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[ToTheSummit]

So as an equipment operator all my life in the deserts of the Southwest I have had more experience then I would like to admit with caliche.  It is a naturally occurring conglomerate that is harder than all but the best of concretes.  When trying to dig trenches for footings or utilities or other construction in the desert caliche can ruin your day.  It turns a simple trenching project into many hours and lots of extra cost.

I have always told everyone that it has a beauty all its own though.  I finally decided to prove it and brought home a few chunks the other day (the job I was on we hauled off 7 dumptrucks full of this stuff just on this day alone).  I made a quick video to show off the rough pieces and then I cut and polished the face of the stone that I was dropping in the video.  My boss was floored when I showed it to him today!  Haha!  I think this stuff would make cool spheres also.

https://youtu.be/_EK27onexlE

https://youtu.be/IuSYd18o7gg

[irockhound]

Did you put a clear material on it before polishing?  It looked wierd in the video since there were shadow/halos around several of the embedded stones giving depth to the piece and the caliche should not have transparency.  The polished piece looks wicked but that threw me.  I added a screen grab to show what I am referring to.  It would make a beautiful sphere I agree!

[vitzitziltecpatl]

Wow. I live in AZ, and this is the first time I have ever been able to say anything nice about Caliche.

Wonder if parallel cuts with a small trencher would yield blocks that could be sawed into tabletops. The thought of any good thing coming from hitting Caliche fascinates me.

[ToTheSummit]

Nothing was added to the stone.  Whatever that shading effect is it occurred naturally.  And there is no transparency to the stone, the effect is on the surface.  It got scratched pretty good when I took it to work yesterday as both pieces spent the day bouncing around in my lunchbox, but even I was surprised how well it polished.  I've seen blocks of this stuff being pushed around by bulldozers that were the size of pickup trucks.

[Michael]

I live in AZ as well.  Although I admit that your stone is beautiful, my feelings toward caliche are still cursed.  I guess you will never over mine this bane of the southwest.  Thanks for sharing your video. 

[hummingbirdstones]

Thanks for the videos.  I have heard all about caliche since I moved to AZ, but I can't recall ever actually seeing a piece of it.  The polish it takes is amazing.  I guess we can call it the Desert Puddingstone.  I agree that it would make awesome spheres and Vince's idea of tabletops is very cool.  I could see it being used for countertops, too, in rustic style homes. 

[irockhound]

WOW then that is truly amazing material, such a cool effect!!!!!

[VegasJames]

I am Native to the desert Southwest as well and am very familiar with caliche, which is primarily a very hard calcium carbonate. I had to hand dig a lot of it out of my front yard so the tree roots could go down. Took about 2 years to clear the yard. It can cement together rocks, which I see in certain areas of the desert, but most often is just a light tan hard stone all by itself. Big chunks are sometimes cut in to massive blocks to make retaining walls.

Never collected the cemented stuff to do anything with. It is interesting looking cut though.