FMF - Friends of Minerals Forum, discussion and message board

[Alisha]

First of all, I apologize if this isn't in the correct spot and any necessary moving if it's wrong. My comments/questions seem so vague to me that I figured they'd best fit in a general area.

I'm a newbie to "real" field collecting and am just pursuing it again after a childhood roaming the hills of Kentucky and childishly collecting the neater rocks, minerals, and fossils I'd find. Then, I'd bring them back to the house and spend what I considered then a very grown-up time in scrubbing them under hose and soap, enduring the "oddball" tag even this earned me... lol

Ten years ago I moved to Central Wisconsin and the entire land is just different. Though I've been outdoors as much as possible in pursuit of other interests I've developed, I'm mostly in the very flat areas of the glacial activity and never had my interest piqued by anything geologic. Luckily for me, since ALL my interests require the more chaotic hilly landscapes, I do live near the very edges of the glacial activity and therefore there are some areas just basically next door like Powers Bluff, which has some great geologic differences and upheavals.

There is a small creek that I believe can be simply said to be part of the same activity that formed Powers Bluff, since it's just a few miles down the road and the huge boulders and landscapes look much alike. In this creek I started to discover some of the same things that used to fascinate me, and this year I've been hauling a lot of them back. Thus far, it's mostly agate and jasper type stones and a lot of things that i personally consider really neat, but are probably just leaverites to most people with any true knowledge.

I'd like to pursue this a lot farther. I started to collect more avidly this year with original intentions to learn how to carve stone (I dabble in art and found sculpture to be my most natural talent, though thus far in maleable, shapable material like polymer). I like the entire huge intimidating educational requirements behind truly being "good" at field collecting, and while I still have hopes of carving some things, I also am attracted to the site of a gorgeous specimen all cleaned and prepped.

Which brings me to my first questions... I'm at a loss on how to "see" what is worth doing more with in the field. I cannot seem to find good information about the process of not just rough mineral recognition, but the recognition of the roughest rough, as in what kinds of features would drive one to further explore a stone? I'm low on funds at the moment to invest in a lot of different tools, but even then I hope to learn more about the most simple methods of hand chisels and hammers, but that is also not something I'm finding. Obviously I'm doing a seek and find method rather than a hard rock mining method, which would be something one day I hope to move into, but for now, I'll stick with the only source of halfway interesting specimens (even if just to me).

Thus far, I've been relying on just finding the obvious. Most of the time, the nature of this means that the specimens are as cleared from matrix as possible, but that there are still quite a lot that could use some general slight trimming and work to really make them look good or to incorporate the remaining matrix as an asset rather than detraction. Again, I'm a dabble-artist, so the aesthetics are really important to me, tho I'm also a dabbler scientist so I love when both can intersect. I don't want to sacrifice a specimen's qualities to make it pretty, but I also don't want to necessarily abandon all pretty for textbook qualities, if that makes sense?

So I'm having problems in trimming them. The limitations i have in tools mean that I only have a dremel with various attachments, chisels, hammers, and many rigged up things that I've developed to do what I want, and also a great flexibility in thinking to develop other things. The problems are mostly finding reliable, good info, beyond just throwing small pebbles in tumblers. :(

Final question... Are there any reasonable expectations to develop in prediction of glacial till deposits? I'm entering the fray of mineralogy with crash self-education and therefore everything is a delightful surprise (or occasionally sad disappointment). Since I'm using glacial till currently as my only source, I was wondering if that will ALWAYS be the case in such a source. Of course I'm going by the most basic moron definition, of being the stuff left over from traveling glaciers, so assuming that anything I find may or may not be of the area and therefore may or may not be expected as a type of specimen to find here.

I hope this rambling makes sense. I'm usually much more articulate and less ignorant, but this is a huge field that I didn't have a background in. I love this site for the huge amounts of real information and am somewhat intimidated, but am also becoming rather frustrated lately by the ignorance that seems to hamper me. :(

Edited to add: Just wanted to say that the trimming I want to do and practice would be on specimens that are the "leaverite" variety, just to use this time to learn for maybe some day far into the future when I'm reasonably confident in my abilities before I'd ever attempt to trim or shape a "real" specimen with potential. :)

[Jordi Fabre]

Welcome here Alisha.

All our "senior staff" (John White, Pete Modreski, Peter Megaw and so...) should be in Denver Show currently, please wait until his return to get their answers.
I prefer to let for they that task considering the kind of questions you propose.

[Alisha]

[Susan Robinson]

Hi Alisha,
A good place to learn about the geology and minerals of Wisconsin is at a museum that has displays of them. The Weis Earth Science Museum at Menasha has very good displays of Wisconsin minerals and some worldwide specimens. The staff there has good knowledge of Midwest localities, too. Another museum that is north of you is the A. E. Seaman Mineral Museum in Houghton, Michigan. They have displays of worldwide minerals, a fluorescent mineral room, and probably some of the best minerals from the Midwest U.S., focusing especially on the Copper Country. As for Wisconsin, they have minerals from the Flambeau mine (Ladysmith, WI), the Gogebic Iron Range, and an excellent display of minerals from Shullsburg, part of the Wisconsin Lead District area.
I hope this information is helpful for you.
Susan Robinson

[Alisha]

[nurbo]

Welcome aboard
The thing about trimming is to practice, get a lot of stuff you don't mind wrecking and try and see if you can anticipate where its going to break when you hit it, some matrix will be predictable some will not, after a while you will develop an eye for these things. I think a couple of the key points about trimming are
1 ... Confidence, every time you give a potential specimen a good whack with a hammer you risk destroying it, so, the less you have to hit it, the more likely you are to finish up with something worth keeping, be bold with your hammer strikes.
2 ... luck, there is a lot of luck involved, the balance between luck and judgement alters with experience.
I hope this helps.