Florida coral, cabs and pet. wood jaspers and agate pic heavy

[centfladigger]

I`m a digger/collector of Florida artifatc s for the past 25 years and have been collecting coral from certain areas I discovered. I started selling it to knappers then a friend of mine named Claude Van Order got me into cabbing so thats what I do with my coral now and have traded for other rocks from different areas. Most of my coral I cook to bring out different colors. These pictures are a mixture of coral and some jaspers and agates and pet wood I got through others.

 

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[Harry Pristis]

I`m a digger/collector of Florida artifatc s for the past 25 years and have been collecting coral from certain areas I discovered. I started selling it to knappers then a friend of mine named Claude Van Order got me into cabbing so thats what I do with my coral now and have traded for other rocks from different areas. Most of my coral I cook to bring out different colors. These pictures are a mixture of coral and some jaspers and agates and pet wood I got through others.

Nice work! You are the coral man in Plant City!

It would have been nice to have the names of the various materials presented in your images.

Do you fire your coral in a kiln at a known temperature? Barbara Purdy gives some results of her experiments, including temperatures for altering stone, in her book, FLORIDA'S PREHISTORIC STONE TECHNOLOGY -- I'm sure you've seen it.

Agatized coral is the state gemstone. It's great when the corallites are still visible. I'm sure the prehistoric artifact makers appreciated it as much as we do.

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[centfladigger]

what are you talking about Plant City? I`m the coral man in Florida,lol

I use the old method and that is sand and either charcoal or wood. I control temps by inches of sand. Its a 3 day strt to finish proccess.

 

[Harry Pristis]

what are you talking about Plant City? I`m the coral man in Florida,lol

I use the old method and that is sand and either charcoal or wood. I control temps by inches of sand. Its a 3 day strt to finish proccess.

You da' man! That's an impressive process. Thanks for showing us.

 

[kawalabear]

that is really cool... so " cooking " them brings out the color ? how do you polish a rock like that?

if you ever need help finding them let us know haha

 

[Cappy Z.]

Unbelievably fantastic! Would you mind sharing where someone can dig or buy chunks of these marvelous specimens?

Thanks for the great photos!