All About Pocket Knives

Steve - It’s tough not to pick up some sand or beach glass when you frequent the beach often - it’s almost addicting and once you find some as you may know you find yourself with your eyes glued to the ground ... That story is too funny - Fake beach glass - Guess it just goes to show you if it is collectible and of value it can be faked - actually a sad commentary

From my house to Yooperlite country is 400-500 miles. Passing fad? Who knows but with a 665 nM U.V. light on the beach at night and very few to find. I'm 300 miles north of Indy and also a rock collector. Yes I have seen and handled a couple of them. If you are going to central Indiana consider geode collecting south of Indianapolis. Bob

bestgear wrote:In Maryland on the shores of the Chesapeake Bay there's a place called Brownies Beach. When my boys were younger we would take them there after a storm to gather sharks teeth and tiny glass beads. The beads are reputed to be from the cargo of early ship wrecks that continue to wash ashore.

Tom - missed your post somehow but was pecking on my phone yesterday as computer wasn’t in reach - anyway is the last photo your collection of shark teeth and beads?? There are some really nice shark teeth specimens in that photo ... we used to find a few smaller ones but yours are quite nice!!! Off the coast of Jersey there were many ship wrecks over the last couple hundred years and indeed when you get lucky after big storms one could make some nice finds!!!! Nothing like beach combing and when my boys were young lots of good fun times - I can relate ...

Old Folder wrote:My wife is the "Rock Hound" Here are just a couple in her collection.

Iridescent_Ammonite_Fossil (2).jpg

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She sent me the below web site info yesterday.
Next spring we are planning to visit Central Indiana to visit relatives, my wife also has friends not far from my home town. I have not been back to Indiana since 1961 and my wife has never been there.
She asked me "How far is Lake Superior from Central Indiana?"
I than read the website she sent me concerning "YOOPERLITES" Apparently these beautiful rocks can only be found in the Lake Superior area and only found with the help of a UV light during sun-set or sun-fall.

https://www.yooperlites.com/index.html#tours

What are Yooperlites?
Recently discovered by Erik Rintamaki, Yooperlite rocks are actually Syenite rocks that are rich in fluorescent Sodalite
In 2017, Erik went out on a beach in Lake Superior with a UV light and discovered dozens of these glowing rocks. To the naked eye, they look like gray rocks, but under the UV light, the mineral composite makes the rocks glow.
From humble beginnings, Yooperlites are now an internet and news phenomenon and have been featured on TV & news sites across the globe.

To enhance my interest she also sent me the below picture of a custom 9 inch Yooperlite handled Demascus collectors knife, made by Jeff Smith. Total length is 9inches. Viewed with and without a UV light.

yooperlite-rock-2.jpg

yooperlite-rock-1.jpg

[email protected]

[email protected]

(Any aapk members live close to Lake Superior?)

Wow Dan - your wife has one nice collection ... The rocks with fluorescent properties under UV really caught my attention - when I was in my 20s the father of a girlfriend was a rock hound and used to travel the country hunting minerals... he got me interested and gave me a few ammonites - in fact I have a large slab of rock he found with about 8-10 ammonites embedded in it... in terms of fluorescent rocks under UV - back at the time I got myself a rock hammer & chisel made for cracking rocks and made a few trips to the Franklin Mines in NW Jersey which is the fluorescent rock capital of the world (as they say) - you would pay to go down in the pit and hunt to your heart’s delight - I had quite a collection of them long ago and held on to many - in fact a few months ago I showed my granddaughter how they fluorescenced under UV light bright red and greens - she thought that was the “cat’s meow” so I gave her some which she proudly keeps on her shelf ...

Great post OF, Tom, Mr Watch and Lee.

Out to a park in Arlington Texas this morning and found these mushrooms. I thought they looked cool. One even has a resident slug.

I got a new cap and I voted.

Thanks for serving, thanks for voting and congrats on the new cap.

doglegg wrote:Thanks for serving, thanks for voting and congrats on the new cap.

Amen to all three!

Ray

Paladin wrote:

doglegg wrote:Thanks for serving, thanks for voting and congrats on the new cap.

Amen to all three!

Ray

Yep..... same here!

mrwatch wrote:From my house to Yooperlite country is 400-500 miles. Passing fad? Who knows but with a 665 nM U.V. light on the beach at night and very few to find. I'm 300 miles north of Indy and also a rock collector. Yes I have seen and handled a couple of them. If you are going to central Indiana consider geode collecting south of Indianapolis. Bob

Thanks for the info Bob. Yes, she does like Geode's also, and rocks and minerals that I can not pronounce or spell.

Quick Steel wrote:Dan, Those photos are so very very cool.

Thank you "Quick Steel" and dogleg.

Wow Dan - your wife has one nice collection ... The rocks with fluorescent properties under UV really caught my attention - when I was in my 20s the father of a girlfriend was a rock hound and used to travel the country hunting minerals... he got me interested and gave me a few ammonites - in fact I have a large slab of rock he found with about 8-10 ammonites embedded in it... in terms of fluorescent rocks under UV - back at the time I got myself a rock hammer & chisel made for cracking rocks and made a few trips to the Franklin Mines in NW Jersey which is the fluorescent rock capital of the world (as they say) - you would pay to go down in the pit and hunt to your heart’s delight - I had quite a collection of them long ago and held on to many - in fact a few months ago I showed my granddaughter how they fluorescenced under UV light bright red and greens - she thought that was the “cat’s meow” so I gave her some which she proudly keeps on her shelf ...[/quote]

Thanks Lee.
You've been on some fun treasure hunts.

How about a nice Mendip potato?

Well done bighomer.

Thanks fellers. There sure are some pretty rocks in this old world and some in my garden that are just plain ugly.

mrwatch wrote:How about a nice Mendip potato?

That is a pretty one MRWatch. Is that one local to you?

Nice “potato” mrwatch .... amazing part is the outside of those rocks sometimes gives you no clue as to what you may find on the inside!! I know out West you can find some pretty cool rocks with great designs... one of my favorites is “picture jasper” - depending on the design it can sometimes look like a landscape ... unfortunately here in CT we have alot of rock which in my area makes it impossible to dig a hole without a sledgehammer and a pick axe - there are many huge rock ledges even in the woods around my house - some rocks may have some quartz but really nothing that interesting... all the rock here was a result of the glacier which slid in here many many moons ago ...

Our house is at an elevation of about 25 feet above sea level. I'm not going to dig too deep for pretty rocks...

doglegg wrote:

mrwatch wrote:How about a nice Mendip potato?

That is a pretty one MRWatch. Is that one local to you?

HEMATITE coated QUARTZ xl lined POTATO STONE GEODE
Dulcote quarry, Wells, Mendip Hills, Somerset, England
Quartz SiO2 quartz var: Agate
952 grams 6 inch half nodule. #2027

rare and no longer collected. They closed the quarry and turned it into a land fill. need to see about the white paint drips on it.

TwoFlowersLuggage wrote:Our house is at an elevation of about 25 feet above sea level. I'm not going to dig too deep for pretty rocks...

I was amazed at how close you are to Port Hueneme. Is your new house in the same area?

The new house is very close to the beach - we can actually hear the waves from the balcony! And yes, Port Hueneme is just down the road, and Point Mugu just a bit farther. I worked at Mugu for 7 years as an engineering contractor back in the 1990s. This entire area has been a big Navy town for decades. Ships at Hueneme and aircraft at Mugu. One of the largest sea test ranges in the world is right off our coast.

Speaking of the new house, you probably aren't going to see any new knife purchases from me for a while. My wife and I are curtailing all non-essential purchases until we can sell our current house and we let this new loan payment settle in. Typical for California - we're going to be house poor...

"Naval Construction Battalion Center Port Hueneme is the West Coast homeport of the Navy’s Seabees"

I was stationed there from 10 November 1962 until March of 1963, while going through Construction Electrician School with the Sea Bees. Good base. Lousy chow hall. I look at the base now, with Google Earth and don't recognize anything. Had some cavities filled by the dentist over at Naval Air Station, Point Mugu while I was there. The fillings are still hanging in there after 56 years but Lord did he hurt me. The Navy must have been rationing Novocain or that was special treatment, just for Marines.

Edit: How to tell someone was really stationed at Port Hueneme. They can pronounce it "Y-Knee-Me" and they can spell it - Hueneme.

Yup - there are many things that make both these bases unique, like the Seabees HQ. For example, next to the Mugu runway is an Air National Guard facility where C130 aircraft are based, including the wing that flies missions to Antarctica. And, throughout the Cold War, P3 Orion sub hunter aircraft flew round the clock patrols from Mugu looking for Soviet subs parked off the West Coast. Hueneme was where the first Aegis cruisers were tested. The civilian side of Port Hueneme is where tons of vehicles are shipped-in - BMW has a huge facility there, and tons of fruit and vegetables are shipped out.

And don't forget that just North of here (about a 90 minute drive) is Vandenberg - the primary launch site of every military satellite sent into space. Florida is where the civilian & manned launches are made so they can use equatorial orbits, but the vast majority of military launches are from Vandenberg so they can use polar orbits.

Some of you guys think California is just full of berry-eating pacifists - but the reality is that California (especially SoCal) has always had a huge military presence and is deeply involved in some of the most critical military programs. Unfortunately, a large part of the aerospace & military industry has been dismantled and moved to cheaper real estate.

Some sights at a port facility I visited today.

Very KOOL Greg!!! John

That Chevy is a '57, correct? Was it headed out to be squirreled away by a Saudi Prince or a Hong Kong billionaire?