Summer Harvest from The Carver Agate Field: 15 Stones

Summer Harvest from The Carver Agate Field: 15 Stones

These beauties show the wonderful and unique geological agate varieties I have been fortunate to ‘happen upon’. This variety is illustrated, once again, by these 15 different stones which I cut in August, while not needing to tend my garden or mow grass. These stones were particularly fun for me because I hit a hot streak of remarkably interesting stones while simultaneously cutting rough material with two separate diamond saws. These beauties seem to appear one after another (sure, I have lots that I cut that go to the reject pile for many various reasons). But, my August work had very little rejected material and kept me busy doing what I really like to do—making stones shiny. Here are the results of my August harvest.

To get started:

Both of the stones below, #5208 and #5215, were cut from the same piece of rough. Eye popping beauty or just interesting? You decide.

Rock # 5208

Rock #5215

Rock #5215 Enlarged
Note the blue fortification agate inclusions that set off the orange, red and yellow coloration.

Rock #5212
Note the blue lower right corner: the cool stuff and yellow agate.

Rock #5218
Blue fortification agate framed by large brown shard of lava and fragmented filament agate on the left. I cut the stone to capture this cool pattern and frame the blue agate.

Rock #5220
Agate nodule cross-section with a pretty interesting floater. See more below!

Rock #5220 Enlarged
This is a nearly transparent colorless quartz/agate nodule with a sagenitic floater seemingly suspended in the middle. This is a ‘rocker’s’ delight! It was a thrill to find, cut and polish this.

Rock #5221
One of two cabs which I cut from a single agate nodule.

Rock #5223
I like this agate so much I made two freeform cabs from it.

Among many great stones this week, these two, 5221 and 5223, were my favorites.
The geology that creates these intricate patterns is fascinating and awe inspiring.

Rock #5225
Beautiful blue banded agate with yellow sagenitic formation along the stone’s bottom. If enlarged, this stone will display yellow needle-like sun rays .

*See my note below on how to best view the stones on this website.

Rock #5227
Yellow fortification agate with two areas containing lava shards and fragmented filament material.

Rock #5228
Maybe the most interesting brecciated lava agate freeform cab so far. Brecciated agate involves small chips or shards of broken rock (in this case, lava) cemented together by silica which filled in the area between the shards.

Rock #5228 Enlarged

Rock #5229
Yellow banded agate with carnelian or pink center. Just a pretty stone, not terribly unique.

Rock #5232
Lightning captured in an agate nodule? What you can’t see from this photo (it was very difficult to photograph) is that everything inside the yellow ‘lightning’ is a nearly clear yellow (citrine) agate.

This was, for me, a very rare and interesting stone.

Rock #5216
This stone features the outline of the rough stone from which it was cut. You can see needle-like sagenitic material that makes this stone a large but interesting piece,

hopefully for an eye-catching pendant.

Rock #5211

This is another slab from the stone that provided last month’s blog featuring paisley agate, named by me. What is most interesting about this stone is not the paisley, but the top 20% of the stone. You will need to view this stone on a large screen. If you do so and enlarge this portion of the stone you will see a gorgeous space nebula scene worthy of the Hubble space telescope. Additionally, if enlarged as I suggested, you can see three small eye agates, technically called orbicular agate, which are really very cool when enlarged. These eyes are on the lower left hand side of the stone.

Rock #5211
The Nebula

Rock #5211
The Eyes (lower left)

Rock # 5210
Carnelian (red) agate with perfect white crystalline center.

Where these are found on The Carver Agate Field, they are locally referred to as ‘strawberries’.

Note: While I realize most people probably view this website on small devices, most of the really interesting detail I discuss in my blog postings can best be seen on a large screen by enlarging or magnifying the photos. If you are able, I would encourage you to try doing this.

Hope you enjoyed this summer harvest of stones from The Carver Field!

 

2 Comments

  1. Amazing variations. I have hunter rocks all over Mexico, western USA and Canada all the way to the Northwest Territories and never found or saw a place with as many different patterns as on you property John. Be well sir, Ring

    • It is a great reward to me to have someone of your experience and knowledge enjoy the material that I have been so fortunate to stumble upon. I appreciate your following my exploits and ‘making rocks shiny’! One old rocker to another, stay well!
      John

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