This is one of the more impressive and most beautifully agate accented Blue Forest logs I've had the chance to work on in the shop in the last few months!! It's both hefty and beautifully preserved. This stone really is an amazing piece to handle. Virtually the entire exterior of the log is covered in a bubbly agate that ranges in color from gray to blackish blue depending on the color of the fossilized wood below it. Part of the agate is covered in white limescale that could likely be removed with a mild acid bath without putting any of the agate at any risk. And the wood grain revealed inside the log is just gorgeous in the mirror polished face! The only cut on this stone is the end where the stone was polished to show off the gemmy log preserved inside and below the blue agate. The cut and mirror polished face reveals coffee colored agatized wood framed in coloful agate. This gorgeous hardwood grew in an everglade like environment that existed in Wyoming more than 50 million years ago! The wood itself is captured in high contrast black and tan colored agate and the dark segmented ring surrounding it is the bark from the original tree! Of course the polish we've worked up on the cut end is mirror perfect to bring all of that color and fossil detail to full life!
Here's a really nicely preserved, larger limb from the famed Blue Forest petrified wood deposits in Central Wyoming. This area has several productive fossil wood beds, the most famous of which is The Blue Forest. What makes the Blue Forest pieces special is the large amount of agate that accents the beautifully preserved petrified wood fossils found in this bed. The exterior cast on this piece is very well formed with agate framing the perfectly preserved limb inside. The wood itself has lots of unusually rich coffee and black tones and the cell structure preserved inside is simply exceptional. You simply won't believe how perfect this one is under a hand lens!
This wood comes from a sagebrush desert in central Wyoming. The digging is hot and dusty, but every once in a while you stumble on a real treasure and this little limb is one of them! The rich, coffee colors the wood is preserved in are characteristic of these specimens, as are the infusions of blue agate that filled the cracks and coated the limb! This is a very "woody" limb that has been cut and polished to show off all the gemmy detail inside. It really took a pretty awesome polish, even by our high standards. Measures about 3 1/4" x 2 7/8" wide across the polished face and is about 9 1/2" long. Weight on this choice large limb specimen is 4.4 lbs.A nice, unique naturally wonderful stone collectible exclusively from Sticks-in-Stones Lapidary.