In Search of a Gemstone - Gem Quality Garnets!

Bringing Dan on a garnet hunt is like bringing a Jeopardy champion to a friendly game of Trivial Pursuit

That was great to see the extreme amount of garnets on that shoreline. I LOVE garnets. When I was 16 I found one in my grandmothers driveway. She lived in North Carolina and I found out the place it came from was just 2 miles away. It is the size of an extra large chicken egg and it is perfect in its color of black cherry. I have left it in its natural shape and cherished it all of these years. Thank you Dan Hurd for sharing all the videos with everyone.

Garnets? Kyanite? Starlie? Pffft. Come to Florida, Dan! We have gem quality beach sand and mosquitoes! I am so darned jealous you get to go on all these awesome adventures. But at least I can live vicariously through your videos. Thanks, Dan, it's always fun watching your adventures!

Dan, have you thought about hitting up a decent backpack company to test their products? You don't have to go for bigger than you carry currently, but you can get backpacks that will make carrying what you are much easier. A good backpack will take the weight away from your shoulders and back, putting it more towards your hips and therefore much more comfortable. And testing their bags that are only the same carrying capacity will ensure you're not going over a safe weight for you! Just a thought about how much better a good backpack was for me over the kind I used to use, which was the same as the basic type you use. They changed my life, far easier to walk with loads, no back and shoulder issues really compared to before. Just having adjustability on all aspects and the weight being distributed down made walking with loads easier, and I've found myself carrying more without even realising I am! I love your videos, keep doing your amazing work showing us all how wonderful the world is! ❤

Dan, I fall asleep to your videos man, cant get enough! About to go on my first prospecting trip at the end of the month and you have taught me so much! Thank you! Much love from Wyoming, hope all is well in your neck of the woods.

Never fails to make me smile when I see a Dan Hurd video in my notifications! You have more than earned my subscription my friend!

Nice! I asked to see a gem garnet video not long ago. Much appreciated!

Thank you for taking me along 😊

I used to prospect garnet and kyanite from metamorphosed schist in western Massachusetts. The only method I was able to find that somewhat worked to get the matrix off of facetable stones was hot oxalic acid, and it takes a while. I believe the oxalic acid attacks the the bonding cement between the schist layers (probably aluminum carbonate) and let's the schist peel apart and off of the stones but it is a slow process and probably not economically viable. You can't use hydrochloric or nitric acid because while they do attack the schist, they also attack the aluminum in the garnet.

Picking up rocks as you walk away from the car is always funny... to watch.

Chlorite,biotite **garnet, staurolite, kyanite** sillimanite- that is known as the barrovian sequence in geology which is the metamorphic indicator minerals at increasing pressure and temperatures inside of a mountain towards the core of the mountain. The fibrous appearing mineral would most likely be sillimanite. Great video!

I always thought that staurolite always just looked a rock cross I didn't know that they can get clear and shiny. Would like to see some of that aquamarine that Chris gets! Thanks again Dan!👍

Garnet is my birthstone and wedding ring stone! They're so lovely!

Fantastic scenery !!

Another great video Dan!

It's great you just posted this. We were camping in the mountains of North Carolina and found a bunch of river tumbled rocks with garnets in them. They are so tumbled the garnet doesn't look great and nothing bigger than 1/8 inch.

Thanks Chris for having Dan there and make us a great video to watch. Very interesting and enjoyable

Great to see you’re alive and kicking Dan!

13:00 What a beautiful Kyanite!!! That's one of my fave gemmy stones!

I found some inch-diameter garnets in Little Gunpowder Falls, MD, in the valley of a tiny side-stream that cuts through a vein of schists that abuts more igneous rock and created a fault for the stream to form in. Like most garnets in the northeast, these are heavily cracked from the repeated crushing and grinding of the continental plate edges in the region before the mid-Atlantic ridge formed. Another tiny deposit of garnets is in the northern part of the Pennypack Creek in eastern PA just above Philadelphia. One deposit is concentrated to a single upthrust of rock that created a highly localized hill right beside the creek in Lorimer Park. In a small cave near the top you can even see the spear-point-like tip of the igneous upthrust piercing through the other material.