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Month: April 2022

Sagenitic Agate

Sagenitic Agate

By /April 30, 2022 /2 comments /Cut Rocks

This cab, which is very large, approximately 1 1/4 x 2 1/2 inches, was not cut (as I usually do) from a large geode or nodule. Rather, the stone, when originally collected by me from The Carver Agate Field, was essentially the same shape and size as pictured. Rock # 4694 It had the classical amygdaloidal (almond) shape with a flat bottom and rounded top. I hand ground, smoothed and polished the outside of this specimen. While grinding away a small amount of the stone to reveal the underlying sagenitic agate, the crystal filled geode center appeared. When I began grinding, I had no idea that I would grind through the thin surface into an underlying crystal filled center. The end of the stone with the yellow dot which looks like it has ice around it (looks a lot like Antarctica, doesn’t it?) is what I have previously seen and […]

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Odd Fellows "All Seeing Eye" Agate

Odd Fellows “All Seeing Eye” Agate

By /April 26, 2022 /3 comments /Cut Rocks

Folks looking at my polished stones often comment on seeing an image in the stone. Usually, I see the image they point out, but I did not see it until it was brought to my attention. It is much like seeing faces or images in the clouds. Well, this week after I cut and polished a cabochon, I saw the Odd Fellows ‘All Seeing Eye’. A bit of history and personal history is in order. Rock #4698 The “Eye” The Odd Fellows were a very popular fraternal organization with over 1,000,000 US members ‘back in the day’. They were social, secretive and ritualistic, much like the Masonic order. They were also charitable and had one basic requirement in order to belong: the belief in a supreme being (God). Their primary and most famous symbol was the ‘All Seeing Eye’ which was also a Masonic symbol. In fact, our founding fathers, […]

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Spectacularly Interesting Carver Vein Agate!

Spectacularly Interesting Carver Vein Agate!

By /April 4, 2022 /0 comments /Cut Rocks

The jagged rind of this agate is the rough lava or crack in which the agate formed. While the crack was filling with dissolved silica, forming the fortification agate on the upper right, some fractured yellow jasper shards or chips fell into the vein or crack and was surrounded by the silica which agatized! Photo 4690 shows the jasper shard, which was cut by the diamond saw: Photo #4690 Photo 4689 is the same shard of jasper on the other side of the saw blade that cut this second slab: Photo 4689 Photo 4689 enlarged is ‘filled’ with sagenitic inclusions that formed as silica was filling the crack or vein in the lava: Photo 4689 This sagenite indicates the bottom of the rock as formed. Note there is no such sagenite on the top side of the stone as seen in photo 4688: Photo 4688 Gravity explains why the sagenitic […]

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