Herkimer Diamonds, Any Tips, Tricks or Secrets?!?

I'm heading back to one of the local diamond mines next month and I'm hoping to get some tips on how to remove large chunks of dolostone. No power tools are permitted!!! I'm thinking about finding a crack on the top of the wall and starting a hole big enough to sink my bar in and then placing another hole behind it just far enough back to sink another bar. After the 2 bars are in place I was thinking about sticking a car scissor jack in between the bars to wedge off the chunk. Another question is about the small clusters I'm finding. I want to extract as much of the cluster from the rock as possible without destroying the cluster. Is there anything that would disolve dolostone over time that wouldn't harm the crystals? Any help would be great. Thanx, Swizzle

Low/hi band UV light make them shine like mad ,nothing like diamonds in the rough. Learned that trick in Brazil-John

Go to www.travelchannel.com and look up cash-N-treasure they had a show on herkimers it was pretty good..........Mags

Herkimer diamonds are actually quartz, so the black light isn't going to help much.

Muriatic acid will dissolve any calcite and leave the Quartz alone....but there are a lot of tricks to use so that you don't end up with more problems.  Besides, most of us like the matrix attached to things.

As far as how to attack the cracks, that one is easy.  I use a 16 pound sledge hammer and several of the 5 pound steel wedges used for splitting wood.  Once you get the first wedge to bite, just keep adding wedges and expanding the crack.   

I used to chip rock there at the Herkimer Diamond Mines...

What a great place to kill an afternoon!  I loved it - and came home with some cool quartz and matrix(s).

I remember finding a HUGE golfball sized single diamond in the rock there and smashing the hell out of it with one misplaced strike...

Have fun and good luck...  

  Seems like I learn something new every day, I've never heard of Herkimer Diamonds before, Thanks.

http://www.herkimerdiamond.com/index.html

Sorry it takes so long to post. My computer is down and I only get online once a week now. I recently bought a laser line level and had fun playing with that. The bigger one's I dug last time shine like little red lightbulbs. I got two splitting wedges. You think I should buy a few more? I also found out that the vugs (the cavities that hold the diamonds) also contains a highly magnetic black sand like substance. Maybe magnetite?. I was thinking that if I put a small neodymium magnet on a string that it might actually be drawn to larger hidden pockets. I guess I won't know for sure unless i try it. Swizzle

Any tips on how to turn leaf springs into wedges? I'm also wondering how many sets of wedges I should keep on hand well I'm mining? I don't plan on hitting any more then an 8 foot wide section at a time. Swizzle