celebrating 75 years! hard rock news · may 2015 hard rock news page 2 refreshment rotation for...
TRANSCRIPT
Hard Rock News
Kitsap Mineral and Gem Society
Elected Officers for 2015
President: Bryan Tallman (360) 432-0414
[email protected] Vice President:
Nathan Schackmann
(360) 801-1794 [email protected] Secretary:
Danielle Foss (360) 621-5603
Treasurer: Caroline Richter (360) 908-7199 [email protected]
Celebrating 75 Years!
May 2015 http://www.kmgs.org
Dues going up for those
receiving the Hard Rock
News via “snail mail”
Attention all hard copy read-
ers: The current KMGS annu-
al dues are insufficient to cov-
er the cost of printing and
mailing out the Hard Rock
News. Therefore, those desir-
ing to continue receiving a
hard copy will need to pay
$16.00 per year (rather than
$10.00 per year for those re-
ceiving their newsletter via
the internet). This will be
the last hard copy of the
newsletter sent out to
those not paying the addi-
tional fee. Send the addi-
tional fee, or your email ad-
dress, to Evah Summers,
Membership chair.
Celebrating 75 Years!
KMGS Annual auction to take place in May
In lieu of the normal General Meeting, the KMGS annual auc-
tion will be held on Friday, May 8th at 7:00 PM. Those with
walking disabilities are encouraged to arrive early to get a
parking space close to the door.
All members and visitors should plan on arriving by 6:30 PM.
This will give you a little time to check in, get your auction
number, and be able to look over the items that will be up for
auction during the course of the evening.
The KMGS annual auction is one of the two major fund-
raising events held by our club. Some of the proceeds from
this event go to our scholarship fund, while other proceeds
are used for the operation and maintenance of club assets.
Thie annual auction is important to our club and we hope you
will help make it a success this year.
General meeting information: Kitsap Mineral & Gem Socie-
ty's meeting is at 7:00pm on the second Friday of each
month (Except July, August and December) at the CHICO AL-
LIANCE CHURCH Day Care basement. Enter from the back, at
3670 Chico Way N. W. Bremerton, Washington.
No May Program or Display Table There will be no program or Display Table for the month of
May since we will be having our annual auction then. (The auction would be an opportunity to pick up some rough
material for you to use to make something nice to bring to
the June Display Table.)
Club Facebook page:
https://www.facebook.com/KitsapMineralandgemsociety
Club website: kmgs.org
PAGE 2 HARD ROCK NEWS MAY 2015
Refreshment Rotation for 2015
We rely on our club members to provide snacks for our General Meetings.
For this month: If the first letter of your last name begins with “H”, “I” and “Z”, you will be re-
sponsible for bringing refreshments for the May meeting.
The entire year’s listing is shown below:
January “A”, “D” and “V”
February “J”, “K” and “L”
March “M” and “N“
April “C”, “G” and “W”
May “H”, “I” and “Z”
June “E” and “F”
July and August—No Meetings due to KMGS
Picnic /Potluck
September “B”, “X”, and “Y”
October “S”, “T”, “U”
November “O”, “P”, “Q” and “R” and anyone that was inadvertently m”issed earlier in the
year
December—Christmas Potluck
We encourage finger food that can be placed on a napkin. We also encourage healthy snacks as well as those
yummy treats that we are all used to having at the meeting! The club provides the beverages. Remember that
when it is your month to bring refreshments, you need to plan to help with set-up and clean-up in the
kitchen for that meeting. Any questions you may have can be addressed to Karen Eslava, our Refresh-
ment chairperson.
May Birthstone - Emerald As the birthstone for May, the emerald, a symbol of rebirth, is believed to grant the owner fore-
sight, good fortune, and youth. Emerald, derived from the word smaragdus, meaning green in
Greek, was mined in Egypt as early as 330 B.C. Today, most of the world’s emeralds are mined in
Colombia, Brazil, Afghanistan, and Zambia. The availability of high-quality emerald is limited;
consequently, treatments to improve clarity are performed regularly.
- See more at: http://www.americangemsociety.org/may-birthstone#sthash.mtCdVx9S.dpuf
Vic & Marie Anderson are having another rock sale!
Date: June 13th & 14th
Time: 9:00 AM till ???
Place: 8275 State Route 20, Port Townsend, WA 98368
Phone: (360) 385-0420
Rough rock will be selling anywhere from 25 cents per pound to $30.00 per pound
HARD ROCK NEWS MAY 2015 PAGE 3
Hard Rock Beaders
Our Club’s beaders normally meet twice a month - 1st and 3rd Wednesdays – at the Silverdale
Vintage Apartments at 6:30 PM. We meet in the lobby at 6:30 PM before going to the large
crafting room. Call Glenda at (360) 286-9035, or Janet at (425) 478-1452 for any questions or
for more information.
Vangie’s Wire Wrapping Workshop
Vangie Mayton is hosting a (free) monthly wire-wrapping workshop. This workshop meets on
the fourth Tuesday of the month at Vangie’s house.
Bring your Ott Lite (or similar) along if you need
stronger lighting than normal room lighting. The
next workshop is May 26th at 10 AM. You can come
just to watch or you can try your hand at wire wrap-
ping. Please call Vangie if
you need directions.
Phone: 360-373-3370.
Note: The May workshop
will be the last workshop
until after summer.
George Howton Passes Away
August 18, 1944 ~ April 15, 2015
George Howton passed away on April 15, 2015, in Quilcene, WA. George was born Au-gust 18, 1944, in Arlington, WA. He lived in East Wenatchee until he graduated and went into the Army, where he served four years. He enjoyed trying to out-fish his broth-ers and was always wanting to catch the biggest fish. He loved panning for gold, rock hounding and photography. He worked as an Auto Body Repairman. He loved being around family and friends. George was a member of the Mason Lodge, Scottish Rite, and Eastern Star in the Washington areas.
George leaves behind his wife, Penni Howton of Quilcene, WA; sister-in-law, Maryann Duncan (Robert Duncan, deceased) of Albany, OR, brother, Bill Howton (Paulette, de-ceased) of Tacoma, WA; LaVonne Howton and Steve Moore both of Moses Lake; plus many nieces and nephews and cousins. He will be greatly missed.
A Memoriam will be held at 1:00 p.m., Saturday, June 6, 2015, at Mason Lodge on Bain-bridge Island. He will be placed at the Tahona National Cemetery, Kent, WA.
George and Penni were active members of KMGS at the time of George’s death. Our prayers and condolences go out to Penni and her family during this difficult time.
HARD ROCK NEWS MAY 2015 PAGE 4
The 2015 KMGS Annual Auction is To Be Held May 8th
I would like people to be thinking about what they are going to donate for the auction. I will be help-ing our Treasurer, Carolyn Richter, with it this year. Below is a copy of the auction item number card that can be filled out for each item (or group of items if that is how you want them sold.) People can call me (360-876-6618) or email me ([email protected]) and tell me who they are, what they are donating, and if there is any minimum bid on the item. Any extra details that are important can put on the item card (I only have so much room in the data-base). I will enter the item in the database and will call or email people back with the item number I assign to it. Then just bring the item with it's item card and place it on the bid table the night of the auction. As with other years, I will have bidder numbers pre-assigned for most people. Guests I will assign a bidder number the evening of the auction. With everyone's help this years auction will be easy and efficient to run. Patt Jolly
Donation ideas for the 2015 KMGS Annual Auction Rough lapidary material
Used lapidary equipment & tools
Jewelry - pendants, rings, rings, bracelets
Bolo ties & belt buckles
Fossils
Motors
Shelf specimens
Display cases
Anything else in good condition
MAY 2015 HARD ROCK NEWS PAGE 5
KMGS April 2015 Meeting Minutes The meeting is called to order and guests are introduced by Wilma Eads. New faces are always
great to see at our meetings! Keep bringing those friends and interested parties, all are wel-
come.
Tony lead us right into show and tell. There are a lot of fun things on display this month, the
members came through with some good stuff. Jack Eads brought a nice display of fossils and
told the story of how he got started in the club with a trip to Twin Rivers to get fossilized
shells. Now he has enough rocks that he can go rock hounding in his own backyard! Vangie
has a display of fossilized sabretooth cat teeth from the tar pits in California. She also has fos-
silized fish from Wyoming and some really nice dino-bone from Utah showing some different
colors. She shows an amazing dino-bone lamp that is gorgeous! Eric Foss brought some exam-
ples of Kalama carnelian from a field trip last year that he recently cut, and also some good old
yard rocks from Glacial till that is common around Washington State. Pat Jolly has some great
Herkimer diamonds in keeping with the April theme! She has a nice large cluster she got from
Prineville. Bryan Tallman brought a really neat Jade Elephant from the Rice Museum. It had belonged to the daughter
of the Rice Museum, so essentially was a part of their family collection. He also has an amazing poster of the entire his-
tory of the earth from the Rice Museum, it’s pretty amazing that it fits on a normal sized poster! Jim Kissinger brought
some great finds from an estate sale. There are limb casts and geodes and all sorts of treasures! A sale will be an-
nounced after a few Shelton club members help to clean up for the family and prepare for the sale. The location is near
Union, WA. More info to come. Vig’tre is a returning member and has a passion for beading and enjoys the hard rock
beader group. She has done sculptures as well, and has some nice pictures from a previous art show. She has some gor-
geous beading work to show on drum sticks and she also writes stories and sings Seahawks victory songs! That’s well
rounded! Randy “inherited” his son’s rock tumbler and he’s excited to be a part of the group! He has a nice rock he
thinks is a red jasper. Welcome Randy! Jason took a trip to California and got some Jade from Smith River. He’s got
some great rocks he found in a variety of places like a parking lot. He has some stuff with some nice color. He has Ar-
kansas “diamond” as well. Garry Mahan brought Easter egg cabs. What a talented guy! He also made a wire wrapped
crinoid fossil and some lapis to show. He has glass that he wire wrapped and petrified wood, and jasper, and quite a va-
riety of other minerals. Wilma Eads has a few small rocks from Tel Aviv! WOW! What an exotic trip to the land of
rocks! She has a great story about her trip where they saw many excavated archeological sites. She even saw the site of
Petra, the temple made of rock. Tony received a donation for the club from a former club member that had a nice collec-
tion of fossils and various rocks that he wanted the club to have. There is a lot of neat stuff that the club can auction for
the benefit of the club and books as well. Tony also has some cool fossils from some of his kids’ trips. There is a ton of
great stuff tonight!! Good job, club!
Tony makes an announcement about the Port Townsend Gemboree on May 2nd. Don’t miss it! It’s a potluck and the
show will go from 10am to 3pm. It’s at the Port Townsend fairgrounds, don’t miss this fun event! General meetings are
the last Monday of the month for the Port Townsend club.
The auction is coming up next month! Pat reminds us about donations and to contact her ahead of time. The event will
run smoother if we all can get in this habit each year before the auction comes up.
Doug reminds us that the Kitsap County Fair is coming up. Please sign up to help out! It’s a great opportunity for us to
bring in new members and get people excited about the club. Please do a neat display case for the fair or bring some cool
stuff to get folks interested in the club. It’s one of the main ways the club gets the word out that we are an active club. If
you do a 2 hour watch you will get a parking pass for free. Setup is Monday before the fair, close-up is the following Sun-
day night.
Glenda announces that the beaders are meeting again soon so feel free to show up to the group and check out what they
do!
Dan Ice has the program tonight. He has a neat slide show of the Smithsonian Museum. He visited the Museum a num-
ber of years ago and has pictures of the minerals displayed there. It must be quite a place to visit! It houses some of the
finest examples of many minerals from around the world! Thanks Dan, for a great slide show!
We go to break and have the raffle as usual. There are a few more announcements from the final committees. Remem-
ber the club always has library books. There will be a fossil field trip in May probably to Twin Rivers or Clallam bay.
Remember it is important to stay active with our hobby and to speak up when we have the opportunity to help keep sites
open. Always remember to be a good ambassador of the hobby and leave a dig site looking good with holes filled back in
and be careful about the native plants and animals.
Don’t forget the picnic coming up in July. Also we will need a new club Historian, so if you feel inclined to help the club
keep our history, please volunteer, we need you! Bobbie Sacks is getting ready to pass the torch to someone else, so
please consider helping the club out in this way.
That’s it for now, it’s always a fun time with fun folks.
Your Secretary,
Danielle Foss
Danielle Foss, secretary
HARD ROCK NEWS MAY 2015 PAGE 6
2015 Port Townsend Gemboree, May 2nd
Tthe Port Townsend Rock Club hosts a Gemboree from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., Saturday, May 2nd , at the Jefferson Coun-
ty Fairgrounds, 4907 Landes St., Port Towensend, WA
Juniors
Hello Junior Rock Hounds - We have a fun meeting coming up in May! It is our annual KMGS Auction and I hope you will attend along with your parents. It is fun to bid on things and sometimes you actually can win a very cool rock! We will not have a class at the May meeting. We will have a regular Juniors class in June. Have fun at the Auction!
Juniors Leaders - Kathy Reimers, Bobbie Sack and Jill Wetzel
KMGS Board Meeting Minutes, April 16th, 2015
The KMGS Board meetings are held the next Thursday after the general meeting. This is the meeting
where the business is discussed for the club. All members are invited to attend and give their input, dis-
cuss agenda topics and vote. I have been asked to give a few bullet points on some of the topics we dis-
cuss. I hope you will consider attending and participating in the decision making part of the club. The
following is just a very brief outline of some of the topics we went over in the last board meeting:
An audit of the financial records was performed. All is reported in good status.
A computer was purchased for the club. It will reside with the treasurer for use at the auction.
Picnic date this year at Raab Park in Poulsbo is set for July 11th.
Doug still needs volunteers to help with the fair this year, August 26th-30th.
The club needs a new historian. The current historian would like to pass it on after many years. Also the
scholarship committee will be forming soon to make decisions on applicants. Contact Jack Eads if you
are interested in education or helping the committee.
Cost of newsletters was discussed. The club loses about $282.35 per year by mailing out hard copies of
the newsletter. It was agreed that members receiving hard copies of the newsletter should pay their cost
($16.00) of printing and mailing. All members will be encouraged to get electronic copies.
Crystal Mountain field trip was briefly discussed. Gordy Eslava will lead. There is a camp where people
can stay if they are going for both days, April 25th and 26th. Gordy has the info and will coordinate.
The December potluck venue has been reserved again, same location as last year. Hillcrest church across
from Walmart in East Bremerton, December 11th is the date.
That’s all for now!
Your Secretary, Danielle Foss
Carlos & his dad working on a fossil pro-
ject at the April Junior’s class.
HARD ROCK NEWS MAY 2015 PAGE 7
Field Trip-related Notes
The field trip for the month of May is to be a Fossil dig at Twin Rivers for 20 led by Jason Boddy (call 360-265-8155) to contact him for information). The scheduled meet carpool loca-tion is at the visitor center off hwy 104 going to Port Townsend. The time to meet may vary based on number of people requesting to go but as of now it is 0600. The June field trip schedule may be Teanaway, or Crystal Mountain pending who will be the field trip leader. Further information will be posted in the June newsletter. The online Mineral Council newsletter explains and discusses the best permits for your planned events needed for you and your vehicles. It is suggested you buy the Discover pass and and pay the $30.00 for the year instead of guessing if you have the right one to gain ac-cess or park on specific properties. Happy hounding! Thanks, Tony Schackmann
Note to KMGS members: Our club is a member of the Washington State Min-eral Council. As such, we are entitled to participate in any of the WSMC - sanctioned field trips. See the WSMC website at https://mineralcouncil.wordpress.com/
Crystal Mountain Field Trip
Well the club's first field trip to Crystal mountain turned out to be a little more challenging than antici-
pated and the approach over the mountain to the dig site took its toll on the group. The approach was
1.3 miles, with 700ft of elevation gain following a 4 wheel drive road. Six members decided it was a lit-
tle more than they planned for and returned, with some going to Red Top.
For the 8 of us that continued, we were rewarded with beautiful scenery and all the rock we could carry.
Some of it clear with red plumes and root beer brown.
Sunday brought sore tired bodies and another day in the woods. This time, we decided to stay on the
northwestern side of the mountain to surface collect there.
We stopped at the toe of a talus slope
and gathered banded amygdules with
hints of blue.
Since this was the first trip here, lo-
gistics were a little challeng-
ing. Later in the year, it may be pos-
sible to drive to the dig site from a
different approach, but this early,
the roads were still a little muddy.
Gordy Eslava
Eric & Danielle find-
ing some good stuff. Tired little rockhound
(Ava) taking a break.
Surface collecting the
northwestern side.
Karen sorting rocks at
Williams Creek
campground.
HARD ROCK NEWS MAY 2015 PAGE 8
KMGS 2015 CHAIRPERSONS
Membership
Evah Summers
(360) 689-3715
Juniors
Programs
Kathy Reimers, Bobbie
Sack, Jill Wetzel
(360) 731-5963
November Show
Chairman
Gordon Eslava
(360) 830-4638
Refreshments
Karen Eslava
(360) 621-9830
Field Trips
Tony Schackmann
(360) 372-2777
werockon@
inlandnet.com
Silent Auction
Doug Leider
(360) 627-8142
Display Table
Tony Schackmann (360) 372-2777
werockon@
inlandnet.com
Welcome
Willma Eads
(360) 871-2445 jacke@
wavecable.com
Raffle Table
Mary Balderson (360) 908-8063
Cheer
Kathy McClure
(253) 265-3011
pogy2@
centurytel.net
Washington State Mineral
Council
Tony Schackmann
(360) 372-2777
werockon@
inlandnet.com
KMGS
Webmaster
Jack Eads
(360) 871-2445
Kitsap County Fair
Doug Leider
(360) 551-6921
Kitsap County Fair
Mark Fawcett
(360) 308-9942
Education
Jack Eads
(360) 871-2445
jacke@wavecable.
com
KMGS Scholarship
Wilma Eads
(360) 871-2445
Historian
Bobbie Sack
(360)277-0383
Hard Rock Beaders
Glenda Moore
(360) 286-9035
Wire Wrapping
Vangie Mayton
(360) 373-3370
Newsletter editor
Garry Mahan
(360) 871-2815
Librarian
Woody Woodside
(360)871-1458
KMGS Facebook
Gordon Eslava
(360) 830-4638
Please contact the
editor for any changes
or corrections to this
table.
Brad Smith’s Jewelry Bench Tips for May 2015 - SILVER DISCOLORATION Working with jewelry involves an ever increasing number of skills. Chemistry is one of them that comes into play when dealing with a discoloration on the metal caused by a chemical reaction between it and the environment. In the case of Sterling silver there are three discolorations we typically encounter: a tar-nish, a firescale, and a firestain. Each is different in its cause, in its cure, and in its prevention. All three have to do with the metals in the Sterling alloy (92.5% silver and 7.5% copper) and how they react with oxygen and the heat of soldering or with pollutants in the air over the long term. Tarnish is a grayish coating that builds up slowly on the surface as a result of a reaction of the silver with sulfur-based compounds in the air. Typically these are pollutants from the burning of petroleum fuels, but they can come from other sources as well. I once tar-nished all the silver in my display case by putting a pretty specimen of iron pyrite in with the jewelry. Turns out pyrite has sulfur in it! Sulfur combines with the silver to form a grayish silver sulfide film on the surface. (continued on page 9)
PAGE 9 MAY 2015 HARD ROCK NEWS
(continued from page 8) Preventing tarnish involves keeping sulfur away from the metal. Plastic bags will help, and anti-tarnish strips are available from jewelry supply companies to pack near your items. Tarnish is easily removed by hand polishing with a jeweler's cloth or with one of the products sold for cleaning the good silverware for holiday dinner. Another way is to remove it chemically. Put a piece of aluminum in the bottom of a dish large enough to contain your piece. Heat enough water to cover the silver. Mix in 2 table-spoons of sodium carbonate per cup of water and pour into the dish. Be sure the silver touches the aluminum. Sodium carbonate is the main ingredient in washing soda. Read the labels in grocery and hardware stores. The second type of tarnish is called firescale. It is the dark gray to charcoal colored film that forms on Sterling or other copper alloys like brass or bronze when we heat it with a torch. The copper in the alloy reacts with oxygen in the air to form a dark cupric oxide coating on the surface. Luckily, the oxide is easily removed by dissolving it in a mild acid - generally called a pickle. It's important that we not let firescale form on a solder joint because it will block the flow solder over the joint. There are two ways to prevent firescale. Most common is to use a flux, a borax-based solu-tion applied to the metal before soldering. When melted, borax forms a thin glassy layer that keeps oxygen away from the metal. A second way is to do your soldering on a charcoal block. Together with the flame, charcoal greatly reduces the amount of oxygen in the area being soldered. In either case, oxygen is prevented from reaching the metal, so no cupric oxide firescale is formed. A second oxide can also be formed when soldering copper or a high copper content alloy like bronze or brass. It's called cuprous oxide and is reddish in color. That's why a black looking piece you put in the pickle sometimes comes out red. Problem is that while the black cupric oxide is dissolved by a pickle, the red cuprous oxide is not. The discolora-tion can be sanded or polished off, but an easier way is to use a "super pickle". This is a mixture of fresh pickle with a healthy shot of hydrogen peroxide from the local store. I've saved the worst form of discoloration, firestain, for last. Think of firescale (above) as like getting dirt on your shirt that you have to wash off. Firestain is like getting ink on it. The discoloration is not just on the surface, it seeps down and stains the material. Firestain happens when we heat a piece of silver too hot, too long, and/or too many times. Firestain occurs when the oxides start to build up below the surface of the metal. You gen-erally don't notice it until after polishing. It appears as a darker area of the surface and is easy to spot when viewed under light bounced off a piece of white paper. Because firestain is below the surface, there's no easy bench tip solution. Depletion guilding may work for some pieces. Otherwise, removing it calls for sandpaper and aggressive polishing. A much better approach for a piece that will require a large number of solderings is to protect the metal from developing firestain by applying liberal amounts of a firecoat. Regular soldering flux will provide some protection but is not as effective as preparations made specifically for the task. Jewelry supply companies offer several commercial solu-tions, but my favorite is the Prips mixture in alcohol. I use it every time I intend to do more than two solderings on a piece. (Get all 101 of Brad's bench tips in "Bench Tips for Jewelry Making" on Amazon)
Editor Contact Information: Garry Mahan
[email protected] Phone: (360) 871-2815
Deadline for the June, 2015 Newsletter is
May 25th, 2015
Save Those Stamps
“The Hard Rock News” is the Official Publication of the Kitsap Mineral and Gem Society. Meetings are held at 7:00 PM on the second Friday of most months at Chico Alliance Church Daycare (entrance in the back). Address: 3670 Chico Way NW, Bremerton, Washington.
The object of the Society is to provide a general dissemination of knowledge pertaining to the earth sciences; to sponsor regular meetings and field trips for the benefit of the membership and to be helpful along these general lines to one another. The Society is social and educational in character.
The KMGS annual picnic in Raab Park in Poulsbo, will be Saturday July 11th from 12 AM to 4 PM.
KMGS will participate in the 2015 Kitsap County Fair, August 26th through the 30th. (Set-up August 24th; Take-down
August 31st.)
The KMGS Fall Festival of Gems will be held November 21st and 22nd, 2015.
Feel free to contact me if you want to put an announcement in the newsletter. Please see
the deadline for articles noted at the left. gm
May 2015
PO Box 3342 Silverdale, Washington 98383-3342
HARD ROCK NEWS
TO:
Looking Forward to May and Beyond... Update Your Home Calendars!