CAVE PEARLS FOR SALE

[cap n chris]

The vendor has emailed to say he's withdrawn the item for sale. Result. :wink:

Just checked; it has been withdrawn.

 

[emgee]

The vendor has emailed to say he's withdrawn the item for sale. Result. :wink:

Just checked; it has been withdrawn.

Indeed.

 

[axbridgecaver]

Well done Chris - sometimes a slight pressure on a seller can work.

 

[Roger W]

Well done, lads!

Out here (I'm working in south China at the moment) you see lots of bits of karst formation - weathered limestone - used as garden ornaments, etc. And I've seen quite a few cave formations on sale by vendors of "interesting stones." Makes me feel sad/angry/annoyed.

Don't know what to do about it out here. But we certainly don't want an open market in cave formations in the UK! I don't suppose the landowner's mineral rights could be invoked?? Assuming he would want to risk some potentially very expensive litigation...

 

[cap n chris]

While there may appear to be an "open market for cave formations in the UK", no-one has bought these items so perhaps there's no demand for similar items. Let's hope so. All we can do is to continue being vigilant and make representations in the event that items are put up for sale. After all, we can be more pro-active than other agencies (Police, Environment Agency, English Nature etc..).

 

[Wayne Harrison]

I had an idea for making cave pearls at home:

Taking small, broken limestone pieces from outside a cave (or a limestone cliff, for that matter) and rolling it in a rock tumbler, just as you would a rough stone to turn it into a polished stone. I just don't know what it would look like if it weren't wet all the time.

 

[emgee]

I had an idea for making cave pearls at home:

Taking small, broken limestone pieces from outside a cave (or a limestone cliff, for that matter) and rolling it in a rock tumbler, just as you would a rough stone to turn it into a polished stone. I just don't know what it would look like if it weren't wet all the time.

It'd probably establish a market for imitation cave pearls. Which would then create a market for the real thing. Go and wash your mouth out with sump water

 

[cap n chris]

Wayne would just be making irregular polished limestone pebbles (the process is known as lapidiary / lapidary).

Cave pearls are very different, composed of layer upon layer of calcite often almost spherical (although you can get cubic ones). http://www.goodearthgraphics.com/virtcave/pearls/pearls7.jpg

 

[Wayne Harrison]

So I shouldn't plan on retiring on the money made from idea, then?

(BTW - regarding your avatar... I live 20 miles from the real South Park in Colorado)

 

[Roger W]

So what you need to do is get some little bits of limestone, set 'em rolling in a rotating pan, and drip calcium-laden cave water onto them. The trick is to get the rate of dripping of the water and the rate of evaporation (air of the right temperature and humidity blown into the pan at the right rate) to get the calcium carbonate to crystallise in the right form as a series of layers until you build up some big enough 'pearls'.

But - as has been said - if you do succeed, you will only stoke a market that others will seek to supply by pinching the real thing out of caves.

Don't bother!