Building a Willoughby

[karl]

I love these directions...you are a genius!

never been called that before, but ill take it 

you'll still need to break up the more 'calyier' bits with your fingers, but if you dont feel and rock inside, you just throw that bit in the bush.  Can take a bit to get used to, but the big ones sit right in the clay at the bottom, and THOSE you do not want to miss.  If it floats though, usually it wont have any signifiant size rock in it, let alone a sapphire.  All my big ones have come right from the bottom.

[Lefty]

mate you get around the clay part by soaking it first.  you then swirl it, get all the rocks to bottom and tip out the light clay matrix stuff.  usually 1-2 hours and ur good to go.

Cheers Karl.

Are you talking about soaking a single sieve full? I'm not sure I understand (I'm on my 4th sauvignon blanc right now  ) - that seems like a long time to wait for a small amount.

When I was a kid, I remember the old Italian bloke from up the ridge telling me to be sure to break up all the clay lumps in the sieve. He started breaking up the lumps I had neglected....and out came a reasonable sized stone. It was a bomb - but I might have been throwing away good ones.

Lesson well learned.

[karl]

you soak in 45 litre rubbish buckets, or many many smaller ones.  breaks the diggin up thats for sure

[Lefty]

Sounds like a good idea. I remember dad digging out a pile of wash and then letting it air for a day, after which it would become a lot more crumbly. Still had clay lumps though. A good soaking in half 44's might be the go.

[Aussie Sapphire]

The original photos on this post had to be deleted due to the attachment folder getting too full (just another reminder to members to add via the Gallery instead of as an attachment PLEASE).

I have added them to a pdf document which can be downloaded here - all credit to Sandgroper who did the photos, information and generously provided them to ALF.

http://www.aussiesapphire.com/ALF_Storage/BuildingWilloughby.pdf

Made this topic sticky so others can find it quickly in the future

cheers
Leah

[Gerda]

Thank you for the instructions sent so promptly. Thank you to Sandgroper for being so generous with the information