Found a interesting rock today

After taking the grandkids to school today the wife and I thought we would do a bit of rock hunting out the back of Gladstone to fill in the day and came across this piece the whole rock weighted about 40kg had a outer shell of crumbly rock with the blue type patern a solid core of about 25kg used the small hammer in the field to remove the crust then the sledge to get into cuttable pieces unsure how well it will take a polish but will test out when I get home next week.The stone is more blue than shown in the photos.
Dave

There's variscite on one of the islands in Gladstone harbour but the stuff I saw was a different shade, more green.

Is that a large piece of quartz attached to the bottom of the rock in the top photo?

The area just behind Gladstone (Mount Larcom) is heavily volcanic so it would be interesting to wonder what might be hiding there. They are mostly felsic volcanoes so no sapphires but could be other things.

Rock.
Sorry
Mackka

Hi Lefty the piece at the bottom is just another piece of the same just used it to prop. Thats the beauty of looking around rough country you never know what might show up and not alot of others go in there.
Dave

Sorry top photo no its not quartz piece of host rock. Hi Mackka much easier finding a pretty rock than gold and some are worth good money.Another piece from today its more like Variscite.
Dave

Cut a slab off my interesting find today very happy with the outcome.
Dave

I like the colours patterns through it :Y:

What actually is it though?

Hi Lefty it is quite soft but very stable all fracture lines are well healed it has a light soapy feel could be mud stone or something similar looks good but looks like it would hard to get a polish.
Dave

Serpentinite would be my guess - it is what nickel ore forms from by weathering in that part of the world. But if so it should be a slightly greenish shade (hard to see) and have a distinctly soapy feel (might have very thin veins of white asbestos). Would be able to carve it with a sharp pocket-knife but might be hard to scratch with a gold coin.

Thanks goldierocks a piece of brass will scratch it quiet easily haven't tried a gold coin yet doesn't take a polish with 14000 diamond shame it would look super as a pendant.
Dave

You could always dip it in Epoxy... :|

LW....

LoneWolf said:

You could always dip it in Epoxy... :|

LW....

Click to expand...

Isn't there a product called "Opticon" meant for just this purpose?

I've never used it but I think it's epoxy-based, dries clear and does not yellow with age and is often used to stabalise soft stones like turquoise.

Have seen it mentioned on a US forum but have never looked into it as I have always worked hard stone I will look into it thanks LW and Lefty.
Dave