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

[gypski]

I need a new T5 light so maybe these can get one for me!!! Gotta do something to keep from going crazy in today's wacky world full of liars and fuck-ups wanting to tell me what I can and can't smoke. Put some of that green in one of these and you'll know what a smooth smoke is. Glass can't hold a candle to stone!!!! And its hard to break, not like your $75.00 modified light bulb that goes Humpty Dumpty after accidentally falling off the whatever!!!! :lol5:

[gypski]

showing the stone's red better.

[BlueBlazer]

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:

[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 . . .

[gypski]

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

These took about 4 hours or so each to make. Its a fairly hard catlinite. Part of the block I got has a contact area where its really, really hard. I've had softer, but these weight 85, 80, 79 grams. And they're much harder then soap stone.

[RAINHAZE]

Looks good Gypski :thumbsup: I had one kinda similar that an Apache friend of mine made me.

A few years back while hiking the Adirondacks, we got to the
top of this one big ass mountain with a beautiful view, and realized we didn't have any papers or a pipe to smoke this really good
skunk that we had brought with us.

So I removed a 6 inch X 3/8 inch piece of the aluminum tubing that was part of my
backpack frame. I found a sharp jagged edge of a boulder and started rubbing the
piece of tubing on it about an inch from the end until it made a small hole.
We then placed some killer bud into the hole and of course the end of the tube
made a great carburetor.
It looked like hammered-hell, (and thousands of years old) but it worked great!:jointsmile:

BlueBlazer;Is there any significance to the symbols?

The symbol on the middle one is an arrow pointing to the mouth end BB.