What is it? In 1989 I dug this up while preparing a garden at our new house on Long Island. In 2005 I moved and brought it with me. It has remained in the bird bath since then. After...

Bill_de Loc: US

In 1989 I dug this up while preparing a garden at our new house on Long Island. In 2005 I moved and brought it with me. It has remained in the bird bath since then. After soaking it in a bucket of bleach it went back into the bird bath this morning. Hosing it off caused some white flakes to come off.

Any guesses or factual information?

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Bob Mevis Loc: Plymouth, Indiana

No idea.

Quixdraw Loc: x

Bill_de wrote:

In 1989 I dug this up while preparing a garden at our new house on Long Island. In 2005 I moved and brought it with me. It has remained in the bird bath since then. After soaking it in a bucket of bleach it went back into the bird bath this morning. Hosing it off caused some white flakes to come off.

Any guesses or factual information?

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Will the side exposed in #3 scratch steel or glass?

CWGordon

Looks like some member of the Quartz family. Any stone shop will have a better knowledge than mine, though.

Bill_de Loc: US

quixdraw wrote:

Will the side exposed in #3 scratch steel or glass?

I'll have to check on that.

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hwilsonphoto Loc: Montana

Looks like feldspar to me!

Hal81 Loc: Bucks County, Pa.

Looks like something I had for breakfast. And now I have a grumbling in my belly.

wide2tele Loc: Australia

I have no idea but it looks like the same type of carved stone my parents had that was used for a door stopper. I very much remember it after viewing your photos. Wouldn't get excited it may be of value unless the stone is different to my parents or unless my parents unknowingly used a chunk of virtual cash to keep the door open. haha

Bill_de Loc: US

wide2tele wrote:

I have no idea but it looks like the same type of carved stone my parents had that was used for a door stopper. I very much remember it after viewing your photos. Wouldn't get excited it may be of value unless the stone is different to my parents or unless my parents unknowingly used a chunk of virtual cash to keep the door open. haha

If I even had the slightest suspicion there was any value I would have looked into it sometime over the past 30 years. But, maybe I'll clean it up a little better and use it as a doorstop. I like that idea.

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flip1948 Loc: Hamden, CT

Someone suggested feldspar, but that usually has clean fractured surfaces. I'm leaning towards quartz with the limited info I can see in your shots.

It is an interesting looking mineral specimen though and I probably would have picked it up and taken it with me.

Just went back and read your description about the white flakes coming off when washed...don't think quartz would do that so know I am undecided.

Perhaps some form of white calcite which is significantly softer than quartz.

Paul Diamond Loc: Atlanta, GA, USA

Your photos are fine. Can't evaluate it without seeing it. A 'rock shop' or local rock hounds should be able to help. Remember that Long Island used to be under water. This is layers of hardened sediment (the banding) that have been turned into rock. Probably no real value as something to sell. But enjoy a piece of history, perhaps from millions of years ago.

Bill_de Loc: US

hwilsonphoto wrote:

Looks like feldspar to me!

When I looked up feldspar it is contained in granite. We might be on to something.

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Quixdraw Loc: x

A good many decades since a couple of semesters of Geology, but I don't believe this was native to LI. It reminds me of an outcropping of rock in Westchester we used to go to as kids to get "jewels" and Mica. I think it is a foliated metamorphic rock. Looked a bit online, couldn't find a close match. Will make a very attractive doorstop.

UTMike Loc: South Jordan, UT

I have no idea, but that is a very nice looking table you have it on, Bill.

boberic Loc: Quiet Corner, Connecticut. Ex long Islander

Looks like iy might be granite. Which is made up of quartz, feldspar and mica. Long Island is the Terminal Moraine (a fancy way of saying-the furthest point before receeding) of the last glacier. So there are many stones and rocks birried in the sand. Shelter Rock in roslyn is a huge boulder that the glqacier left on the Island