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[JRAGS]

  Ok, So today I bought 100 pounds of med. sized Montana Moss agate. Now I know there's good, not so good and great patterned agate. But how do you tell with out cutting it . It's not like carnelian. Now some of it I can flash light it and weed out the clear stones, but a lot of it has calcium/ash build up on the surface. It's not easy to wash off and way too big to tumble. But when I am at the sellers location, is there any secrets to picking out the good from the common or is it just the luck of the draw? This batch is now mine and I cant change the situation and only the saw will tell me how I did, but the next time maybe armed with a little knowledge I can get a better bang for my buck. So give it up folks, tell me the secret and maybe some where along the way if your all lucky, I'll tell you the secret of how diet soda is grown.....

[MrsWTownsend]

 To me, Montana Moss Agate is different than other moss agates; more stable overall IMO.  I would look for fractures, mossy color and patterns showing through on the exterior vs muddy matrix or solid quartz.  If you are into vugs and druzy pockets, maybe look at how the rocks look formed- hard to describe but if they look folded together there will probably be druzy pockets.  It may also fracture easily at the folds...  And yeah, it can be a crap shoot depending on what you are looking at too!  LOL

But hey- I'm no expert!

100 lbs???  Holy shlamoly what are you going to do with all of that???  Are the pieces that you use to make your sculptures really big?

By the way, moss agate that passes light through would be really bad arse with a light on the inside...  Just sayin'.

[lithicbeads]

Montana agate can be very frustrating. Tom Harmon's book is a must if you want to cut and lots over the years as it identifies the types and tells how to treat them differently. If you see red ribons with dendrites grab , they can be great . Often the best dendrites are just on the surface so that can be decieving. If it is easy to chuck in the saw that ismore than likely the wrong plane to cut a cobble. Like many pieces of rough cutting it the easy way ruins the best pattern. Often montana should be epoxied to a piece of wood to chuch so you can cut the flat face. Cut as thin a piece as you can off the surface take it out of the chuck , clean it and inspect with very good light , reflected and transmitted. Clear or near clear montana can have the best rainbow pattern with a transmitted point light source , either the sun or an unfrosted incandescent bulb. The slabs must be as thin as you can get them  then clean them and oil both sides with  a clear cooking oil or mineral oil and inspect with the transmitted light. The iris produced can be mind boggling.

[JRAGS]

Thanks for the help......

[Orchids9]

If you are located in Montana there is a few people I can point you too,  theres also a montana moss facebook group, Harmons is great and also a good source for material if you cannot collect it your self. Another is Jeff Nesper, they have some museum class display pieces

 I have a bunch of Iris shots on my facebook page also of Montana moss,  It has a large learning curve on figuring out how to read it but once you get a feel for it you will be able to tell from a distance almost what is a cutter and a leaverite

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.759275330760330.1073741833.267644996590035&type=3   Iris shots


Paul
 

[JRAGS]

   Those photos are sweet. Thanks. I need all the help I can get. I'm pretty good with grading carnelian for my projects but this is sorta new to me. I really appreciate your help. Cant wait to start cutting. Maybe next week. Again....Thanks