PA Rock Cutters

PA Rock Cutters Kevin and I recently retired from our “real” jobs and finally have time to play with rocks!

Thank you to everyone who expressed their concern when we cancelled our Open House for a medical emergency. Kevin under...
04/18/2026

Thank you to everyone who expressed their concern when we cancelled our Open House for a medical emergency. Kevin underwent eye surgery yesterday and it went well. He looks like he went a few rounds with Mike Tyson right now, and he has to stay face down for a few days, but the doc expects him to regain full vision in the eye! Your thoughts and prayers were appreciated!
(Since no one wants to see a picture of his real eye right now, here’s a photo of a nodule from New Mexico instead. We dubbed it “the dragon’s eye” when we first cut it!)

04/14/2026

OPEN HOUSE CANCELED

Due to a medical emergency our Rock and Mineral Open house scheduled for this weekend has been canceled. We will be rescheduling later this year. Thanks for your understanding.

Today we”re at The Serpent’s Key (28 Carlisle Street, Hanover) for a Geode Cracking event . Come by and crack a Morocca...
04/04/2026

Today we”re at The Serpent’s Key (28 Carlisle Street, Hanover) for a Geode Cracking event . Come by and crack a Moroccan geode (small ones are just $10 each!). We’ll be here until 6pm, and they’ve got lots of other beautiful pottery, herbs, handmade clothing, jewelry and more!

Hope you’ll join us. If you’re looking for something in particular let us know in advance and we’ll go digging in the wa...
03/31/2026

Hope you’ll join us. If you’re looking for something in particular let us know in advance and we’ll go digging in the warehouse for you!

Railroad bed find! It looks like a natural rock but…these are Taconite Pellets. Taconite is a low grade iron ore that’...
03/31/2026

Railroad bed find! It looks like a natural rock but…these are Taconite Pellets. Taconite is a low grade iron ore that’s about 20-30% magnetite. The ore is ground into a fine powder with the magnetite separated out by magnets, then the concentrate is combined with bentonite clay and rolled into pellets that are about 65% iron. The processed pellets are the form typically transported by ship and rail to steel making centers. The Edmund Fitzgerald was carrying 26,116 tons of these pellets when it sank in Lake Superior. So, if you find these in a rail bed you’re not finding a local mineral, but it’s still kinda awesome!

This is a big chunk of bone from the Calvert cliffs area in MD. Ideas? I’m thinking a whale bone of some sort.
03/16/2026

This is a big chunk of bone from the Calvert cliffs area in MD. Ideas? I’m thinking a whale bone of some sort.

Pennsylvania Mineral Collector? We recently acquired the collection of a gentleman (Larry Eisenberger) who collected e...
03/14/2026

Pennsylvania Mineral Collector? We recently acquired the collection of a gentleman (Larry Eisenberger) who collected extensively in PA forty or fifty years ago. We have 71 flats of material, many from classic collecting localities that are no longer accessible. Specimens range from excellent to mediocre. They are clearly labelled with the location they were collected! We’d like to sell it all as one lot for $800 - about $11 per flat. Localities include: Woods Chrome Mine, Cornwall, Teeter Quarry, Dyer Quarry, Martins Quarry,
Grace Mine, French Creek and dozens more. Not selling individual flats! pm for more info(

Here's an interesting piece of Pennsylvania! This mineral is Mascagnite. It's ammonium sulfate, a pretty rare thing to...
03/10/2026

Here's an interesting piece of Pennsylvania! This mineral is Mascagnite. It's ammonium sulfate, a pretty rare thing to find in nature since it only forms around volcanic fumaroles, hot springs and....vents from burning coal mines. This was collected years ago from Centralia PA where an underground coal mine fire has been burning since 1962. The photo on the left is under a microscope where you can see the stalactite-type crystals.

Not everything in our collection is pretty! This is palygorskite from Martins Quarry in Bechtelsville PA. We all agree...
02/21/2026

Not everything in our collection is pretty! This is palygorskite from Martins Quarry in Bechtelsville PA. We all agree that if we came across it in the field we might easily mistake it for the aftermath of a backed up sewer - it looks like dried up toilet paper stuck to a rock! (It’s actually a magnesium aluminum phyllosilicate)
If you too would like this lovely specimen for your collection, we have some additional specimens for sale

I’m used to crinoid stems looking like the fossil on the right, but the specimen on the left was tagged as a Crinoid ste...
02/12/2026

I’m used to crinoid stems looking like the fossil on the right, but the specimen on the left was tagged as a Crinoid stem (no locality). Any ideas?
(Just to show you the accuracy of Google lens, it identified it as a stack of dried cow patties used for fuel. Small cows! 😛 )

02/11/2026

We’re trying to go through all those rocks we dragged home last year before the new collecting season starts! Kevin just busted out this perfect little trilobite from a big chunk picked up in Perry County that’s been sitting in our “rainy day to do” pile.

We’ll be bringing some free chunks of similar Perry County material to the Franklin Club meeting tonight if you want to try your luck.

Address

Thomasville, PA
17364

Telephone

+17174657108

Website

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