Billion Years

[gypski]

This bowl is a billion years old in the universal time clock. Ok, I needed some reason to post a photo of a bowl I just got finished making and inlaying. Yeah, I've been smoking out of it during the course of its finishing. Kind of like putting life in it. Anyway, the catlinite is about a billion years old, and the gold in the wire inlay could also be just as old. And for that matter, the genus cannabis is a few million years old at least!

Only a stoner could think like this I guess. Anybody else make their own smoking equipment? imp:

gypski Reviewed by gypski on 11-12-2010. Billion Years This bowl is a billion years old in the universal time clock. Ok, I needed some reason to post a photo of a bowl I just got finished making and inlaying. Yeah, I've been smoking out of it during the course of its finishing. Kind of like putting life in it. Anyway, the catlinite is about a billion years old, and the gold in the wire inlay could also be just as old. And for that matter, the genus cannabis is a few million years old at least! :cool: Only a stoner could think like this I Rating: 5

[BlueBlazer]

Does a dented coke can with some holes punched in it count? [attachment=o259342]

[gypski]

I've also used the soda can, toilet paper roll, apple, once and acorn cap for hash in the Marines. :S2:

And to show I'm not crazy about the billion year thing.

In a nutshell, the Early Proterozoic Sioux Quartzite of southwestern Minnesota accumulated as sedimentary sand layers deposited by streams that flowed across an erosional surface developed on older Archean rocks. These deposits were metamorphosed by heat and pressure to produce the metamorphic layers of quartzite seen today. The thin 2 to 6 inch layers of reddish-brown catlinite - a metamorphic claystone argillite - is normally found sandwiched between layers of quartzite which is often found under an overburden of 10-15 feet. The catlinite deposits of southwestern Minnesota are estimated to be between 1.6 billion and 1.8 billion years old.
For more information about geologic time, visit our Geologic Time Page.

The specimen above is a great example, on a small scale, of how the deposits appear.

Catlinite is a mineral made up of diaspore, pyrophyllite, muscovite and hematite, along with traces of anatase and chlorite. Catlinite gets it rusty, reddish color from oxidized hematite - an ore of iron. It is composed of: silica (49.01 percent), alumina (35.17 percent), magnesium (0.23 percent), water (5.87 percent), potash (5.62 percent), ferric acid (3.06 percent) and titanium dioxide (0.44 percent).
Catlinite is very soft measuring 2.5 on Mohs Scale of Hardness. That is about the same hardness as a human fingernail and provides the unique sofness necessary for shaping it into pipes and other objects. For more about Mohs scale, go to our Mohs Scale page.

The specimen above is a great example, on a small scale, of how the deposits appear.

Minnesota Pipestone (Catlinite) from Rockman

[budlover13]

This has gotten my mind working. I'm trying to think of a unique medium now.

[budlover13]

Awesome pieces guys! How would one go about getting you that $40?

[gypski]

Awesome pieces guys! How would one go about getting you that $40?

send me an e-mail [email protected] and we can make arrangements. :thumbsup:

[gypski]

Nice works Gypski, I like your choice of a ancient medium to make the pipes out of. The most I have made was a coconut chalice, got the coconut at the Latino market (most of the coconuts I see in supermarkets are unsuitable), chopped down the bamboo with my machete but I bought the kutchie (bowl piece) it was handmade though, I would have made the kutchie but but the only person I know with kiln access a Sculptor named Ming Fay (can probably find his art online) I haven't seen in about a decade so felt a little weird showing up not knowing if he would remember me or not to request access. Shame too because I know where to harvest fresh clay, some cool shit too, it is a Grey color but fires to a really nice red from the iron content I believe.

Anyways, cracked my Coconut some time ago and haven't gotten around to crafting again, always busy with something it seems, plus some of the antique tools I have collected over the years have been lost, so I am doing my work with not-my-first-tool-choices.

here's a pic of a random coconut chalice I just googled, new computer so don't got any pix of mines on it..

edit:: oops first upload attempt failed, adding another pic too, I want to figure out how stands like these are made. I just use a cast iron thingamajig (wow spellchecker didn't even flag that word!) that I found in this old dilapidated house years ago at a colonial village tourist destination. We started walking through the woods and found out there were all these old crumbling foundations from the original village, the tourist site was just all new constructions and some restored ones too, where we went was, out of bounds so to speak

Different medium that's for sure with those coconuts!!! Goes to show people will smoke out of just about anything!! :lol5:

[RedLocks]

Nice works Gypski, I like your choice of a ancient medium to make the pipes out of. The most I have made was a coconut chalice, got the coconut at the Latino market (most of the coconuts I see in supermarkets are unsuitable), chopped down the bamboo with my machete but I bought the kutchie (bowl piece) it was handmade though, I would have made the kutchie but but the only person I know with kiln access a Sculptor named Ming Fay (can probably find his art online) I haven't seen in about a decade so felt a little weird showing up not knowing if he would remember me or not to request access. Shame too because I know where to harvest fresh clay, some cool shit too, it is a Grey color but fires to a really nice red from the iron content I believe.

Anyways, cracked my Coconut some time ago and haven't gotten around to crafting again, always busy with something it seems, plus some of the antique tools I have collected over the years have been lost, so I am doing my work with not-my-first-tool-choices.

here's a pic of a random coconut chalice I just googled, new computer so don't got any pix of mines on it..

edit:: oops first upload attempt failed, adding another pic too, I want to figure out how stands like these are made. I just use a cast iron thingamajig (wow spellchecker didn't even flag that word!) that I found in this old dilapidated house years ago at a colonial village tourist destination. We started walking through the woods and found out there were all these old crumbling foundations from the original village, the tourist site was just all new constructions and some restored ones too, where we went was, out of bounds so to speak

[gypski]

Is there any significance to the symbols?

I've never toked from one of those so I may have to give it a try. :thumbsup:

Not really. A star burst, a diamond, and chevron. What ever pops out of my head!!! I'm thinking yin/yang, star, whatever comes into my head when I do it. The chevron is sterling silver, the other two 14 ct gold.

They're 3" or so long and 1" thick with a 5/8 or so deep bowl that is 1/2 diameter. :smokin:

[BlueBlazer]

How hard is it to carve one of those? Last time I carved anything was in Cub Scouts I think . . .