McDermitt Oregon -Purple Cow Jasper

Redrummd

Redrummd

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May 21, 2007
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The attached photos show the recent "find" by an old time collector sharing his secret sites with me. I have not shared much about this as in late July he showed me the location of a relatively unknown offshoot of the Purple Cow Jasper site outside of McDermitt Oregon. By relatively unknown I mean maybe 5 people including me know about it. On this quick visit last July we found what we thought was an 800+ pound piece of the stone and several smaller pieces. We did not have the correct bars and sledge hammers with us so we hid the stone. Last week we returned to this site to search for more of this stone with a GPS system amd determined this old/new find really is very near the old Purple Cow claim.

So, this is a new find of an old stone with better Purple than the original digs and claim. The scales are cut from two sister slabs of this McDermitt Purple Cow Jasper and is the more typical look of the stone while the bright purple is some of the very best we found this trip. The stone does have pits and old nearly healed lines that will need a bit of Hxtal to get the best polish possible.

I have never seen or heard of this brightly colored Purple Cow Jasper before and it is just one of the "new" stones I was shown on the road trip I took with my old time collector about a month ago. It is a very nicely colored and patterned stone and takes a wonderful polish. I was able to get a few nice size pieces too so I am very excited about this "new find" of what was probably a well know stone decades ago. Okay so by a few nice size pieces I mean I have enough to supply my knife needs for probably more than a decade....
 

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Mike,
Wow you sure had a great mining trip. You did well finding the McDermitt Purple. The first thought I had when I saw photo # 2 of the knife was 'exotic'. I believe that all your mining adventures will turn out to be a success for your stone art. I can't hardly wait to see the McDermitt Purple Jasper posted for sale.
Dennis
 
Michael, would you ever consider doing a Case Eisenhower? I remember reading somewhere before about what knives were too small to be worth your while dealing with but I can't remember where that info is.
 
Wade,

The Eisenhower is a problem knife as it has two cut downs on the scales to get to the blade nicks for opening the knife. These are problematic. I need to cut and polish them by hand and each takes 2 to 3 hours with the potential to chip on a lot of the stone types which limits the scales to pretty much being a Jade. This puts the hours on the knife to at least 10 hours - so the labor charge alone is $200. Stone, shop consumables, shipping and the knife itself adds about another $100. So, an Eisenhower would be $300 or more depending on the stone used.

I do use the following Case knives: All three Trappers, their Stockman, Peanuts, Razor, Seahorse, Barlow and Lockbacks, Jack and Swayback Jacks.
 
rmbonham - I do not plan on selling any that I have. My partner is selling his half though. He does not have a computer and as his only phone is a a cell phone - He does not answer unless the number is one already in his phone. So, if you want to buy some email me and give me your name and phone number and I will call him. It is not a low cost stone though. I believe he is selling the rough for $10. a pound.

To travel to the find, it is about 1,600. miles round trip plus five nights lodging and meals and then the fuel for a V-10.
 
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