{"id":2586,"date":"2020-04-04T12:07:11","date_gmt":"2020-04-04T16:07:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.americangeode.com\/blog\/?p=2586"},"modified":"2020-04-04T12:07:13","modified_gmt":"2020-04-04T16:07:13","slug":"rockhounding-abcs-tools-of-the-trade","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.americangeode.com\/blog\/rockhounding-abcs-tools-of-the-trade\/","title":{"rendered":"Rockhounding ABCs &#8211; \u201cTools of the Trade\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>\u201cTools of the Trade\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This\nsection deals with the rockhounding tools suggested for most any surface,\nlocale, environment. In another section we will deal with specialty tools that\ncomplement the following tools, but for quartz, pyrite, fossils, for example,\nthese are the tools required. Please note that depending on the maker, some of\nthese tools may be labeled or branded differently. The tool combo that every\nrockhound needs is a hammer and chisel. The technique of cracking open rock is\nto find a naturally occurring crevice or seam, and widen and force it open to\nsplit and separate the rock. Then find or create another crevice or seam and\nseparate or split the rock as you work to find the crystal, or lack thereof.\nAnother chapter describes rockhounding techniques in detail, but for every\nrockhounding adventure, follow these 3 rules.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ol class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>One of the useful hammers, depending on the\nmaker, is called a drilling hammer, club hammer, hand sledge, or blacksmith\nhammer. This is the hammer that is used to pound the chisel into a crevice or\ncrack as you separate rock. The face of the hammer is wider in circumference so\nyou can squarely pound the chisel. This is the tool used with a chisel to break\nup rock, separate rock, and uncover pockets.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;\n*ILLUSTRATIONS OF HAMMERS HERE*<\/li><li>The other hammer we recommend, depending on the\nmaker, is called a brick layer\u2019s hammer, a rock pick, or a pick hammer. It has\na slender head, the diameter of the head closer to the diameter of a\ntraditional hammer, for more intricate chipping, and the other end is the\n\u201cclaw\u201d which is useful to pry apart stone. This smaller hammer allows for more\ndelicate pounding of the chisel, and can be used alone with accuracy to crack\naway rock or stone from a rock face. <\/li><li>Chisels come in different sizes, and we suggest\nyou carry two. The longer chisels can second in use as pry bars, to separate\nslabs, pry apart rock using the longer chisel as a lever. There is a smaller\nchisel that we recommend to be used with the club hammer (hand sledge) when you\nare faced with a smooth face of rock. The smaller chisel carries more force\nwhen you just need to get started breaking up rock from a fresh face. <ol><li>\u201cDiamond Tip\u201d &#8211; Another reason to carry two\nchisels is for the advantage when breaking apart a larger stone. After you are\nable to hammer the smaller chisel into the crevice or seam, to start separating\nand breaking up the rock face or outcrop, you leave that smaller chisel wedged\ninside the seam, and then take your larger chisel to pry apart the stone.<\/li><\/ol><\/li><\/ol>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u201cTools of the Trade\u201d This section deals with the rockhounding tools suggested for most any surface, locale, environment. In another section we will deal with specialty tools that complement the following tools, but for quartz, pyrite, fossils, for example, these are the tools required. Please note that depending on the maker, some of these tools &hellip; <\/p>\n<p class=\"link-more\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.americangeode.com\/blog\/rockhounding-abcs-tools-of-the-trade\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Rockhounding ABCs &#8211; \u201cTools of the Trade\u201d&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2023,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[51,52,101,102,157,156,95,5,32,47,20,94,93,80,79,46,96,158,33,97,159,160,1],"tags":[76,55,40,78,77,67,3,163,131,133,39,164,84,81,135],"class_list":["post-2586","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-antiques","category-antiques-roadshow","category-conservancy","category-environmentalism","category-gem-and-mineral-clubs","category-gem-and-mineral-shows","category-gemstone","category-geodes","category-geology","category-ice-age","category-interior-design","category-jewelry","category-lapidary","category-museums","category-new-york-2","category-paleontology","category-peridot","category-rock-shows","category-science","category-star-wars","category-tucson-gem-and-mineral-show","category-tucson-gem-show","category-uncategorized","tag-american-geode","tag-diamond","tag-diamonds","tag-gem-and-mineral-club","tag-gem-and-mineral-show","tag-gem-and-mineral-shows","tag-geode","tag-geode-cracking","tag-geodes","tag-geology","tag-herkimer-diamond","tag-indiana-geode","tag-mindat","tag-museums-2","tag-paleontology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.americangeode.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2586","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.americangeode.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.americangeode.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.americangeode.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.americangeode.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2586"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.americangeode.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2586\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2587,"href":"http:\/\/www.americangeode.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2586\/revisions\/2587"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.americangeode.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2023"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.americangeode.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2586"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.americangeode.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2586"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.americangeode.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2586"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}