Free cabbing rough

I haven’t been an active member for some time, due to family health issues, and thought I would pass along a good idea I had that proved a valuable addition to my collecting. I contacted a supplier of stone slabs for the East coast of the U.S.A. that are used for kitchen and baths by various contractors, to ask if I could pick up some left over pieces of Granite, Marble and Quartzite. They allowed me to pick up all I wanted and to go through their dumpster for larger pieces.

I went away with a few hundred pounds of great stone for cabbing. I make some jewelry at times from these cabs and wire wrap them for pendants. I made a few and gifted the people who allowed me to collect and they were thrilled with their gifts. They told me I could come back anytime I liked. I made another visit and took home about 300 more pounds more of their stone. I researched the stone they sell and informed their sales people of where their stone came from and they thought that was great also.

The part I enjoy the most about rock collecting is finding new places to collect and identifying the history of the sites. Researching the places where the rock slabs comes from was very interesting. One of the lines of stone called AZULE was particularly interesting. It is a line of beautiful blue Quartzite that has all sorts of design in it. I believe the Chinese have almost all the market for this stone. They buy it in Brazil and resell it around the World.

Another pretty stone I like is called blue pearl Granite that comes from Norway. A beautiful black stone comes from Africa. Their Marble supplier is in Italy. So now I have stone from all over the World that I collected in one place. It’s all fantastic for cabbing and the price was right.
With today’s closings of so many places we used to collect rocks, it is wonderful to find a new place to get stone. In the past most of my cabbing rough came from a crick that runs past an old quarry that was closed about 150 years ago. To get permission to collect in this crick by looking up the owners and talked to them about their land and informed them of the history of the area and they didn’t even know that there was an old quarry hidden in their woods.

This information will not make the Mineral collectors happy but any “cabber” will be on cloud nine with the choices of stone available for the asking.

Joe D.

Joe:
Good out of the box idea. In this vein, I have several slabs of stone countertop that consist almost entirely of labradorite. Nice color play too. That would be my idea of cabbing rough from the granite shop's dumpster.

When I was a kid, the proprietor of Domar Stone gave me many samples from his personal collection and allowed me to pick up specimens from the yard around the shop. Back then most of it wasn't stone countertops (fireplaces, building stone, etc.), but it would be now if the place is still in business.

A few years ago I was driving through Georgia, and I stopped at Elberton, a center of granite quarrying and working. I stopped at several of the granite working shops (headstones etc.) and explained I was interested in buying scraps and offcuts. No one sold me any. They all gave them to me for free.

Ken,

Another local Tile shop has promised me all their old samples of stone whne they plan on re-doing their store this Fall.

Joe D.