Thread: I Found It Over There

Take a hammer with you and chip a few rocks. What we see on the outside is often deposits of other stuff built up over time. The real truth lies on the inside. Just looking at all the different rock is always amazing. In the area that I am in there is everything under the sun. I like finding hones but what I am really after is the opals

Rock is subject to weathering and depending on the minerals in the rock commonly the rock you pick up looks nothing on the inside as it appears on the outside. Really simple, hard stuff like quartz is pretty easy because it doesn't really change but when you get into other things like Granite, marble, limestone for instance it gets more complicated.

Originally Posted by yohannrjm

This is a very interesting thread. I've often wondered if stones I see on my hikes could be good hones, but I lack the experience to identify good candidates. I also lack the resources at home to cut and flatten a raw rock.

One of my favourite hikes takes me past a place called 'razor hone creek'. I've never stopped to look around there, but whenever I see the signs for it, I want to stop and look around. My thought is that there must be a reason it was given that name.

This got me thinking...Razor Hone Creek...you know I frequently hike in the Appalachian Mountains and at one point I take a turn on Better Than Escher Road.... to get to my favorite spot. I'm taking a hammer next time!

On a recent vacation I just had to go hike Hone Creek. Maybe there was a translation error. There were no cool rocks at or around the creek. Perhaps in Spanish hone means something different.

So I guess we are not going to get a definitive table of known hones with the era and type of stone. I'm guessing most are metamorphic. But that is a guess. Not that say, all rocks from the Devonian period that are metamorphic will be the same....someone will come along some day with a chart.

I'm surprised someone here isn't a geologist or a professor of some kind... There's some nice geological survey maps of Wisconsin, with what looks like a ton of different kinds of stones. If I knew what to look out for, adventures could be had...

Originally Posted by dinnermint

I'm surprised someone here isn't a geologist or a professor of some kind... There's some nice geological survey maps of Wisconsin, with what looks like a ton of different kinds of stones. If I knew what to look out for, adventures could be had...

You rang? Actually we do or did have at least one working Geologist on the site. I studied it but never actually worked in it.

In Devonian times much more of the Earth's surface was covered by water than now. Most of your marine fossils are from those periods. All your crinoids and shells and Trilobites-early life before land creatures really existed.

I don't think Historical geology will help much with finding hones. It's a matter of knowing what rock/minerals makes the best hone material and then going to your local college and looking at Geologic Maps and superimposing them with Topographic Maps.

Found the link to the hones I was referring to earlier!

Apache Black Gila | NaturalHones.com

I'm interested in trying his line out. Truth be told I'm mostly interested in the color of his Apache reds. Nice shade of red, would be nice to have just for collection purposes. Also proof of concept that quality hones can be found lying about. Just takes a bit of knowledge and luck.

I like Rezdog's methodology. Rock hounding just might make it into my own hunting/fishing/camping expeditions. Might have better luck with that than I do hunting to be honest. If it weren't for the meat department at he grocery store I'd be on a strict fish and vegetable diet. 3 years running I haven't so much as seen a deer during hunting season. But when you can't harvest 'em, they're everywhere.

There are books about roadside Geology made for car trips. Often times these can be useful to cue you in on specific formations and their exact locations.

Originally Posted by Marshal

Found the link to the hones I was referring to earlier!

Apache Black Gila | NaturalHones.com

I'm interested in trying his line out. Truth be told I'm mostly interested in the color of his Apache reds. Nice shade of red, would be nice to have just for collection purposes. Also proof of concept that quality hones can be found lying about. Just takes a bit of knowledge and luck.

I like Rezdog's methodology. Rock hounding just might make it into my own hunting/fishing/camping expeditions. Might have better luck with that than I do hunting to be honest. If it weren't for the meat department at he grocery store I'd be on a strict fish and vegetable diet. 3 years running I haven't so much as seen a deer during hunting season. But when you can't harvest 'em, they're everywhere.

Come out West Marshal, we still have herds of deer and Elk a short season or two back I had pick of 6 point Mulie, 2/ 4 points and and 2/3 points, here we count 6 points on Each side, Huge Deer, and great eating from alfalfa and Corn/wheat fields. There are stones to be had too.