The Pest

Howdy Sirs.... Wow.... It's Amazing how the flood gates can open... Ferro Manganese - an indispensable deoxidizer and desulpherizer in the Steel making Industry... This stuff has been.. and is.. heavily traded globally... Two other names I found referring to it are Ferro Chrome and Silico Manganese... so I'm guessing there are different grades of this stuff... Lots of pictures... I added a few I found... Many look exactly like my little rock... My 11 year old mystery appears to be solved... And I've learned quite a bit about some thing so simple... I can't thank everyone here enough... ( I am still Not going to lick it ) As to where I found the little rock... I dug this up in a wooded area that used to be a farm field in the early 70's next to Hwy Rt. 40 in South Jersey... It was a great place to poke around... the farm house had burned down decades ago... The remnants of the outhouse was still there(no I did not dig it up)...The farmers dump was way in the back of the property encrusted in sticker bushes... I found all kinds of cool stuff around the property that summer(mostly aluminum).... but the Rock was up near the road in the edge of the woods... where the field would have been years ago... It may have simply fallen out of a truck... and got plowed around for me to find 30 some years later... small world

Howdy Sirs... While goofing around this afternoon... I was telling a buddy of mine about this rock... And what I was learning here on the forum... He said he worked with a geologist... so we sent the guy a picture... And the guy wanted to see the rock... so we took the rock to the geologist guy... he had a box of rocks... I think it's one of kits the members here were describing (pictured)... There was also several magnifying glasses and what looked like dental picks... He scraped each one of the rocks from the box across mine and determined it was between 8 and 9... He poked and prodded and examined it intently... At one point he said he thought he was seeing some gold... It's too hard to be Arsenopyrite... But he's 75 percent sure it's Chromite Ore... Then he said Not To Lick It (why would I lick it)... If I am understanding what he was describing correctly... I should not lick any ores because arsenic is present when ores form( I am Not Going to Lick Rocks)... I am defiantly having fun learning about this... All these years I've been diggin rocks and dirt lookin for stuff (mostly aluminum)... And never considered the geology at all.... It puts a whole other spin on metal detecting... what else is there after I retrieve my target....

Howdy again Sirs... Thank You for the response... I am watching the Chris Ralph Videos on youtube... It's like being in science class again... ( that was my favorite class)... There is a tile shop just over the state line near me... I'll head over there this week... and see what I can find... I'm assuming "unfinished" means not glassed.... If not I'll stop by my Mom's place and accidentally brutally on purpose knock over a few flower pots... Lol.... just kidding... I'll only knock over one... Chris Ralph

Ummm.... Howdy Sirs.... I'm a total Noob when it comes to what you're asking for... Do I need to buy a test kit of some sort... I will.... if you tell me what to get... I have pushed on this rock with a small straight screw driver... It's not soft or brittle... I can honestly say It's hard as a rock... when I rubbed the tip of the screw driver back and fourth... Trying to scratch it... It didn't really do anything... the tip of the screw driver is shinny and a bit worn though... any of the jagged edges would easily scratch my desk... where do I get unglazed porcelain???

While chasing a drifty target.... (that turned out to be a piece of a rusty nail)... This small rock popped out as I was tossing dirt... I thought it was my target at first... but the detector didn't register anything... it's not magnetic (pictured is a hard drive magnet that I keep on my shovel)... It's fairly heavy... About as heavy as a #8 lead sinker... It's not slag... (I've dug enough of that over the years)... It looks like there is paint on one side... but It's the actual coloring of this rock...The one rough edge is kinda crystalline... like a freshly broken piece of die cast metal... Its way too heavy to be a piece of driveway gravel... maybe some one will recognize it...