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I love the way you say "SHE NODDED"!! Been to that spot going again day after tomorrow...have a good one

Had to pause really quick..that piece Sara found at 7:42..had a little window I could see..looks really interesting 🤔..I'm wanting to see that cut

You put the epoxy on the crack and stick the rock in a vacuum chamber, when it returns to room air pressure the epoxy will be sucked into the crack. It's similar to windshield crack repair. When I built space satellites we degassed the epoxies to remove air bubbles that could expand in the vacuum of space.

Very interesting site! That swirled look to the rhyolite is fascinating... After 15:29, I find it humorous the number of people telling you to put epoxy on your rocks! I'm in the early stages of testing a method to consolidate crumbly fossils for cabochon making. The specimens undergo a museum grade polyvinyl acetate bath (via dissolved acetone), and then get cut and polished. If I find that the PVA truly fills the cracks indiscernibly after the final polish, I'll let you know.

I like the fracture in that one it makes it look like a tree cut in half

14:23 I like that one. It has a lot going on. And the next one is very cool too with the layered tear drop shape going on in there. Also those that have tried to convince me to use epoxy and resin to fill cracks show me the rocks that you “can’t tell” on and I see it clearly haha 😅 they all need glasses

1ST...omw to work but will view it again when I get home. Love that area~

I was there once years ago and didn't really know what i was doing or what to look for. My experience up until then was mainly creek and river hunting, never digging. I'm learning a lot just from your videos so much thanks for that.

very nice stuff

My kids think you are blippi from the blippi youtube channel.lol😁

No thunder eggs here in Missouri but… we do have similar looking chert nodules. They’re Union road agates. I do know of a creek in St. Louis where they can be found and we just got a freak 10 inch rainstorm! Yep Jeff HuntingRocks and I will be hitting that creek soon. And yeah fracturing 🤷🏻‍♂️ It’s a bummer. Still a cool looking egg though 👍🏼

I was just over there last week, and got some really nice browns and purples! It's fantastic to have public areas for digging, me and my buddy had the whole place to ourselves.

It was a beautiful place and I'm glad you picked up a few beautiful rocks.

Went there a couple of years ago.great fun and great specimens. The smaller broken chunks polished up beautiful!

You know that larger egg you cut with the fractures.. Brush coat a layer of clear epoxy over it. The fractures will disappear and it’ll have a nice protective finish. 👍

How bout you take some SiO2, heat it up to 3120F and fill the cracks with that, then grind smooth. Very cool spot, looking forward to visiting one day!

I would think some folks are possibly collecting for knapping also. Not sure. Thanks for the ride along!

Great video bud!!..really liked the scenery. Nice finds!..and hey..lemme know where I can get one of those altitude watches..I've been wanting one forever!

I was there with a big group and had gotten soaked in 45 degree weather. I brought some stuff back and can only home some of it is as nice as what you got. It looks like y'all had a great day.

I have been keeping an eye out for a good used lapidary saw. After watching the channel for a while... convinced I have to have one now LOL! They open up a whole new world of rockhounding (pun intended).

Awesome video and I like those Thundereggs, very unique! I put mineral oil on my cracks. Heat up the rock (via oven), and then brush the oil on the entire face, let it soak for 5 minutes or so, and then wipe off. It tends to soak into those cracks, and blends them in better. Not a fix, but makes them look better.

Looks like an awesome location that I'm going to have to check out in the future! I cut one of these before I even knew about this material! Crazy neat stuff!

One of my first rockhounding trips was there. I had no clue as to what I was doing. Still had a great time and did end up with a couple of great thundereggs from there.

Ha! Last time I was there on the Maxwell fire in 2006….. shoulda had my head down looking for rocks in my free time 🙂 🪨

I tend to think the cracks and fissures just add more personality to the piece.

Might have found fossilized coral of some sort today. Definitely has parallel porous structures... And maybe a bone...

Auto body putty works great, need to color match

I was just out there this past weekend! It was so hot but the digging was fantastic! I also recommend, if you are into some tougher digging, as in pulling thundereggs out of rock, you can try the T,N,T Beds that are just a little further up the road. They are also known for rarely having amethyst in the eggs. If you get any White Fir eggs with Agate, be sure to check for fluorescence to. I have one from the beds where the agate lightly glows green under UV.

That's a good amount of material for a cold day in December. I prefer the larger egg you cut, the best. It speaks to me in a way, whispering "I am not a pear". Were the fractures healed or recent, like in the last thousand years. Most resin crafts I've seen look like a waxed floor to me. It can be hard to tell the resin from the material. Some tests like hardness could be thrown off if it is too thick, or could be mistaken for fake. It's a conundrum for sure.

I’ll give you the same piece of advice I gave to my son. Get a cordless angle grinder with a diamond cutting blade and a diamond grinding disc. It’s not necessary to buy an expensive one and the 4” discs and blades are relatively inexpensive as well. What it allows you to do is selectively identify and chop out the desired material in the field, and collect a fraction of the actual material to haul home.

Awesome, buddy. You are in OR. Some of the eggs that are odd shaped could be " dirt balls." Nothing inside. You are onto something with resin. If you get a good resin, pour a coue layers on, 24 hrs apart, then sand. Don't sand all off, you want your crack filled. Once you get an art resin, no need to really sand!

What I have been seeing is epoxy mixed in Acetone and the pressure chamber. Theory is: The epoxy is deluded in the Acetone. The vacuum chamber forces the Acetone deep into the cracks of the rock and evaporates leaving the epoxy filling the crack. I have yet to try it, but there are some videos on YT showing people doing this.

Beautiful area! Worth the trip just to hike around. The Thundereggs are definitely very different. I still think they are very unique and cool. As for filling, I know people have said all kinds of ways. But, I swear by a specific 2 part epoxy that I use. There is a method of madness to do it right. Even to the point where there is no need to sand and polish it after. When finished, it looks just like someone high polished it. I use this method for Rhyolite. If you want my secrets, just message me. Too long to type here. Lol. Thanks so much for the adventure. Love this episode. Love your channel. Stay Crystal 💫 Mari

I have dug lavender and purple jasper out of that dig. You have to be persistent. Lot of leverite.

Great video, thanks for sharing, maybe try getting your specimens hot/warm then apply the epoxy? Also an idea just popped in my head, maybe try putting a cut egg in a container with acetone and epoxy and let it evaporate leaving the epoxy left in the cracks and fissures, filling them, sort of how they stabilize turquoise🤷‍♂️

You might try out that rock countertop epoxy resin. I have had some luck with CA glue that comes with the spray activator. The CA glue also comes in different colors now (I think it's called StarBond or something like that 🤷‍♂️). Thanks for another great informative video. I love your vids, especially since I can't get out much right now. Thanks bro. You da man, man! 👊🐻

Wow. This reminds me so much of bruneau jasper. Not quite as beautiful, but same theory in creation. Did you ever cut the one I gave you?

And you didn’t even say hi when you came through my neck of the woods. 😂👋

Those are really cool, very different thundereggs! I really like those! The variations of color and translucence, make them really unique. And in true thunderegg fashion, no two will be alike! Im really interested in the percentage of the material, how much of it was good? I dont want to go and have to take 5 gal of material, to get 3 decent pieces! But if 90% of what you collected was viable material, then heck yeah, im going! Its really interesting material and if i could collect a 2 gal bucket full and have even half of it good, then im happy! Thanks for sharing. Seeing this helps people to know what they are looking for!

I hope you can find something to repair the rocks. When you do, let us know what works. Those were really nice. I tried mineral oil, epoxy and super glue. Not working for me.

Those are very pretty and no less interesting than the usual star of Chalcedony type you cut and polish, just different. Thanks for showing me another beautiful corner of your country.

Looks like you might have gotten a few "leaverites" on this trip. Good luck getting a good polish on those. They won't polish as nice as Agate filled eggs. Getting a satin finish is about all you'll get. Also, you need to start digging more for better material and not pick up other's scraps. There's a reason they left it behind. Also, one year at a show (I don't recall which one), someone had a White Fir egg that was half filled with Jasper and the other half will filled with Amethyst crystals. it was a little bigger than softball size. I've not seen it displayed again since and this was about 15 years ago. Give that rock hammer a good workout, you should be able to find some good 5 inch+ eggs at that location.

Hi Jared- thank you for another great video. If you are looking to experiment with saving some less than ideal polishing material, I recommend checking out Jason’s videos over at rock hounding life. He uses epoxy on the face of fractured or mixed hardness rocks like petrified wood and fractured seam agate. It’s not for everyone but if it can divert a specimen from ending up in the garden or driveway then something has been gained. Like I said not for everyone but it might create a germ of a new idea to explore. One video is titled ‘Making Old PETRIFIED WOOD Shine | Late Carboniferous (Pennsylvanian) Cordaites’. His friend Terry shows him what to do in another video.

I live 30 min away from there

👏👏 Another beautiful day …

How could I get me one of those high speed sanders you got?

Kind of a quantity over quality spot, I am sure there are some better colors somewhere nearby. That one you cut looks like a cantaloupe