FMF - Friends of Minerals Forum, discussion and message board

[nurbo]

Hi Ed,
Thats fine, theres really no bubble to burst with me, to me it truly is about the rocks, Im not too worried about what they are, Ive got what may to some be a fairly odd way of collecting, I dont label stuff, I keep all the labels in a drawer in a totally unorganised heap and I connnect no more value to a gnarly old dinged piece of quartz than I would to anything else. I basically I keep the whats and wheres in my head and mix everything up on my shelves, I must confess to feeling something of an ass when I keep being corrected when I post stuff but hey, I'll live.
Im a mathematician and one thing Ive learned through the years of maths study I did is, you always learn a lot more from getting stuff wrong than you ever do getting stuff right, each time a labels been wrong its sent me off to learn something I didnt know before, its one of the wonders of the Fabre forum, sometimes I feel like I should "Get serious" and research all my rocks and label them all etc, but it soon passes :-)
It puts into perspective how many dealers mislabel stuff though, I just believe whatever is written on the box and as can be seen often its wrong. the beryl in question came with the quartz I put up here as Jeremejevite and which Jordi kindly corrected me on.

Jeeps its late here in the UK so Im off now, Ill leave you with a local north english saying ..... The man who never made a mistake never made owt (owt = anything for anyone not aquainted with English slang)

db

[Ed Huskinson]

Yep, me too. That's what I used to do, just keep the labels in a box or drawer. Or at least I used to be able to do. Then one day I picked up a specimen, one that I had collected myself, and couldn't remember just exactly where it came from. Golconda Mine? The COD Mine? Golden Eagle? I simply couldn't remember. The years and all the rocks begin to run together after a while, and I simply couldn't keep everything straight. The simplest thing for you to do is to assign a number to the specimen, glue a small piece of paper with that number (or even use the mineral tack, that blue or grey stuff) to a small place on the back, somewhere unobtrusive, hidden from view. Then write that number on the back of the label. Good enough for now, you can make things more permanent later on, if you are so inclined.

I use a system whereby I put the year (say 09), then a specimen acquisition number, like 23. So there is a small piece of paper (or whatever) on the specimen that says 09-23. When I pick up the specimen 5 years from now, and strain myself trying to remember all the details of how and where and why, and how much and whomever, I can go to the envelope labelled 2009. That envelope holds all of the labels for the rocks that I bought in 2009. I go through it to #23, and voila! there's all the data for the piece. It's fast and easy, and hassle-free. Next year's envelope will be 2010, and I'll start with 10-1, then 10-2. I might even have to use the full year, 2010, because there are some older specimens in my collection that could have originated in 1910 or 1911, whenever, but the back of the label will have a little write-up, and the date of acquisition, all that stuff.

Best of all is to put a permanent label on the back of the specimen, the underneath of the matrix or wherever, and cover that label with clear fingernail polish. Then it's bombproof and semi-permanent. And remember this: the singlemost important thing to put on the specimen is the locality, the place of origin, where it came from. There will always be a clever person somewhere who will be able to identify the mineral, but the locality thereof, well, that is often another question entirely.

Part of this goes to my failing memory. Sometimes we have selective memory loss, like "Do I owe you money? I can't remember whether I do or not.". But the time will come when there's just too much mineralogical information on the drum, and something has to give somewhere. Best to do this simple thing now. I think you'll be glad you did it when you are at a later stage in life.

And that's it. I still have a blank envelope, full of old labels to go through, sort out which label goes with which specimen. Things I acquired early on, that I haven't yet curated. 20, 30-year old stuff. I'm kind of saving that for when I retire, but sometimes I look in there and think "Now where did that little cerrusite go, the one I paid $25 for? I think it was little, wasn't it? Or was it that reticulated one, the one that I traded off? I can't remember.". So I scratch my head, and put the label back in the envelope and hope to be able to work it out at a later date. Gotta have something to do when I decide to lay down my rockpick.

Keep 'em coming DB, we're all enjoying it.

Ed

[nurbo]

Hi again,
Your probably right Ed, for now my memory is ok but sometimes I struggle to remember where I got stuff and when etc, especially since Im actually getting information I can trust from you guys on here. I dowloaded Carles Milan's freeware mineral database for this purpose but I havent had time to do it yet.

Here are a few more,
The Colorado Phenakites came from Ebay, about 4 years ago I was browsing and having a bit of a chuckle at some of the things on offer and how they could revolutionise my life when I saw this 1/2 pound of Mt Antero rough advertised for $25, I thought .. nothing to lose there and if I find one good Phenakite Ive got a bargain, it turned out it was the greatest bargain Ive ever had, I found Aquamarines, Pyrite, Quartz and in the region of about 600 tiny Phenakites and some Beryl's. Its kind of where my Phenakite obsession came into being. I have since sold enough to pay for it 10 times over and Ive still got hundreds of them left.

[parfaitelumiere]

I do the same way regarding labels,but for the moment I'm young...and I remember...
It's interesting to try to find what things can be,and where they come from,but it's often difficult...

[Ed Huskinson]

Yeah well, try it with 30 or 40 more years of collecting under your belt parfaitelumiere. Some things you never forget, but when you have others that are similar in aspect, then they start to run together, difficult to keep separate, that's all. And it's just advice, doesn't need to be followed at all. I'm such a stickler for it because despite the fact that I am married to a mineral-collecting belly dancer, and she can hold her own in most mineral discussions, and she is familiar with most of the specimens in my collection, she still does not know all of the locality data for the specimens. No one does, so I'm working most assiduously on that at the moment. I used to be young and bulletproof myself, but the vagaries of age (well, maybe it's just the mileage) are creeping to the fore.

Keep on posting, we're enjoying all of it.

Ed

[nurbo]

I just got my hands on this Japan law cluster allegedly from Madagascar I was going to trim the broken one off the front, in the extreme left of the photo, but then I decided not to as its broken right down the twinning axis which seems pretty neat to me. It has some Calcite on it too.

[nurbo]

And so i was walking down this road, in the rain, in the somewhat grim northern town of Preston when I came across a fossil store, I wandered in for a look and found this in a drawer. The main crystal is 15 mm tall, the guy in the shop had no idea about it, he had to ask me what it was to fill the invoice in, it brightened up the day, best of all there were 3 of them, and it was priced at £6.99 (Less than $10) and covered in dust, even though it was in a drawer, so Im assuming it is a few years old, it looks like an ACF shaft one from Mibladen that I saw on mindat, can anyone confirm or correct this for me?
thanks

[Jordi Fabre]

Yes Nurbo, it looks as from ACF shaft. It could also be from Bouhlmaden (in Mibladen area too) but if its color is the same than the photo's color, then probably ACF shaft.

Jordi

[nurbo]

Thanks Jordi,
The colour is maybe slightly deeper red than the photo suggests, it is so hard to get a 100% accurate photograph in terms of colour,. there is a tiny amount of black and white matrix attached to it also.

I found this wonderful inclusion/negative? in one of my Phenakites the other day, its a flower shaped group of interconnected tubes which look like they have a dusting of microcline inside them its in the top right hand corner of the photograph. I may yet try for a better photograph, but the crystal is only 5mm long and Im quite limited by the "Super macro" setting on my camera. How I wish I had one of those Carl Zeiss microscope photographing machines.

[Jordi Fabre]

If deeper red then probably ACF shaft. The Bouhlmaden specimens usually are less red, more brownish, than the ACF ones (although the crystal size is bigger).

Jordi

[nurbo]

Hi Folks,
Another of my Phenakites, this one seems to have oxide staining within the internal cracks and a Rhodochrosite from Peru, there is a broken crystal on the bottom half of the specimen and Im wondering if I could get it off without leaving a chunk embedded on the matrix, its a tough call because one side's termination is superb the other is missing, Ive added a close up so you can see my dilemma.

[parfaitelumiere]

David,
I have prepared your specimen for swapping,but I have lost the mail with your address,can you send it once again at: myfurious200sx(at)yahoo(dot)fr?

[nurbo]

Here are some more that I finally got around to photographing,

[Jim]

Hi Nurbo,

Thanks for posting the new pics! Please keep them coming.

Cheers,

[Jordi Fabre]

Nurbo,

The ramshorn Gypsum is not from Bou Azzer. As far as I know is from some place close Bou Beker. I can't remember the name of the place, sorry, when recovered I will let you know.

About the Aragonite (or Calcite) sorry again but I'm not familiar with it, I can't help you.

Jordi