The Clean-Up Process - 1

Having some extra time to kill this weekend (resting the ankle), I thought about my whole clean-up process and decided to share some info with everyone.  I had taken some pics of the whole process to show how I go about sorting and cleaning samples.

Step 1 - Unload the truck

Unload the goodies!

As I collect, I try to keep everything sorted by location.  5 Gallon buckets and recycled coffee cans work very well for holding samples.  I also use plastic bags so I can write the date and location of samples to help keep organized.








Step 2 - Sort and prep for cleaning

Crate of Quartz Samples from W. Old Baltimore Rd.

This is a crate of Quartz I collected from around West Old Baltimore Rd. in northern Montgomery County.  The samples are from an exposed hillside, so they had lots of clay, dirt, and moss on them.








Step 3 - Soaking the Samples

Samples in 5 Gal. Bucket with Dish soap

I placed the samples into a 5 Gal. bucket and added a liberal amount of Dish soap to the bucket.  Quartz is very resistant, and the samples had already been exposed to wet weather, so i had no concerns with this process.  Not all samples can be cleaned this way though, so be careful!

Add Water

The next step is important.  Add water.  Sounds easy right?  Be careful though.  Water that is too hot (on cold samples) or too cold (on hot samples) can cause breaking and fracturing of crystals.  The samples were about 70 degrees F, so I had to roll the hose out into the sun to help warm up my very cold tap water.

Let Soak in Sunlight

I then set these samples against the wall to slowly warm up the water some more in the sun.  Many cleaning agents work better hot or warm.  Slowly heating tends to be the best protection.  I know these Quartz samples had been exposed to rain water and freezing, but using the same techniques safely builds a good habit.  Letting these samples soak in soapy water for two days loosened up most of the clay that was caked on and prepared for a good scrubbing later on.

Step 4 - Clean Water Soak

  I have no pictures of the next part as it is really just re-soaking the samples in fresh, clean water.  After washing all the soap off the samples, soak them for about 2 hours in fresh water.  Change your water 2- 3 times to make sure all the soap is off and out of the cracks.  This process will also help loosen and remove stuck on clay and dirt.

Step 5 - Scrub and Let Samples Dry

  Depending on weather, location, etc. this may vary in length.  I like to let the samples sit out on a sunny day for a few hours to air dry.  I will normally inspect each sample out of the bucket to see if there are additional spots that need cleaning.  I use toothbrushes and plastic dish brushes to remove any remaining dirt/clay and make a visual inspection for Moss or Algae.  Scrub off as much as you can.  Should you encounter plant matter growing on the samples, you will need to add one more step.

Step 6 - Plant Matter Killing

  Using a separate bucket, add one cap of standard bleach for each gallon of water added.  Bear in mind your samples are taking up space in the bucket, so don't add 5 cap fulls and a tiny bit of water.  This sample set was all bleached and took up about three gallons of space.  I added two caps of bleach and filled the bucket.  Bleach reacts with other chemicals and can be harmful, so please use caution.  Always keep in mind that kids are curious and love buckets with water for some reason!

  Repeat steps 4 and 5 after bleaching.

  Now you should have some nice clean samples.  Wait, you still have dirty looking quartz!!??!!  Not surprising.  Most of the samples I have collected so far come from streams.  Both PA and MD have high concentrations of Iron in the soil and water.  Some stains are just pesky.  Should you want to learn more advanced methods of cleaning quartz, GO HERE.  You can also search the web for alternative methods.

Injury Update 9-14-10

 So I did the smart thing and took it real easy over the weekend.  Stacy and the kids were great!  They made sure to keep me off my feet as much as I would allow.  A little R&R was just the ticket to help in a speedy recovery.

Left Ankle after bruising



Left Ankle after Bruising


Even though the bruising is a bit worse than pictured here, the ankle is doing well.  I can put weight on it, walk almost normally, and it only gets sore if I don't keep it elevated.  Should be good to go in a few more days.  Just need to go easy for some time.

Rock Hounding on Facebook

Hey all, to help spread my passion for rocks and minerals, and to ease some communication, I have started a Rockhounding on Facebook Group.  If you are on FB, please join!

Injuries in the Field - 9-8-10

Morning All!

So, I had touched on the need for a cheaper camera in the last entry, and yesterday proved my point.  While walking around a nice park setting, I actually slipped and sprained my left ankle on the path back to the truck.  I was not climbing anything weird, nor in the water, just climbing a path with some older uneven stone steps.  All the weight was on my ankle when i lost my footing and it folded under me pretty good.  This brings up some other points though.

1 - I was not carrying the expensive camera at the time, so that is fine.  I would have liked some photos of the area as it was stunning yesterday!

2 - Tell someone where you are going.  If you are headed out to remote areas for any amount of time, make sure someone knows where (roughly) you are headed.  In the event something happens and you cannot get back, they can help report you missing and direct search efforts more effectively!

3 - Bring a Cell Phone - Granted, you may not have a signal in some more remote areas, but I had full bars on mine when I went down.  Had I actually broken my ankle, I could have called 911.

4 - If at all possible, bring a buddy.  Someone to lean on, go for help, whatever can mean the difference between life and death.

5 - Be as safe as possible.  Take your time, check your path, wear the proper clothing, carry water, know first aid.  You know all the drills, just wanted to be nice and remind everyone!

Oh, and here is the CANKLE from last night.  This is after 800mg Ibuprofen and Ice for one hour.

Swelling and Bruise

Be safe!

9-7-10 Explorations and Spider Bites!

Greetings All!

Spent the afternoon yesterday just out and about wandering some streams.  I wasn't looking for anything in particular, just scouting some new areas.  I had been reading a bit about the controversy over Maryland's State Gem, the Patuxent River Stone.  Below is an image of said stone.

Tumbled River Stone

  Now I am not going to get into the details, but this was actually kind of surprising to find out the controversy behind this stone becoming the State Gemstone.  If you want more details, Google "Potomac River Agate" and check the links.

  The only reason I brought it up, was because my travels took me to Patuxent River State Park for some hiking.  I of course searched the stream beds for any possible examples of the state gem, but came up empty.  Maybe I was in the wrong part of the river (most likely), or it is just not that easy to find (also probable).  Needless to say, the park is wonderful!  I am so happy that MD has so many nice streams and rivers to enjoy.  I started at the north end of the park @ Long Corner Road.  Parking was easy and the path to the stream just slightly over grown.  MD has not faired well with the recent wind storms, so there are numerous trees down in the park and across the stream bed.  Please use caution if traveling the area due to downed trees, slippery paths, poison ivy, and numerous insects.

  The most notable location I stopped at was the intersection of Hipsley Mill and Annapolic Rock Road.  This location is actually on Cabin Branch (a tributary of the Patuxent) and showed some amazing local outcrops.  Unfortunately, the overgrowth prevented me from getting back into the woods to really examine them.  I will have to come back in the winter!

  The second reason this area is so notable was the spider bite I recieved while there.  I felt a spiderweb on my head and something touching my ear while looking into the woods, so I brushed it with my hand.  Not surprising, there was a spider now attached to my right index finger.  It was not happy and actually bite me for my action.  Taking care not just crush the spider or flick it away before identifying it, I had to overcome my surprise and fear of spiders, and actually look at the offending bugger!  A close friend of mine was bitten by either a Black Widow or a Brown Recluse last November and he is still recovering.  One of the things his doctors said was that it was a shame he didn't know which it was, as it would have helped in treatment.  So I looked.  What I found was a rather upset Wolf Spider.  The bite was very quick and didn't actually penetrate the skin much, but it was my wake up call.  I do not really want to get bitten too often, so I may scale down my searching a bit till autumn arrives.

  After searching for a few hours and walking the stream, I noticed that most of the quartz in the area is rather fragile and crumbly.  Large concentrations of Iron inclusions have been rusted away from these stones and they crush very easily.  I also found samples of quartzite, schist, shale, slate, and many mixed rocks.  The boundary for the metamorphic and sedimentary rocks seems to be interwoven in this nice little valley and it is easy to find smaples of both types of rocks side by side.  Closer examination of the local outcrops appear to be Phyllite (metamorphic rock between shale and slate).  Some of the banding in the outcrops showed further metamorphism and had bands of quartz (ite) interwoven within.

  One of the lessons I also learned was that I may want to get a less expensive camera to take along with me.  I was hesitant to bring the Nikon into this area due to the slippery surfaces, so I have no pics to add.....

Until next time!

Labor Day weekend

Howdy all!  Hope you had a good holiday weekend!

As you know, I recieved my digital microscope and an assortment of loupes this past weekend.  Stacy and I definately put them to good use!  Here are some pics of what we got.

Digital Microscope

This is a USB digital microscope with 7 LED lights.  We are plugging it into my laptop and viewing some pretty interesting details on the samples collected.  We learned a few tricks as to the operation this weekend.  First, the White Balance was way off, so we had to adjust that.  Second, it was saving images directly to the program (unknown location), and I had to set the directory to be able to find the pics easier (lost about 100 images in a crash).

Field Scope with LED

Handy little field scope.  This has multiple zoom and focal ranges as well as a built in LED light/  No more holding the loupe and flashlight for me!  Should make field surveys a bit easier and one less thing to carry.

Mini LED Scope

This thing is TINY!  It looks it in the picture, and is in real life.  It is a small field scope with LED light.  It functions like an old school elementary microscope with a sliding focus and magnification tube.  Handy for quick peeks, but too fragile for the field!

30x Loupe with LED light

30x magnification jeweler's loupe with LED light.  Was purchased for home study of samples.  Takes the hassel out of holding the loupe and the LED flashlight at the same time.  It is nice and light, and has better magnification than the first one we bought.











I also recieved a great book from Amazon as well.  Maryland's Geology by Martin F. Schmidt JR  It is very informative and a wonderful resource to have if you live in or around MD.

Sorry for the lack of pics from the samples, but the learning curve taught me two very important lessons this weekend.

1 - Save the images to a specific file for ease of recovery.  This would have really helped with the crash.  The program dumped the 100 images I had taken prior to the crash.

2 - Back up new images to a thimb drive so I can bring them with me to MD!

I will post some nice close up pics very soon though.

9-3-10 Microscope came today!!

So I was relaxing at home after the cable guys left, and the UPS guy walks up to the door with a package for me.  I got my new LED jeweler's loupes and my digital microscope.   Below are a few samples of new images.

80 Mesh screened sand

Sample image of sand after 80 mesh screening.  This sample is in a glass vial under the highest magnification I could manage on first attempt.  This sample came from Seneca Creek in Mont. Co. MD.

Moss growing on Quartz

This image is of Moss growing on an uncleaned Quartz sample from Seneca Creek in Mont. Co. MD.  I was surprised that it was there because I hadn't seen it with the naked eye!

Brazilian Emerald in Black Mica

Brazilian Emerald in Black Mica from a purchase Stacy and I made.  Ebay is a wonderful thing.  We purchased roughly 1200 carats of these for practice and tumbling.  They were oil treated, but i wanted natural so I soaked in soapy water for two days to get the oil out.

Carnelian inclusion on Quartz (?)

This is one of the most interesting samples I have acquired in MD so far.  Found in a stream as a larger rock, I broke it open looking for gold inclusions and found what i believe is Carnelian.  Many of the local rocks have Magnetite inclusions, and Iron Oxide is very common within them.  I might be wrong, especially with the formation of crystals.  I am going to pass this image along to a more knowledgable friend for confirmation.




  These are the first four decent captures I have so far.  Many more to come!