Some gum to play with, but "not for eat."

I have purchased four more large pieces of gum since I published my Kauri Gum Collection post. These are rougher pieces than those that make up my regular collection. Two of these show some evidence of having been in a marine environment for a while. One has a clam shell of some sort adhering to it and both have what appear to be tube worms attached. Amazing. Apparently, these pieces of gum were at some time washed out of the soil they lay buried in and into a stream or river. From there, they were carried out to sea before being deposited on a beach for present-day Kiwis to pick up during their rambles down the seashore. (Can you imagine the time that took and the thrill of finding such a treasure? I plan to scrutinise all beaches I visit even more closely in the future.) Three of the pieces are quite hard, indicating to me that they are fairly old and are well on their way toward becoming amber. These are definitely what is called copal. The last one is completely covered in crust which is so uniform in texture that I hate to start chipping it up to see what lies beneath. It looks as if it just came out of the ground. Well, actually it did. The guy I bought it from said he found it while excavating for a building foundation in 2018. Since this is the first one I've seen that has not been worked on, I plan to keep it as it is. 

And, like the pieces that make up my regular collection, I got each of them for a song, compared to the prices I have often times seen paid for similar items on Trade Me. 

It's funny. I bought my first chunk of gum from a 2nd-hand store in Henderson in January of 2018. I started watching the auctions on Trade Me shortly thereafter but didn't purchase anything for months. The prices were too high. (Not unreasonable for how old these items are, but more than I wanted to spend) Then suddenly, there was a period of time when the  auction seller's 'start price' was low and there were few other bidders to compete with me. I've already told the story of how fortunate I was during those months. More recently, it seemed that the tide had turned. Most everything I saw listed significant starting bids and there was plenty of competition. Until that is, I got lucky again. Boy, it pays to watch.

Gum diggers

I've read that Auckland was 'built' on Kauri gum. 

A seller offered a full kilo of gum and it turned out that there was only one other bidder besides me. I discovered that the other bidder had set up an auto-bid process, but it was set at a low maximum, and I quickly discovered that after several $1 increases, I was actually leading the bidding. The other person was apparently not watching the auction as it closed, maybe figuring his auto-bid would protect his lead and so did not respond when I bid. As it turned out, I won the auction and received one large piece that weighed 424 grams, three medium pieces of 173, 143 and 97 grams respectively, and 5 smaller pieces that together weighed 146 grams, all for $23.00. Amazing. Okay, if you do the math, that doesn't quite make a kilo but there were enough chips and dust to make up the kilo advertised. I was very satisfied.

I've said it before; it's almost as if I was meant to have the pieces I do. I'm grateful for that. 

Today, I want to show you these new pieces. Since these are rough, since they show what's called crust on them, I have had the opportunity to play with them. I'm removing the outer layers, revealing the copal inside and then polishing it to a fairly high level of luster. As I understand it, the ability to get a good shine is one indication of the age of kauri gum. 

About 640 grams. A nice-sized piece. 

I thought that I could sand this piece down to be completely smooth. What I found was there are little cracks, spaces, openings or whatever you want to call them, inside this piece of copal. They opened up as I sanded off the layer above them. While I was hoping, as I began to work on this one, to get a completely smooth surface so the shine would be uninterrupted, discovering the internal cracks/pockets is exciting too. They are air spaces. Very small ones it's true, but that air must be as old as the piece is. There is ancient air in there that I have released. How wonderful is that?

Here is the other end of it, all shined up. This area was smoother and really feels glass-like. 

Here is the second one.  Again, somewhere around 600+ grams. 

This is a good 'crusty' one. It'll weigh less as I remove crust of course. 

The copal in this one is much darker than the last one. Does that mean it might be older? I don't know. While the crust is easily sanded away, the copal beneath is very hard. That may be another hint of it's relative age. 

Here's a closer look at the same spot. The lighter colored crust is still filling the grooves in its surface.

A side view. I rotated the piece 90 degrees from the last shot to show you the depth of the copal. All the way through.  If you follow the line of my thumb in this picture, you'll notice what looks like a lighter colored area inside the piece. I can see it even better of course when I look closely and wonder if it could be a large air pocket? Again, wow!

This is a piece of what I think is some kind of marine worm's habitat. It was taken from this crusty one. 

This is the largest piece of the three. About 740 grams.  It's very similar in color to the first one. I've probably done more sanding/polishing on this one than I have on the others.  Maybe that's obvious.  

The shell is in the center. 

A close-up of the shell

There they are, my 'hands-on' collection. Starting on the left and moving clockwise, I call them, 'The Turtle', 'Mr Crusty', and 'The Foot.'

Will I remove all the crust and shine them up completely? No, I don't think so. I want some of what they were to remain.    

And here is the most recent purchase, minus the five small pieces.

We had a family naming contest** for the largest piece. All the proposed names were put in a basket and the name, one of the five submitted by Amiri, of 'Gumball' was chosen by random draw.  

**I have always liked naming things. I named my deer-hunting blinds. It made sense. If I wanted to tell McKenzie that Fred was going to be hunting out 'at the blind situated at the indentation along the western edge of the Y-shaped field on Miller's 40, It would take me all day to say and she'd say, "Huh?," when I got through. How much better to tell her that, "He'll be at The Notch, or The Door, or The Butchershop today. 

And when Jeanne and I bought our first couple of new cars many years ago, they had to be named appropriately to honor the occasion. I was always proud of our Shirley Tempo and Clark Sable. 

Over the years, I have heard about several interesting naming events that took place on-line. What seemed like a good idea, that is, to publicise a new Antarctic Research Vessel, or a city department, didn't always work out as the organisers had hoped. They found that when they invited the public to suggest names and then to vote on the proposals, anything could happen. (And did) 

A couple of examples:

When the U.K. Natural Environment Research Council wanted to name its new 287 million dollar polar research ship, they asked the public, online, to suggest names and vote. Well, it went viral and the winning name turned out to be Boaty McBoatface. The council then decided they just couldn't live with that name for their pride and joy and gave the name instead to the tiny submersible submarine carried aboard their ship which is now called the RRS Sir David Attenborough. What a bunch of stuffed shirts. 

Apparently the Transport Minister for Sidney, Australia, didn't like what the council decided and thought he ought to make that clear to everyone. He did so by naming Sidney's brand new ferry, Ferry McFerryface. 

And I have heard, but not researched, that there were plans to name a new Swedish train, not surprisingly, Trainy McTrainface. 

And what about the plan in Austin, Texas, to enlist the public's aid in renaming their department of Solid Waste Services? They were hoping that an updated department name could 'present a new image to the public.'  Well, what they got certainly presented some new images...

One suggestion was for Fostering Ecological Conservation and Ecological Sanitation, or FECES for short. Then there was Austin Sustainability Services, ASS. The first place entry was The Fred Durst Society of the Humanities and Arts. For those of you who don't know, Fred Durst was the frontsman for the band Limp Bizkit. On that band's first major tour, Fred climbed out of a giant toilet bowl on stage to start the show. 

Even Green Peace has had some problems. When they asked the public to name a pod of humpbacked whales they had tagged in the south Pacific, they expected names like Aurora, Libertad, or Aiko to win. Instead, winning with 78% of the vote was Mr. Splashy Pants.  

Apparently, a New Zealand firm, Westfield Newmarket, has had a little more luck in getting some of their tower cranes named. They chose local school kids, some of them as young as year 1 (our kindergarten) to suggest and decide on names. The most recent crane to be named, Westfield Newmarket's old Number 4 Tower Crane, is now known as Jeff.  

I was blessed with an excellent list of possible names for the contest to name my piece of copal. Toad, Lumpy, Dusty, My Pet Rock, Asteroid, Amber, Cory the Kauri, and Living Rock were just some of the excellent suggestions that remained unused in the basket. (Gummy McGumface was not among them) 

So, you got anything that needs naming? Go for it, but I suggest you keep it in the family. Going to the public might take you places you don't really want to go.                      -djf