SiS: 21" Madagascar Petrified Wood Slab - STUNNING RIP CUT PLANK!!

This gorgeous, absolutely choice petrified wood slab is the latest in a series of really nice, very colorful pieces that we've cut from a large shipment of petrified logs we imported directly from Madagascar. This magnificent piece isn't the typical Pacific Northwest treasure that we specialize in... It's kind of a long story, but hey, this is a Sticks-in-Stones write-up after all :-)

I found a gentleman with several very colorful petrified logs from Madagascar a few years ago in Tucson.  I was really taken by the material because it was so unusual for the location.  Most of the Madagascar wood, though abundant, is very earth toned and doesn't have a lot of pizazz - but these logs were clearly different, showing brilliant shades of green, red, violet and yellow in what were clearly well preserved, highly agatized logs.  I picked through the lot and bought several and wow was I glad I did!  They cut some of the nicest slabs and bookends I've ever cut from any wood anywhere!  They were even better preserved than I thought, and in most cases the color improved as I cut deeper into the logs. 

A couple of years later I followed up on the original purchase in a major way - I actually traveled all the way to Madagascar (30 hours one way on a plane - see what I do for you?!) and selected several more premium logs to work with in the shop.  It took the better part of a year to complete the purchase and get the logs shipped here but it's been worth it. They'll keep me busy for years, but you can bet I'm cutting the ones that show the most promise first and this is one of them! 

In this case, I cut a large sized, longer log section to produce one of the nicest Madagascar specimens you'll likely ever see! Since we did the work ourselves, we were able to apply some of the craftsmanship we've learned over the years to avoid problems with flaked out fracture lines that are common in the imported specimens.  I've also polished it to a much higher quality lustre than you find on the imported varieties. Even if you already have Madagascar wood in your collection, you owe it to yourself to see how nice these ancient treasures can be when properly prepared! This wood takes an extreme polish that looks just fabulous. It has a ton of detail and some of the nicest colors I've ever seen in petrified wood (and considering what we usually have on hand this is saying a lot). The colors revealed in this Araucaria log all swirled with other natural tones that preserved the fibrous wood structure from this ancient tree fossil very well.  It's a striking petrified wood artwork sure to enhance any collection! .