Slope Point Diversity, 25 Recently Polished Slope Point Stones: Part Two – Stones 9 to 16

This Series of Posts features Slope Point stones from a recently completed 3lb barrel. The batch had tumbled in a fresh lot of tin oxide polish for 12 days then was burnished in borax for eight days. Part One featured Stones 1 to 8 and Part Three will feature Stones 17 to 25. The order of presentation of stones is random. Many of them are likely to be rhyolite but I am unsure about the identification of some of them.

We start off with three stones with white “spots”. Stones 9, 10 and 11 are what Jocelyn Thornton in “Gemstones” (page 35) calls “flower garden” rhyolites, “the local name for rhyolites with white and grey circles and centres”. These three stones are between 3.5 and 4 cms long.

Stone 12 is quite different. It might be petrified wood, with a vein of some kind of chalcedony, maybe agate, or it might be quartz in the vein. The stone is about 3 cms long.

Stone 13 is a volcanic stone, a bit smaller, 2.5 cms wide. One side is dominated by white opaque crystals.

The final three stones in this Post are all rhyolites but of different colours. Stone 14 is a dark gray, Stone 15 is lighter in colour and with some orange-brown staining, and Stone 16 has some patches of dark purple amidst the white:

The third Post in this Series features the final nine of the 25 stones from this tumbling batch.

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Author: tumblestoneblog

Retired Academic, male, living in the New Zealand countryside near Whanganui with his wife as well as Jasper the dog, Fluffy the cat, Dancer and Penny, the horses, and a shed half-full of stones. Email john.tumblestone@gmail.com.

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