Bob(AK)

I agree with Steve, the Keene mini in the photo is simple and works great

Great job Jim in turning loose some of your great knowledge

WOW, just got back to look at this article, will have to spend some hours with it, thanks Marx

I know where that came from

looks like jasper

Strange for sure. I have seen some real dark amber and amber is quite soft

Good chance that is wood. Should be quite heavy and like Steve said, cut a chunk off. If then it is all solid black, you don't see the grain of wood, soak it in Clorox for a week or however long it takes. Sometimes soaking does nothing but usually it will work. Here is an example that was all black. There are small crystals also

Hibby, look like nice Madagascar fossils, good chance that the light materials on your fossils will fluoresce if they are polished. If they have been sprayed with clear they will not. I don’t know what the host rock is but looks man made

Thanks for your help Jim. Yes, my 60 watt short wave cost me $750 several years ago

What Marx said, Pudding rock and conglomerate kind of are similar. As far as lights, black light is a type of ultraviolet but not much good for use with minerals. There are three wave lengths used on minerals, short, med and long. For where I'm at short wave works best on most Alaskan minerals that fluoresce , but long does work on some. Medium I have never used.

I only use the Inreach for sending and receiving messages, costs $15 a month. You can suspend service if you won't be using it for a period of time for instance winter

Get a Garmin Inreach, my 2 cents

I like the "mashed scorpions" here is "Goldfinger"

For those of you down Arizona way, the big show starts soon. Thousands of vendors at numerous hotels and parking lots across Tucson, have fun, http://www.tucsongemshows.net/coming.html

That is a great job of writing Jim, and a great tale. Watch out for that bear spray it can get you. And by the way, bear spray does not work on big foot