The Rockhound!

The rockhound's principle piece of equipment is the rock hammer. This small tool has a pick-like point on one end, and a flat hammer on the other. It should be noted, however, that the hammer end is for breaking rocks, and the pick end is mainly used for prying and digging into crevasses. The pick end of most rock hammers can dull quickly if struck onto bare rock.

Getting started in rockhounding is easy; a collection can begin with a single "pretty" rock. However, there are many clubs and groups that rockhound together. Libraries, bookstores, and "gem and mineral shows" are very good sources of published information on where to find such groups. Also, tourist info centers and small-town chambers of commerce can also supply valuable local information. The Internet can also be a useful tool and can help find buddies in the hobby.

The avid collector will learn quite a bit of mineralogy and geology in search of collecting location information as well as in the identification and classifying of specimens, and preparation for display. The hobby can lead naturally into lapidary or mineral and gemstone cutting and mounting. The needed equipment then includes rock saws and polishers. Many beautiful crystal varieties are typically found in very small samples which requires a good microscope for working with and photographing the specimen. The hobby can be as simple as finding pretty rocks for a windowsill or develop into a detailed and comprehensive museum quality display.

Many states regulate the collection of some rocks and minerals, even on public lands, so it is advisable to read up on local laws before prospecting. Rock and mineral collecting is prohibited in most if not all national parks.

Here's a small rock tumbler for the beginner or the kids! It's a cheap way to find out if you'll enjoy rock tumbling before buying more expensive equipment. Just click on picture!

If you're not sure what different minerals look like or just want to see some great picture of different minerals, here's a link.

This is a dealers site and many of the minerals are priced so if you want to buy, that's fine. I have never done any business through this site so I can not say how they are to do business with.

They do have lots of beautiful pictures though!

Mineral Galleries

Rockhounding is a great hobby for both the young and the old. Get your kids or grandkids interested in geodes and minerals and you have something that you'll be able to share for a lifetime. Click on picture for info on Dene's humorous rockhound tees and gifts.

A lapidary (the word means "concerned with stones") is an artisan who practices the craft of working, forming and finishing stone, mineral, gemstones, and other suitably durable materials (amber, shell, jet, pearl, copal, coral, horn and bone, glass and other synthetics) into functional and/or decorative, even wearable, items (e.g. cameos, cabochons, and more complex facetted designs).

There exist three broad categories of lapidary arts. These are the procedures of tumbling, cabochon cutting, and faceting. The distinction is somewhat loose, and leaves a broad range within the term cabochon.

At present most lapidary work is accomplished using motorized equipment and resin or metal bonded diamond tooling in successively decreasing particle sizes until a polish is achieved. Often, the final polish will use a different medium, such as tin oxide, glasitite or cerium(IV) oxide. Older techniques, still popular with hobbyists, used bonded grinding wheels of silicon carbide, with only using a diamond tipped saw. Diamond cutting, because of the extreme hardness of diamonds, cannot be done with silicon carbide, and requires the use of diamond tools.

Geodes are geological rock formations which occur in sedimentary and certain volcanic rocks. Geodes are essentially rock cavities or vugs with internal crystal formations or concentric banding. The exterior of the most common geodes is generally limestone or a related rock, while the interior contains quartz crystals and/or chalcedony deposits. Other geodes are completely filled with crystal, being solid all the way through. These types of geodes are called nodules.

For more on geodes visit my geode lens here!

Fossil collecting can be a very relaxing and rewarding hobby. There are no special rules about where one may find fossils, and you can find fossils in many places where sedimentary rocks are exposed, such as clays, shales, limestones, and sandstones. Only certain sedimentary rocks will yield fossils, and they are often concentrated along particular bedding planes within the rocks

Artificial exposures, such as road cuttings or quarries, can often be good collecting spots, along with continually eroding river or coastal exposures. Coal mining operations often yield excellent fossil plants, but the best ones are to be found not in the coal itself but in the associated sedimentary rock deposits called coal measures.

In hilly regions the best sections are often those exposed at the sides of streams that have cut into the bedrock.

Wave washed sea cliffs and foreshore exposures are often good places to search for fossils, but always be aware of the state of the tides in the area. Never take chances by climbing high cliffs of crumbling rock or clay (many have died attempting it).

Exposures of softer rocks, such as clays and sands, can be good collecting spots. However inland sections tend to degrade rapidly, becoming overgrown, and are lost forever.

Always record field notes, such as the locality, types of rock, and fossils seen in a sturdy notebook using waterproof ink. Detailed field notes are an essential part of your records, both from the point of view of keeping an accurate account of your collecting activities, and as an indispensable aid in the subsequent identification of your finds. Your field notes may in time be the only reference to a collecting area that later becomes destroyed by erosion or by the spread of urban areas. It often helps to make sketches of the site, particularly if the fossils are found in certain distinct bands or horizons within the rocks.

Having collected fossils it is essential that they are adequately protected from damage while they are being transported home. Each fossil or piece of rock containing a fossil should be carefully wrapped. Here newspaper, paper towels, sticky tape, polythene bags and an assortment of small boxes or tins will all prove to be useful.

All specimens collected should be labeled in the field with the details of the locality where they were found.

A cabochon or cabouchon is a gemstone which has been shaped and polished as opposed to facetted. The resulting form is usually a convex top with a flat bottom. Cutting "en cabochon" is usually applied to opaque gems, while facetting is usually applied to transparent stones. Hardness is also taken into account as softer gemstones with a hardness lower than 7 on the Mohs hardness scale are easily scratched, mainly by silicon dioxide in dust and grit. This would quickly make translucent gems unattractive. Instead they are polished as cabochons, making the scratches less evident.

The usual shape for cutting cabochons is an oval. This is because the eye is less sensitive to small asymmetricalities in an oval (as opposed to a round shape), and because the oval shape, combined with the dome, is attractive.

The normal procedure is to cut a slab of the rough rock, then to stencil a shape from a template. Normally, an aluminium scriber is used to mark the rock, as it tends not to rub off in handling. The slab is then trimmed to near the marked line, followed by nibbling to the line. The purpose of nibbling is to speed the shaping of the material. It arises because the saws are diamond tipped blades, whilst most grinding is done with silicon carbide grindwheels. The diamond cuts quicker and cleaner, and the saw does not wear as fast as the grind wheel.

Once the piece is trimmed and nibbled, it is usually mounted on a handle to assist manipulation. This procedure is called dopping: It is normally done by adhering the stone with wax onto a length of wooden dowel called a dop stick. The piece is then ground to the line, the edges are bevelled, and finally the top is smoothed to a uniform dome.

If you're looking for crystals, minerals, geodes, fossils or meteorites you might want to check here. Bestcrystals.com

Even if you're not looking to buy, they have some great pictures that could help you identify your finds.

The stone pictured is a ruby is a pink to blood-red gemstone, a variety of the mineral corundum (aluminium oxide). The red color is caused mainly by the presence of the element chromium. Its name comes from ruber, Latin for red. Other varieties of gem-quality corundum are called sapphires. The ruby is considered one of the four precious stones, together with the sapphire, the emerald, and the diamond.

Paperback: National Audubon Society Pocket Guide to Familiar Rocks and Minerals!
Great book for the beginning rockhound who wants to learn to identify rocks and minerals! Click on picture.


Although I am interested in rock collecting, I'm far from being an expert; So, I spend a lot of time searching for information on the subject so that I can assemble it here. It helps both me and those visiting this site to have just one place to go for this information.

Much of the information used here has been researched from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License.

If you've made it this far, I'd appreciate it if you would check out Dene's Place to see if there's anything that you might like for yourself or as a gift. It helps me pay the bills!

Thanks for stopping by! Be sure to check out my other lenses when you have time.

Much of the information used here has been researched from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License.