[Rockhounds] Why are we still living in the Iron Age???!

[Dennis Buffenmyer]

Tim Jokela Jr. wrote:
> I wonder why field collecting of minerals and fossils has progressed 
> hardly a jot since the Iron Age?
>
> We continue to try to recover fragile crystals by using a heavy piece 
> of iron to hit another piece of iron!
>
> (Sure there are some alternatives like diamond chainsaws and 
> gas-powered drills, dynamite and bulldozers, but the cost of these 
> tools is prohibitive to perhaps 98% of collectors.)
>
> Does anybody else find it rather amazing that in all the long 
> centuries of mineral collecting, we haven't made any damn improvements?
>
> Am I wrong to dream of a rock-cutting pocket-sized laser that costs 
> twenty bucks?
>
> Comments? Suggestions? Is there any hope for the future?
>
> Cheers,
>
> Tim Jokela Jr., tjokela at execulink.com
> Business: http://www.element51.com
> Pleasure: http://www.ontariominerals.com
>
the future seems very bleak indeed, but, perhaps the idea of natural 
selection comes into play even here... if there WERE a better way to do 
it.... it would become the dominant way to do it.... must be that the 
age old method has stood the test... and I'm not even a conservative or 
pessimist...