My old rock hunting kit was a backpack with a claw hammer and a yogurt container, but after a trip to the Badlands last fall I finally upgraded to a proper geologist's pick and a set of Mohs scale pencils.

I mean, it's not just about finding cool rocks anymore, it's about actually knowing what I'm looking at, so has anyone else made that switch from just collecting to trying to identify stuff properly?

3 comments

3 Comments

mary7681mo ago

Those Mohs pencils are for hardness testing, not identification.

troystone1mo ago

Actually, they're used for both! The hardness test is part of the ID process.

mary_schmidt12d ago

Yeah, exactly, the hardness test is part of the ID. I was just using mine that way the other day, trying to figure out if a weird pebble was calcite or something else.