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Picked up a couple Colorado slates to play with on a recent camping trip.
Excellent. I have not been off the beaten path for far too long. I did not even hunt last winter. gasp.
I'm not really trying to save it, it just keeps getting declined. January I hope to be out doing a bunch of rock hounding. I am going to make a trip to Colorado. My pay is really quite messed up right now so planning anything is difficult.
We have had no snow, even in the alpine areas for over three years. January is a great time for rockhounding and hunting for me. It's a little cool for rockhounding but it's better to hunt when the weather is cool, the meat can hang a little longer and has no risk of spoilage. For me the two go together, and a little steelhead fishing in there too.
Been for a day trip over to Wales with a friend this weekend. We didn't get out into Snowdon territory, or even into proving rock hunting grounds. I did make him pull over at one point so I could grab some slate tho.
I pulled a few lumps off this bank. When we pulled over to take a few pictures.
https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@52.43...7i13312!8i6656
Most of the surface rock was well weathered. Lots of cracks, and most was in small chunks that were not much use to anyone. I found a few bigger ones that got put in the car.
The rock is a slate like, I'm not sure if it is a true slate as it doesn't seem to have the fine layers. It's more like block layers. Dark green/grey in colour, and seems pretty hard. The first lapping has produced a stone with a nice polish. Once I've had chance to lap a few I'll get some images sorted, but for the minute here's the view.
https://c2.staticflickr.com/6/5226/2...95a42995_b.jpg
https://c2.staticflickr.com/6/5074/3...2a1044f8_b.jpg
I was out in the back country this past weekend. The access to the area i used to get rocks for making hones has been cut off by a very large slide. It is likely I will be able to walk in there next year, but the fresh slide is really soft, and I did try walking on it but it is full off very deep soft spots. I will give it some time, but it seems to me that the slide is still 5 miles or so from the rock. Time to explore some new rock. Perhaps I will find a nice slate that is easier to work with and still produces a fast and fine finish. I was also forced to export some other areas for hunting and I do have some new samples. We will see if it becomes anything other than hone shaped rocks.
:-)