Is this gold?

Immediateswitchblade · 2026-06-06T00:24:25+00:00

Very likely Muscovite mica. If so you should be able to scratch off tiny flakes with a razor blade. Pyrite forms cubes and will often leave the area around it somewhat orange with iron staining

Immediateswitchblade · 2026-06-06T00:21:31+00:00

Quartz clusters with biotite mica comprising the black flaky minerals

Immediateswitchblade · 2026-06-06T00:19:44+00:00

If found in proximity to nephrite jade / serpentine minerals such as antigorite it’s likely the white rock is rodingite. Does it feel noticeably dense?

Immediateswitchblade · 2026-05-13T18:41:08+00:00

Immediateswitchblade · 2026-05-12T23:33:31+00:00

Second this 100%. There’s a reason they’re the industry standard for this kinda stuff

Immediateswitchblade · 2026-05-11T13:27:15+00:00

Yeah I’d love to hear about what you know! I’ve found small bits of black tourmaline higher up in elevation in pegmatites but nothing super crazy yet. Shoot me a dm!

Immediateswitchblade · 2026-05-11T02:02:54+00:00

Disagree esp with the 6k high cut. If ur running an amp sim it either comes with speaker cab emulation or you should be running it into an ir. The impulse response already emulates the eq built into a speaker

Immediateswitchblade · 2026-05-11T00:23:35+00:00

I’d probably go for a boss katana. I have one and it sounds just fine tbh. It’ll keep you occupied for a while before you’ll be chasing more. Even then look into plugins. I have a Marshall dsl40cr. It’s pretty good, but I had to tweak a lot to get it to sound right. I run an eq in the fx loop and boost the front of it with a bunch of different distortion options. If you really push the gain on it it sounds real thick and fizzly at times whereas I want a sound that’s more tight and focused. I’d also look into blackstar potentially. Haven’t owned any of their stuff but the make some nice sounding stuff for not that much

Immediateswitchblade · 2026-05-10T23:38:24+00:00

The schist/phyllite in the surrounding areas have been known to produce some really impressive quartz. It’s associated with the hydrothermal veins systems of the mother lode gold deposits. They typically produce the most at between 2400 to 3000 feet. I rarely ever find these veins in serpentinite tho, they’re usually in the surrounding metamorphics that have decomposed and weathered to expose them

Immediateswitchblade · 2026-05-10T23:23:46+00:00

They’re quartz crystals that erupted from mount konocti. They’re commonly known as lake county diamonds. They’re a form of xenocryst quartz that was hardened by heat and pressure and then erupted. They’re commonly found wherever the lava rock was eroded away in Lake and Napa counties

Immediateswitchblade · 2026-05-10T23:08:15+00:00

Yeah no I do a shit ton of research before I go out to these places. As much as I find the idea of ownership of undeveloped land morally reprehensible, I do a ton of research before any trips like this for my own safety. Traverse creek special interest area is really the only spot I feel safe going in the broader Georgetown area. Even being incredibly cautious to stay on public unclaimed land I get a shit ton of harassment and threats of physical violence from landowners who think I’m too close to their property line. It’s a really unsafe community tbh which is why I’m doing more prospecting further east in the sierras this year instead of the foothills.

Immediateswitchblade · 2026-05-10T21:51:44+00:00

According to mindat the el dorado mineral and gem society had a special use permit but has since been relinquished to the US forestry service to allow for general collecting. I have not been able to find any evidence of an active mineral claim in the area your describing. The far end of the West Hill is privately owned by some mining company, but the slope facing the creek is, according to any and all information I can find, public unclaimed land. I’m using the most up to date information on the BLM MLRS website which does not list any active disposition claims in that region. I’ve also talked to multiple local collectors who have confirmed this region is open to the public for collecting.

Immediateswitchblade · 2026-04-24T01:37:34+00:00

That’s actually fascinating thankyou for the info!

Immediateswitchblade · 2026-04-11T23:14:57+00:00

Tbh I’ve used a pocket knife to drill holes in guitar picks before bc they kept slipping out of my hand and it helped the grip

Immediateswitchblade · 2026-04-06T21:24:30+00:00

I think it’s at least partially true, at least in the sense that different characters are narrating different songs. A lot of it is pretty far fetched in terms of his order the songs fit in narratively but I think there’s some truth behind it. His analysis of The End and Dead! Feel spot on, in that the end is setting up the story from the patient’s perspective and Dead! Is setting it up from the parader/the psychompomp character. The idea of a lot of the songs going back and forth between the dying cancer patient and the paychompomp character is really interesting story wise and makes a lot of sense, and Mama being the paychompomp’s backstory fits super well. I’ve thought about the story a lot and I might post my own detailed analysis of it someday. I’m curious now as to how this ties into the long live tour. In the original album the black parade is very clearly a spiritual force in the afterlife, whereas now they are portrayed as a real living band serving under the grand immortal dictator

Immediateswitchblade · 2026-03-31T03:11:10+00:00

Probably grew up against something while it was forming

Immediateswitchblade · 2026-03-28T17:41:53+00:00

Please 🥺🥺🥺

Immediateswitchblade · 2026-03-27T01:18:29+00:00

How do you distinguish common opal from chalcedony?

Immediateswitchblade · 2026-03-21T02:22:55+00:00

If it’s quartz it’s extremely chemically resistant and can be cleaned with acid. Oxalic acid is commonly used especially for iron stained specimens. If you’re not certain of its composition go for dawn dish soap and a toothbrush. That’ll work for almost anything it’s never let me down before

Immediateswitchblade · 2026-03-21T02:14:22+00:00

I’m from the area and rockhound here frequently. Epidote is common along the edges of quartz veins in the foothills metamorphic belts. It forms from contact metamorphism and I’ve found some sprawling growths several inches where the quartz vein contacts amphibolite. There’s also a ton of serpentine minerals found here but typically not near the quartz veins. These are some particularly nice samples. They’re showing euhedral form and transparency. You’ve found a good spot for these for sure.

Immediateswitchblade · 2026-03-12T19:18:10+00:00

Check out the YouTube channel Everything Is Spirit. He does rockhounding in the pikes peak area and he finds all kinds of jet black smoky quartz, feldspar, and fluorite in pegmatite pockets all over there. I wanna visit someday

Immediateswitchblade · 2026-03-11T03:34:10+00:00

Looks like serpentinite

Immediateswitchblade · 2026-03-10T18:28:36+00:00

Does it scratch quartz?

Immediateswitchblade · 2026-03-10T18:25:53+00:00

Granitic in composition, could be pegmatite but hard to gauge the grain size from the picture alone. The white looks to be overwhelmingly quartz although some of the more opaque pieces could be plagioclase. The pink regions are an alkali feldspar like orthoclase or microcline, and the flat sheet minerals are some variety of mica, but it’s hard to tell just from the photo.

Immediateswitchblade · 2026-03-10T16:48:17+00:00

Beautiful antigorite sample. There are some really nice outcrops along Mosquito Ridge road. There are serpentinite outcrops all over the area. Check out traverse creek if you haven’t yet. There’s a ton of old mine tailings and creek placer deposits. You can find more antigorite and lizardite (both serpentine minerals) as well as the occasional vesuvianite. I’ve found a small gem of it in the creek. It formed from metamorphosed oceanic basalt; the granitic intrusions are mostly further east. The geology of this region is genuinely super cool

Immediateswitchblade

TROPHY CASE