back in july. Its a bit more hand work than dropping some rock in a tumbler, but you can save the solar power. Im not very good, but shaping a bit with rough paper then getting down to 400+ for a smoother finish has turned out decent products for me just starting out.

Posted by: Denise Oct 13 2017, 12:16 PM

Just a little safety note for working stones even by hand with sandpaper.......Always work stones wet, never dry!!

Safety first!
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Posted by: nate Oct 16 2017, 01:55 PM

Yes! I did use water to keep it cool when I was hand sanding. I just forgot to mention it, thanks for having my back!

Posted by: johnnybravo300 Oct 29 2017, 06:20 PM

I've been working in telluride and Glenwood springs all week but I got back today and my wife had some awesome finds.
She took our son and his wife to the new place and they all collected for a time and found nice pieces. This is her pet wood in the gold pan.
Then on another day she went to the place we havent hunted yet on the other side of the property and found sep nods with better calcite than we've seen so far so that might be promising, and also another pet wood.
We have line of sight from one site to the other so we we're thinking of traversing the hillsides to scan for more. It's almost one mile distance and a big area between but I bet there's more sluffing off somewhere.
Maybe we should start by walking along the bottom of the hills and check the drainages first? It's a huge area but what a great project!
She said the entire area is covered with sep nod pieces and she saw at least 4 intact nodules peeking up at her so we might go hunt this spot tomorrow. If she saw four there might be ten along the trail she was on. The cracks seem to be a little bit bigger than what I've seen so far and you just never know and Im pumped to be finding this stuff.
A couple pics of calcite in sep nods and a pet wood piece from the other new spot that I havent even been to yet. I feel bummed that my wife gets to prospect more than I do but it's awesome she's out there!
I'm having connection issues so I'll work on the pics. I don't know if they will load.








 

Posted by: Denise Oct 30 2017, 10:46 AM

She's jamming, Nice finds! signs021.gif

Posted by: nate Oct 31 2017, 12:10 PM

Nice stuff! I don't understand the nodules' patterns, but they so seem to be grouped together at times. Ryan and I were out southeast of pueblo this weekend and found a crazy area of nodules. No calcites as big as my first monster, but more in the 1-3" cube range than I've ever seen before. And that was just surface finds.... Hopefully you hit a terrific spot like that! Ryan also found what we thought was a huge chunk of pet wood in a gravel bed. maybe he will post a picture once it's clean.

Posted by: johnnybravo300 Oct 31 2017, 12:23 PM

Yesterday we were parking the wood truck for the winter so we scanned around and found sep nod pieces around that area too. It's only about 100 yards from camp so maybe I should search closer to home first haha. I didn't see any visible nodules peeking out but they are definitely eroding out from somewhere.
That layer we've found them in seems to span a square mile from what we've seen but who knows really. We've found them on both sides of Big Hill now. I always thought they would be in a thin strip the way you think of a shoreline but they must have sat in the shallows and built up there until the magic happened.

Posted by: johnnybravo300 Mar 2 2018, 05:57 PM

Found more sep nods today and our first petrified shell stuck to the outside. Awesome!




 

Posted by: Denise Mar 3 2018, 08:07 PM

Sweet find! thumbsupsmileyanim.gif
Looks like it was a great day to be out exploring and prospecting!!

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