Jim Flora running off with some of his goodies!

Chrissy and I spent a day digging with Ron and Fay Burke, Ron Maddox and Bill Hayward. At sunrise, we were on the last road leading to the mine when we saw the following sight.

After seeing that sky, Chrissy and I both knew that it was going to be a very good day of rockhounding, and we were right. We found more than a few goodies that day and equally divided everything. It took us all a good long while to carefully wrap our specimens.

Group Wrap

Ron Maddox busy wrapping

Chrissy, always happy to wrap!

Ron and Faye Burke

Bill Hayward.

While we were wrapping specimens, I held up one of the larger crystals and announced to the gang that I just had to take it home to photograph. (Sure, Mike . . . we believe that . . . I could see the sarcasm in their eyes. Heck, I wasn't even fooling myself.). The specimen was completely coated with brown iron oxide - the following picture was taken after a few days of soaking in Super Iron Out.

(this picture doesn't enlarge)

By the way - generally, I have found that the best way to clean quartz on matrix specimens is to heat them in oxalic acid. This is the principle method used by Arkansas quartz mining operations. We have a propane turkey fryer and large pot to serve this purpose. However, a few of our recent smoky quartz finds at the Diamond Hill quartz mine posed a dilemma for me in that they are too big to fit in my pot. So, I put on my thinking cap and came up with a new way to "cook" the monster specimens.

I searched the NET and discovered a product called a "bucket heater". Chrissy and I found the bucket heater pictured below at our local Tractor Supply store for $34.

Allied Precision Bucket Heater
#742G 1000 watts, 120 volts

The same bucket heater can be purchased at the following website: http://www.pet-dog-cat-supply-store.com/shop/index.php?page=shop/flypage&product_id=6961

According to the literature that came with the bucket heater, it designed to be immersed in water and will slowly heat it up to around a maximum 180-degrees, depending on the volume. The design of the heater is such that it can placed in plastic containers without fear of melting them. I placed the heater and iron oxide-coated specimen into a large plastic container containing an oxalic acid/water solution (1 lb acid/3 gallons water) for about 6 hours (outside, of course) and was very pleased by the following result.

Click on the above picture to enlarge

The oxalic acid solution turned the bucket heater's metal guard gray, but the unit does not seem any worse for wear. Now I have a way to cook our big stuff, so look out!

---

CLICK THE LITTLE MINER TO RETURN TO THE FIELD TRIP PAGE