HOW TO FIND OUR MEETING PLACE

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1 HELL S CANYON GEM CLUB Serving the Valley for 64 YEARS P.O. BOX 365 LEWISTON, IDAHO PURPOSE OF HELLS CANYON GEM CLUB, INC. The purpose of this nonprofit, social club is to promote the rock hound hobby by providing opportunities for the collection, working and displaying of gems and minerals, as well as educational programs in the field of geology. MEETINGS: 2nd Friday of each month Business Meeting: 6:45 pm VISITORS ARE ALWAYS WELCOME Dues: Adult [per person] $15.00; Junior [under 18] Free with a responsible adult membership BOARD OF DIRECTORS President Vice President Secretary Treasurer Past President 1st Year Trustee Bruce Borgelt Randy Squires st Year Trustee Richard Pederson 2nd Year Trustee Kyle Prettyman 2nd Year Trustee Mel Wilks MaryLou Northrup Federation Director Jerry Northrup Linn Enger Federation Delegate MaryLou Northrup Teresa Stephenson WSMC Representative Dan Cease HELLS CANYON WEBSITE: WEBMASTER: Rick Westerholm: hcgemclub@yahoo.com =================================================================================================================================== HOW TO FIND OUR MEETING PLACE 1

2 Meeting minutes March 11, 2016 Bruce Borgelt opened the meeting at 7:00pm Jared Dvorak was introduced as a guest. Minutes were accepted as written in the Boulder Buster. Mar Lou Northrup gave a treasurer's report. Bills were paid and the club is in good financial shape at this time. Jerry Northrup was appointed director and Mary Lou Northrup was appointed delegate to the N.F.M.S. They will attend the mid-year meeting at the Tri Cities in April and the Yearly meeting in Albany, Oregon in July to represent our club. Mary Lou brought up the recent marriage of longtime club member Rick Westerholm. It was decided to have a cake in his honor at the club rock auction in April. Mary Lou will take care of the cake. Jered Dvorak donated a box and Bruce Borgelt donated gifts for Rick and Beth, to be placed in the box. Teresa Stephenson was appointed to arrange the presents. Congratulations Rick and Beth. Jerry Northrup gave a short report about the importance of our show and recommending that we still have a show in Tiffany Kite stepped forward to be a dealer chairman for the 2016 show. Thank You Tiffany! It was suggested that the officers as a group be the chairman for our show. That idea was received favorably so we will begin working on a show for October We will meet as a committee 1/2 hour before the regular club meeting to discuss show issues. Bud Betz talked about maybe being able to use a geological display from one of the area colleges to use at the show. Teresa moved that we give slab displays at 2016 show to demonstrators and people who make displays like we did last year. It was seconded and motion passed. It was discussed to include gold panners some way in our show since this is our 50 th anniversary show. 50th anniversaries are usually called gold. Since it is our 50th anniversary show, Linn Enger suggested we do some kind of display on the history of our club. He offered to work on that. In the April meeting come with ideas for a show theme. Make it golden of possible. Linn Enger passed out membership lists to members. Each list was accompanied with a copy of club bylaws. Jerry Lindstrom asked if our club ever asked for sponsorship's to help put on our show or other club activities. We said not at this time but may think about doing it. Jerry Lindstrom also said their was space on Grange property to set-up a modular building if we could find one. We could put rock equipment in the building, give classes, etc. Power and water would be available. Teresa Stephenson, Bruce Borgelt, Mary Lou Northrup, Jerry Lindstrum and Randy Squires were appointed to a committee to check out possible building. A price of up to $5,000 was put on building and set-up costs. Jerry Northrup mentioned the field trip to Saddle Mountain on April 16. He brought some petrified wood from that area to look at. No one at the meeting seemed to be going. Jerry also brought up the idea that we used to have refreshments at our meetings. Would we like to do it again? The general idea was no and no motion was made. Show and Tell--Bruce Borgelt showed a piece of cloud agate. Jerry Blimka showed some beautiful opals. Door prizes were drawn. Meeting adjourned 2

3 ========================================================== Club Auction Our club rock auction was held on April 2, 2016 in Sacajawea Hall on the Lewis Clark College Campus. There was a nice assortment of slabs, rocks, and equipment to sell. The people who came enjoyed their day and found some new treasures to take home. We also had a cake, punch and coffee for newlyweds Rick and Beth Westerholm. Congratulations to both. The club earned almost $500 for their share of the auction. Thanks to Mel Wilks for auctioneering and everyone who helped to set up or sell. ============================================================================== 2016 GEM SHOWS(Partial list, see April 8, 9 &10 Sat Sun Yakima Rock and Mineral Club Central Wash. State Fair Grounds, Modern Living Building, 1301 South Fair Avenue, Yakima WA April 9-10 Sat Sun Idaho Falls Gem & Mineral Society Idaho Falls Recreation Center B Street Idaho Falls, ID Dave Gunderson or Kevin Landon PO Box 2362 Idaho Falls ID April Sat Sun Lakeside Gem & Mineral Club Benton Franklin County Fairgrounds 1500 S. Oak Kennewick, WA Mary Lou Omstead PO Box 6652 Kennewick WA May 21 & 22 Sat 10 6 Sun 10-5 Bitterroot Gem and Mineral Society First Interstate Center Ravalli County Frgrnds 100 Old Corvallis Road Hamilton, MT Steve Vieth viethteve88@gmail.com July Fri 10-6 Sat 10 6 Sun 10-4 Willamette Agate and Mineral Society AFMS and NFMS MEETINGS Linn County Expo Center, Albany, Oregon Janice Van Cura jvancura@peak.org 3 Dwayne Drake yakima_rockhounds12@yahoo.com PO Box 326, Yakima WA 98907

4 METEOR OF THE MONTH (used by permission, Meteorite picture of the day, Photo by Mark Mauthner / Christie's ZAGAMI 1382 grams. *Martian (shergottite) TKW 18 kg. Observed fall October 3, 1962, in Zagami, Katsina Province, Nigeria. On October 3, 1962 near Zagami Rock, Nigeria, a farmer was nearly struck by a meteorite which had been ejected off the Martian surface following an asteroid impact. In 1996, in an announcement which made headlines throughout the world, minute amounts of gas were found trapped in Zagami's matrix which matched perfectly with the signature of the Martian atmosphere as determined by NASA's Viking landers. This is the main mass of Zagami. Weighing 1382 grams. Provenance: Natural History Museum, London; Kaduna Geological Survey, Nigeria; The Robert Haag Meteorite Collection. The Zagami main mass is LOT 17 in Christie's first dedicated METEORITE AUCTION Wed., April 20th in London *martian meteorite: Martian meteorites are martian rocks that were ejected from Mars by impacts and later fell to the Earth as meteorites. Three well-known types are shergottites (basaltic to lherzolitic igneous rocks, named after the Shergotty, India, fall of 1865), nakhlites (clinopyroxenites or wehrlites, formed as cumulate rocks, and named after the Nakhla, Egypt, fall of 1911), and chassignites (dunitic cumulate rocks named after the Chassigny, France, fall of 1815). 4

5 2.3 gram slice of Zagami Thin section in crossed-polarized light The new dieter s 10 commandments: 1. If you eat something and no one saw it it has no calories. 2. When you eat with someone else, the calories don t count if they ate more. 3. Tasting someone else s food doesn t count. 4. If people around us gain weight, we automatically become thinner. 5. If your movie ticket comes with a free tub of popcorn, it doesn t count as food. 6. Every food you split into smaller pieces will contain less calories. 7. Tasting food while preparing it is essential, and therefore healthy. 8. Foods with similar colors contain the same amount of calories. This is why it s fine to eat pistachio ice cream instead of spinach. 9. Chocolate has a dedicated area in the stomach, which is why you should have it with every meal. 10. Frozen foods, such as ice cream, contain no calories. The reason is that a calorie is a measurement of heat units. The reason animals don t need to diet is that it s hard to keep tabs on their eating habits. Imagine for a moment, what your dog s food journal would look like: Dear diary, today I ate the food in my bowl, half of the cat s food, the crust of two sandwiches that were in the sink, one tea bag from the trash, three flies, and a green rubber ball. How many calories is that? 5

6 Bureau of Land Management Seeks Nominations to Resource Advisory Councils Through May 2, 2016, Bureau of Land Management is seeking public nominations for open positions on several Resource Advisory Councils (RACs) in Oregon and Washington. Portland, Ore. -- The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) recently announced that it is seeking public nominations for open positions on 34 Resource Advisory Councils (RACs), including six in Oregon and two in Washington State, which advise the BLM on public land issues. As published in a notice in the Federal Register, the BLM will consider nominations for 45 days. The BLM's RACs, composed of citizens chosen for their expertise in natural resource issues, help the Bureau carry out its stewardship of 245 million acres of public lands. The Bureau, which manages more land than any other Federal agency, has 39 RACs across the West, where most BLM-managed land is located. Each RAC consists of 10 to 15 members with an interest or expertise in public land management, including such individuals as conservationists, ranchers, outdoor recreationists, state and local government officials, Tribal officials, and academics. The diverse membership of each RAC helps ensure that BLM land managers get the varying perspectives they need to achieve their mission, which is to manage the public lands for multiple uses. The BLM has eight RACs in Oregon and Washington. They include the Northwest Oregon RAC, Southwest Oregon RAC, Southeast Oregon RAC, Coastal Oregon RAC, John Day-Snake RAC, Eastern Washington RAC, Steens Mountain AC, and San Juan Islands National Monument AC. Additional information about the RACs in Oregon and Washington is available online at: "The BLM Resource Advisory Councils are an important forum for the community conversation that is a key component of public land management," said BLM Director Neil Kornze. "With representatives with different land use perspectives, the RACs give community members an opportunity to dig into local issues and explore possible solutions." Individuals may nominate themselves or others to serve on an advisory council. Nominees, who must be residents of the state or states where the RAC has jurisdiction, will be judged on the basis of their training, education, and knowledge of the council's geographical area. Nominees should also demonstrate a commitment to consensus building and collaborative decisionmaking. All nominations must be accompanied by letters of reference from any represented interests or organizations, a completed RAC application, and any other information that speaks to the nominee's qualifications. Each of the 34 RACs has different positions open in the following categories: Category One -- Public land ranchers and representatives of organizations associated with energy and mineral development, the timber industry, transportation or rights-of-way, off-highway vehicle use, and commercial recreation. Category Two -- Representatives of nationally or regionally recognized environmental organizations, archaeological and historical organizations, dispersed recreation activities, and wild horse and burro organizations. Category Three -- Representatives of state, county, or local elected office; representatives and employees of a state agency responsible for the management of natural resources; representatives of Indian Tribes within or adjacent to the area for which the RAC is organized; representatives and employees of academic institutions who are involved in natural sciences; and the public-at-large. The BLM manages more than 245 million acres of public land, the most of any Federal agency. This land, known as the National System of Public Lands, is primarily located in 12 Western states, including Alaska. The BLM also administers 700 million acres of sub-surface mineral estate throughout the nation. The BLM's mission is to manage and conserve the public lands for the use and enjoyment of present and future generations under our mandate of multiple-use and sustained yield. In Fiscal Year 2014, the BLM generated $5.2 billion in receipts from public lands. "The world will not be destroyed by those who do evil, but by those who watch them without doing anything." - Albert Einstein. 6

7 Beginners Guide to Rock Polishing Overview--For tumbling of rocks as a lapidary technique, a plastic or rubberlined barrel is loaded with a selection of rocks, all of similar or the same hardness, some abrasive grit, and water. Silicon carbide grit is commonly used, and water is the universal lubricant. The barrel is then placed upon slowly rotating rails so that it rotates. The optimal speed of rotation depends on the size of the tumbler barrel and materials involved. The slowly turning barrel causes the rocks within the barrel to slide past each other, with the abrasive grit between them. The result of this depends on the coarseness of the abrasive, and the duration of the tumble. Typically, a full tumble from rough rock to polish takes between 3 6 weeks, and is done in a minimum of 3 steps. Initially, the rocks are smoothed with a coarse grit (such as mesh). The idea behind the first step is to take T your rough rock or stone and tumble it down into a form which is generally umbled gemstones. (Note that four of the items in the picture are not tumbled) rounded with smooth edges. This is the final shape of each stone. This is then followed by washing and then two or three stages of finer grits ( then mesh), before the (optional) use of a pre-polishing compound (1200 grit), a washing cycle with detergent to remove any grit on the stones. The final step is a polishing stage using powdered polish, (such as cerium oxide or tin oxide), water, and often small plastic pellets that are designed to cushion the stones as they tumble (so as not to cause chipping) and carry the polish evenly across the stones. The precise tumbling time is determined by many factors, including the hardness of the rock and the degree of smoothing desired in the coarser steps. Some people will tumble stones with rough grit for two, three or even four weeks to get their desired shapes out of the stones. There are two main types of rock tumbling: barrel (rotary) tumbling, and vibratory tumbling. Rotary tumbling is more common, simpler, quieter and less expensive than vibratory tumblers. There are two differentiating factors, however, that may lead one to use a vibratory tumbler. First, vibratory tumblers retain the overall shape of the rough rock, whereas rotary tumblers tend to make rocks round. Thus, it is important to use a vibratory tumbler when you want to polish preformed shapes such as cabs, tear drops or other forms A typical basic rock tumbler where you want to retain the shape. Pre-formed material may use less time with the coarsest step, or skip it altogether. Second, vibratory tumblers tend to process much faster than rotary tumblers, generally reducing the process time to half. What are the best types of rock to polish?---any rock with a Moh's hardness of 5 to 7 will generally polish well in a tumbler; Agates and Jaspers are very suitable and come in many colors and patterns. Generally, if the wet rough rock has a glassy luster it will tumble to a shine; if it has an earthy luster it will likely have an earthy luster after tumbling. Best results will happen if you tumble a single rock type in a batch. Follow these links to learn more about which types of rocks can be tumbled together- Types of rock that can't be tumbled Sedimentary rocks like sandstone, coal, limestone and shale are too soft or poorly cemented to polish into shiny gems. Metamorphic rocks that contain micas or have a "grainy" texture (slate, schist, gneiss) will break up instead of becoming smooth. 7

8 Most Igneous rocks contain several different minerals that wear down at very different rates and won't tumble uniformly. Rocks with protrusions, voids or fractures don't tumble well, they tend to break and/or trap grit and release it during the finer grit and polishing steps and end up scratching the others in the batch. Try breaking them into smaller pieces with a rock hammer or just don't use them. Rotary tumblers are designed to turn a specific barrel weight and some machines are designed to turn more than one barrel at a time. The barrel holds the rock, grit and water. Most barrels today are a thick rubber barrel or rubber lined barrel with a softer, removable lid that cuts down on noise. Tumblers are rated by the weight of the combined rock, grit and water in a batch to be tumbled. Tumblers from 1.5 lbs to hundreds of lbs are available, the most common being 3 and 6 pound. Many purchase extra barrels and label them for a specific tumbling stage. This reduces the potential for scratching by grit from a previous stage and eliminates the thorough cleaning required between each stage. Properly maintained a rock tumbler can last for years. Look for a machine with a good reputation, sound construction, and a warranty. Remember that one batch will require 4-6 weeks of 24 hour operation. Do not expect a toy store plastic rock tumbler to last long. Rotary tumblers are the least expensive for a given batch size. Vibratory tumblers have either mechanical or electronic drives. Mechanical units use motors for power, Sonic tumblers use magnetic energy and have no moving parts such as shafts, belts or pulleys, and are exceptionally long lived. The action in vibratory tumblers is more gentle than that found in rotary tumblers. The barrel in a vibratory tumbler remains stationary even as it vibrates, producing a continuous movement of material and grit within the barrel. Because of their polishing action. Hearts and squares will come out as Thumler's Model UV-10 hearts and squares. This makes vibratory tumblers ideal for polishing carvings, metal jewelry, castings, etc. Vibratory tumblers are generally faster in polishing a given load of material than a rotary tumbler, but actual time can vary from one day for a final polish on a preformed stone to several weeks on hard-topolish stones when starting from scratch. Using a vibratory tumbler is similar to a rotating tumbler. Rough rocks, abrasive grit and water are placed in the bowl on top of the vibrating machine, but less grit is required. The bowl vibrates rapidly and that action produces a lot of friction between the vibrating rock particles. A circulating action develops that moves rocks slowly from the bottom of the bowl up to the surface along the outside edges of the bowl and then back down to the bottom along the center post. The rough grind step is run for about a week. The fine grind, pre-polish and polishing steps are run for just one or two days. The total time required to process a batch of rock is about two weeks - about 50% less time than a rotary tumbler. Some vibratory tumblers are sold with two bowls - one for the grinding steps and one for the polishing steps. It is a good idea to buy a second bowl if yours comes with only one. Silicon carbide grit from the grinding steps(first step) can become embedded in the walls of the plastic bowl and scratch the rock during the polishing steps. The second type of vibratory tumbler is sometimes deferred to as a sonic or ultrasonic tumbler. This unit has the same circulating action but, you can tumble polish almost any kind of stone, from opal to topaz, delicate carvings and preforms, as well as metal items such as coins, jewelry findings, shell casings, etc. It improves the polishing process and uses only a small amount of Diamond Pacific MT-4. Sonic tumbler 8

9 abrasives compared to ordinary tumblers. You control the rotation and intensity of the tumbler operation with solid state electronic controls. Producing Rounded Tumbles Quickly--Many people who process a lot of tumble-polished rocks run the grinding steps in a rotary tumbler and the polishing steps in a vibratory tumbler. The rotary tumbler shapes the rough into nicely rounded shapes and the vibratory tumbler speeds them through the polishing steps. Production time can be cut by 40 to 50 percent. If you are going to become a rock tumbler, consider joining this group: rocktumblinghobby.com. The "specialty" of this group is teaching and helping "newbies" to rock tumbling the ins and outs, the do's and don'ts in every aspect of the hobby. This includes buying the right tumbler for your particular needs and pocket book. Spend some time going over all the information on this link: General Barrel Tumbling Procedure Select a location for your tumbler that will not disturb you or the family (shop, garage, basement). Read this article clear through, research, at least, the links above before you start. Understanding the whole process and some of the pitfalls will help you to have results you can be proud of. Coarse Grind--Inspect the rocks that you are about to tumble. Make sure that they are the same hardness(see links above) and of various sizes. Remove any rocks that are cracked, have deep voids or have extremely irregular shapes. These should be discarded or broken at the crack line. Fill the barrel 2/3 to 3/4 full of high-quality rocks. Note: If you are tumbling rounded beach rocks or rocks that have been pre-tumbled and are satisfied with the shape of the rocks, you may skip the coarse grind step and go straight to the fine grind. But if your rocks are broken, have jagged edges, or you would like them to be a bit more rounded, put them through the coarse grind first. The barrel must always be at least 1/2 to 3/4 full for the tumbler to operate properly. But don t overload it! Barrels more than 3/4 full (including grit and water) may be too heavy for your tumbler s motor and there might not be enough space inside for the rocks to tumble. A 3 pound tumbler has a motor designed to tumble a barrel that weighs up to 3 pounds. A 6 pound motor can handle a barrel or two barrels weighing 6 pounds total, etc. If you re not sure if the barrel is too full, weigh it after adding the water Add the appropriate amount of tumbler grit according to the tumbler s instructions, or use the chart. Add enough water to reach the bottom of the top layer of stones, but not so much that they are covered. You want to see some of the rock above the water. See photo to the right. Use a paper towel to clean the inside and outside rims of the barrel and the edges of the lid. Make sure the surfaces that will form the seal are clean and dry. Then place the lid on the barrel and seal the barrel. Put the barrel on the tumbler and start the motor. And we re off! 9

10 Stick around for a few minutes to make sure the tumbler is running smoothly and the barrel isn t leaking. If the barrel is leaking, stop the machine, remove the lid and re-clean the surfaces of the lid and barrel that must make the seal. Double-check that they are clean and dry. Replace the lid securely and proceed. Also, check the tumbler in a few hours again to make sure it s still running smoothly. After this, it can probably be left unattended, but it s not a bad idea to check up on it every day or so. If you have a double-barrel tumbler, you might need both barrels charged (loaded) for the tumbler to function properly. We recommend filling both barrels with batches of coarse grind of the same hardness so that they can be combined later on. Then you can have one barrel running a batch of fine grind while the other prepares more rough. Let the tumbler run for 7 days, 24 hours a day. You can open the barrel to check the slurry (the muddy liquid inside) or to release gas build-up (gas build-up is usually not a problem) occasionally if you like, but be sure to clean and dry the seal areas before replacing the lid! After 7 days, stop the tumbler and open the barrel. It will look like a barrel of mud! DO NOT POUR THE MUD OR THE USED GRIT DOWN A DRAIN. It will clog your plumbing system. Instead, empty the barrel into a plastic (not metal, it can mark the rocks) colander over a plastic bucket or a disposable container, like the bottom half of a milk jug or 2-liter bottle. Rise thoroughly with a weak stream of water. Wear safety glasses while rinsing to protect your eyes from a possible splash of muddy water. Now that you have rinsed the rocks, take a good look at them. Virtually all of the shaping is done in this first step. The following steps only smooth the rock, not shape it, so the shape you see now is what you will end up with if you continue to the fine grind. If you would prefer your rocks to be more rounded, you should repeat this step with fresh coarse grit until they are shaped to your liking. It may take a few re-runs, but the extra wait is worth the results. Don t be in a rush! Quality takes time. Tumble most loads of rock, that aren t beach rocks or pre-tumbled, through the coarse grind at least twice. If some of the batch is ready to go on to the next step, you should set aside these rocks to wait for the others to catch up. If there are any rocks that have deep cracks or pits(you did take these out before you started,right?), these rocks should not be tumbled with the finer grinds. Particles of the coarse grit will get trapped in these voids and contaminate the next step, scratching the other rocks. Break these rocks and include them with your next batch of coarse grind. If the cracks or pits are very shallow, it might be possible to tumble them out, but this should only be done in the coarse grind. Don t think that you can scrub the grit out; it s next to impossible! Be safe and save them for your next coarse batch. If you are repeating the coarse grind, use fresh grit. The old grit can t be reused because after seven days it breaks down too much to be effective in shaping (yet will still effectively scratch rocks if it contaminates the fine grind). When charging the barrel, you might need to add new tumbling rough to bring the volume of the barrel to at least 1/2 full. If you don t have more rough, you can use plastic pellets or ceramic media to bring the volume to 1/2 full. If you are proceeding to the fine grind, first CLEAN the rocks, barrel, and lid THOROUGHLY. This cannot be stressed enough. If you have grit or slurry left in the barrel or on the rocks when you proceed to the next step, you will contaminate the load and have to start over with the previous step. A few particles of leftover grit will scratch the rocks during the next step. While these scratches may be very tiny, the end result could be that the rocks do not polish to a high shine. Thorough cleaning is very important, so take your time and do a good job. You can use paper towels or an old toothbrush to clean the inside of the barrel. Pay particular attention to the seal area and the bottom edges of the barrel - lots of gunk might be trapped here and will not only contaminate your batch, but might cause the barrel to leak. If you opt to use a toothbrush, mark it as Coarse grind only, etc. so that you remember what step it can only be used for. You should have a separate toothbrush for each step; you don t want to contaminate the barrel the next time you are cleaning! Step 2: Fine Grind--Once you have enough rocks for the fine grind, place them in a clean barrel and add fine grit as shown in the previous chart 10

11 Add enough water to reach the bottom of the top layer of stones, but not so much that they are covered. If necessary, add plastic pellets to bring the volume of the barrel to at least 1/2 full. Check the seal area to be sure that it is clean and dry. Place the lid on the barrel and seal the barrel. Place the barrel on the tumbler and start the motor. Again, stick around for a few minutes to make sure the tumbler is functioning properly and the barrels aren t leaking. Check back again in an hour, and periodically after that. Let the fine grind run 24 hours a day for 7 days, then check the rocks. They should appear shiny when wet. Step 3: Pre-polish--Once you have enough rocks for the extra fine grind/pre-polish step, place them in a barrel that has been thoroughly cleaned. At this step some people use plastic tumbling pellets to cushion the rocks. After your barrel is about 2/3 to 3/4 full of rocks and pellets add water to slightly below the level of the rocks. Then add the extra-fine grit (sometimes called pre-polish) as shown in the chart, seal the barrel and you are ready to tumble. Run the pre-polish step 24 hours a day for 7 days. When you open the barrel, the rocks, slurry and pellets will look like a funny tapioca. Now, gently pour the contents of the barrel into a colander. Rinse the rocks over a bucket or disposable container. (Remember: don t pour the mud or used polish down a drain!) To easily separate the rocks from the pellets, you can put them in a small container of clean water. The pellets will float to the top and can be skimmed off. The rocks should have a slight luster when dry. To make sure that the rocks are ready for polishing, perform this simple test: take an old towel or piece of felt and barely dampen it. Sprinkle a small amount of polishing powder on it and rub one of the rocks vigorously over the powder. If you see a definite shine, the rocks are ready to proceed to the polishing step. If there is no shine, or if the rocks don t show luster when dry, you should repeat the pre-polish step, checking every couple of days, until the desired results are achieved. Step 4: Polish--Clean the barrel, lid, and stones as before. Charge the barrel with stones, the appropriate amount of rock polish as indicated in the table above, and water. Add plastic pellets for cushioning until the barrel s volume is 2/3 to 3/4. Let the polish step run 24 hours a day for 10 days. The rocks should look shiny when dry. If the rocks have not polished to a high gloss or appear to have a film on them, you may want to try burnishing them to see if they will gloss up a bit. Step 5: Burnishing--Just as before, clean the barrel, lid, and stones. You should be an expert at clean tumbling by now. Then, gently place the stones back in the barrel, and add soap according to the table above. Classic Ivory Soap is recommended - do not use a soap that contains abrasive particles. Grate or thinly slice the bar until you have the appropriate amount. Do not use liquid soap that contain oils that can harm the rubber barrel or break down the polish, and effectively un-polish your gems. Add clean plastic pellets and water. Allow this mixture to run for 1-2 days. When you open the barrel at the end of the burnishing step you will find a thick froth of suds. Under the suds are your sparkling gems. Rise them with clean water, then dry them off. They should be finished!!!! Tumbling Media is a non-rock material placed into the barrel of your tumbler to cushion the rocks from impact or to serve as a filler. The plastic pellets and ceramic beads are examples of rock tumbling media. Follow these links for more detailed information on types, uses and the why of different media. Things to consider: Grit gets used up(smaller & smaller)!!!! Its only good for about a week of tumbling. Just add more to the barrel. Plan ahead for the total amount you will need to complete the batch. To avoid contamination you may consider using one barrel per step (4 required) or one for coarse grit steps, one for polishing steps (2-3 needed). Silicon carbide (Remember Carborundum from the MOH scale?) is the standard grit used in breaking down stones in the tumbling process. Silicon Carbide is a man-made mix of silica sand and carbon at temperature between 1600 C 11

12 and 2500 C. It rings in at 9.5 on the MOH and every time it breaks, it creates sharp, uneven corners and edges all the better to wear your rock down with!!! ALERT: If you use cloth towels to clean up your gritty workspace hand wash and hang them to dry. Do not put in the washing machine. You never want this grit to get into contact with any piece of moving machinery. The machinery will be destroyed by the silicon carbide grit and it takes very little grit to cause a HUGE problem. Avoid dumping grit water anywhere children may play or pets may dig to keep it from entering the wash. Plastic beads can be re-used over and over again in the same level they were initially used. Rinse them thoroughly after each use, allow the beads dry thoroughly, and keep them in a container marked with the grit level they were used with. Never wash empty grit containers in the dishwasher. (THAT will be an expensive lesson that grit is evil when it gets into machinery. It only takes a few crystals!) Confused by grit sizes and the particle size in microns? Follow this link for more information: Positive thoughts A truly happy person is one who can enjoy the scenery on a detour. You may be only one person in the world, but you may also be the world to one person. Some mistakes are too much fun to only make once. Don t cry because it s over; smile because it happened. We could learn a lot from crayons; some are sharp, some are pretty, some are dull, some have weird names, and all are different colors but they all exist very nicely in the same box. Have an awesome day, and know that someone who thinks you re great has thought about you today! And that person was me. Working for God on earth does not pay much, but His retirement plan is out of this world. Keep a SMILE on your face and a SONG in your heart! A smile, is a sign of joy. A hug, is a sign of Love. A laugh, is a sign of happiness. And a friend like me?, Well that s just a sign of good taste!! We ll be friends until I am senile. Then we ll be new friends. Practical Uses for a Binder Clip 12

13 The story behind the large concrete arrows across America Every so often, usually in the vast deserts of the American Southwest, a hiker or a backpacker will run across something puzzling: a large concrete arrow, as much as seventy feet in length, sitting in the middle of scrub-covered nowhere. What are these giant arrows? Some kind of surveying mark? Landing beacons for flying saucers? Earth's turn signals? No, it's... The Transcontinental Air Mail Route. In the 1920s, the U.S. Post Office began experimenting with cross-country delivery of mail by air. There were no good aviation charts in those days,before the advent of radio guidance, so mail pilots had to eyeball their way across the country using landmarks. They picked their way along from visible landmark to visible landmark, a system that somewhat served where there were recognizable geological or man made features to be guided by, but not at all in areas such as vast stretches of empty, repetitive desert. This meant that flying in bad weather was difficult, and night flying was just about impossible. The U.S. Postal Service was severely affected by this, as there would often be large delays in deliveries if flying conditions were not suitable. One of the first attempts at overcoming this dilemma was to light bonfires that would mark routes to various destinations. Unsurprisingly, this proved to be rather impractical, as a lot of time, effort and money was required each time an aircraft required them. Learning from this, the government in 1924 decided on the construction of several large and illuminated concrete arrows and lighted beacons (a generator shed at the tail of each arrow powered the beacon) along its established 13

14 airmail routes. This development was named the Transcontinental Airway System, and it resulted in the construction of 1,500 concrete arrows across the country, outlining 18,000 miles of delivery routes. The arrows were 70 feet long and painted bright yellow to ensure maximum visibility. The Post Office began erecting combinations of these large concrete arrows Roughly every ten miles along these paths, mail pilots would encounter 50-foot towers topped with rotating lights at whose base were 50- to 70-foot concrete foundations that from the air looked like arrows. These course lights flashed a code to identify each beacon s number. In 1926, the Post Office Department turned management of the beacons over to the Department of Commerce. The project was finished in 1929, thereby completing a route from New York to San Francisco. Now mail could get from the Atlantic to the Pacific not in a matter of weeks, but in just 30 hours or so. When visibility wasn't impaired by weather conditions, the light from the next beacon could be seen from the one currently being flown over. Additionally, each arrow pointed to the next arrow, a feature that helped keep pilots on course when bad weather obscured the signal from the next lit beacon. The arrow-and-beacon system did not long serve the country's aviators. By the early 1930s, technological advances (radio guidance and radar) began to give those flying over featureless terrain far more reliable methods of finding their way. The radio was now the main form of communication, meaning that pilots were no longer alone while flying from one place to another. Radio and radar navigation meant that the Transcontinental Airway System became unnecessary, and eventually the beacons were removed. Most of the towers were dismantled and recycled to aid the war effort, however a preservation program called Passport in Time was able to save three beacons, where the metal structures and generator huts are still intact. These days, while scant few of the towers remain hundreds of arrows remain. Their yellow paint is gone, their concrete cracks a little more with every winter frost, and no one crosses their path much, except for coyotes and tumbleweeds. But they're still out there. Several of them are still stumbled upon by those trekking the American outback, and various travelers have set out to try and find them all. Some fanatics have even chartered private jets to follow the arrows as far as possible before the trail runs to an end. Many of them have been removed so that the area they covered could be built upon, but other landowners have decided to keep them as a homage to history. 14

15 ARROWS ACROSS AMERICA By Brian and Charlotte Smith It all started with an that Brian sent me on August 16, I was hooked right from the beginning. Where were these? Why had I never heard of them? They still exist! Wow!!! I d sure like to see one, I wonder where they are located? Is there any that I can get to? All these thoughts went racing thru my head, as I started looking for the location of these interesting artifacts from a long ago era. I set out to find where they were located. I have found over 115 so far and am looking for more. This is a work in progress and as new "finds" are made I will enter the information. If you know of a concrete arrow or have photos that you would like to share (make sure they are not copyrighted), I will add them so that others may also enjoy these historical artifacts. Today most of these historical arrows are long forgotten. I have created this site to showcase these early navigational aids, in the hope that they will be remembered and taken care of. Many are badly deteriorated and falling apart. Some have been vandalized by an inconsiderate graffiti artist. Most have just been bull dozed away to create room for parking lots and housing developments. Follow this link for the complete story: Idaho -- 7 Arrows and 12 Beacons 15