Fridays Rock! - Nephrite Jade
First I want to say thank you to @nat-expressions for creating #fridaysrock challenge/tag and @melinda010100 for introducing me to it and for being a great customer! Thank you ladies.
Today's rock is one of the first rocks I collected. It is a piece of nephrite jade, not to be confused with it's more valuable cousin, jadeite. I found it while rock hounding in Victorville, CA many years ago. The mountain I was on used to host a Verde Antique Marble mine too. Across from the Verde mine on the same mountain, there is a black jade mine, from where this specimen came from. You can also find hematite, quartz, agate, jasper, chalcedony roses and several other minerals on the mountain.
This is what the rock looks like on the back side. Unless you know what to look for you might just pass it up.
After taking the specimen home I ground down the face to a semi-flat surface with a grinder then I began to polish it with a belt sander and later an orbital sander. At the time I was still new to rock collecting so I did things a bit unorthodox. It worked though!
I am thinking of slicing it up in the future now that I have the wet saws to do it with. Maybe I will even list some slice on our Etsy or Japan shops!
I am probably new to many of you reading this. FYI I have been doing a series called Mineral Mondays for over a year on Steemit. My wife @tokyowomanslife and I buy, sell and collect minerals in the Southwest US and Japan. It's still a hobby, but we would like to turn it into a full blow business soon. Our Etsy shop is here: https://www.etsy.com/shop/Rt395Minerals
Thanks for reading!
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Oh! That green with the black is beautiful! Quite gorgeous! And I am so glad that you are joining in #fridaysrock and are willing to share the things you know. I'm resteeming this one. Would you use the #fridaysrock tag on your Mineral Mondays posts too, so that I don't miss them and we can keep our rocks and minerals in one place? I don't think @nat-expressions will mind if it isn't day specific, right Nat?
I would love it if @rt395 would use the #fridaysrock tag for his Mineral Monday posts. That would help me find them too. Any day is fine! I only chose Friday so that I was giving myself a deadline. I seem to work better with deadlines. :)
@melinda010100 and @nat-expressions, yes I will be happy to use the tag on my MM posts. I've been searching for a long time for a rockhounding community here on Steemit. I hope we can together attract more to use the tag.
Thank you both for your kind words about the specimen. Looking forward to everyone else's posts!
Thank you for using the #fridaysrock tag for your Mineral Monday posts! And thank you to @melinda010100 for helping to get the word out. I agree...there must be more of us on here who are rockhounds. I really love to see what others are willing to share. There is so much knowledge...as well as beauty...in so many of the posts.
I am loving everything that has already been shared! We can be Rock boosters!
Me too! I love that idea!!
Yes, we need some voting power behind the tag or tags.
This is going to be fun!
Thank you very much for joining in on #fridaysrock. This is a beautiful choice. I love the color of this one. I agree...I can see that you might pass by it if you didn't know what to look for. I am finding the same thing with some of the rocks that I collect.
I will definitely be checking out your Mineral Monday posts...as well as your Etsy shop.
Very nice @rt395! I wish I could find something like that around here! If I ever go to California I'll have to try to find something like this! Thanks for sharing.
It's getting tougher to collect in California. The government keeps closing off collecting locations. Luckily Utah is close enough to drive to! They encourage rock hounding tourism.
Oh that's not fair! Damn government ruining the fun for rockhounds! What gives! What did we ever do to them?
Wow, youre right someone might pass up on it if they did not know whats inside.. makes me wonder if i cut open half the rocks i threw back maybe they had something special deep inside.
Thanks @solominer. That's part of the attraction though right? Something hidden inside!