Rocks & Minerals (83:03)
May/June 2008
Page 196. A 2007 Collecting Venture in Herkimer CO., NY
38 Quartz Pockets. Jeff Fast
Opening new pockets of Herkimer diamonds takes an immense amount of work. During 2007 we not only opened 38 pockets but extracted three entire pockets with their surrounding matrix. The following movie is a montage of short video clips taken during the extraction of the largest and best of these pockets (fig. 9, pg. 199). It includes extracting crystals impacted in pocket mud; working the specimen with hammer and chisels (John Medici) and a diamond chain saw (Jay Medici); and finally hauling the prize from the site in a sled (Jeff Fast and Jay Medici). The fully reconstructed pocket is shown in a still at the end of the video.
