This is a fossil oak slab from one of the most sought ofter petrified wood varieties known to collectors all over the world. We rarely see these pieces anymore but I came across a heavily checked log section while digging through my rockpile and knew it needed to be finished. This one has a lot of stabilizing to bring it back to life as there were numerous weathering fractures that wanted to take this ancient treasure back to being sand and gravel! There is far more work in this piece than the price could ever justify, but these are such hard to find specimens that I couldn't let it be lost to time either. I've worked all winter on the small number of slabs I was able to salvage from the short log and they turned out really nicely. The fracture lines have all been painstakingly filled and stabilized and the back of the slab has been fiberglassed for extra durability and protection. The result is a truly gorgeous and fascinating petrified wood slab from one of the most prized of all of the petrified oak forests anywhere on the planet! This is a fairly large plate at 12" wide across the widest part and as the second photo shows, we've polished it to a mirror perfect finish to reveal all the color frozen with the swirling growth rings and medullary rays. It's a rare potential addition to your collection as an unusual and interesting specimen from this highly collectible species and (long since closed off) location!!
This is a world class petrified oak round from the Swartz Canyon in Central Oregon. I've seen some beautiful oak rounds from this canyon over the years, but it's been a long time since I've seen one this size that was this well preserved from this location. This canyon has produced what are arguably some of the finest fossil oak trees ever found - rivaled only by Deschutes River Canyon and Stinking Water Pass (also famed Oregon locations for petrified oak). These three deposits form the foundation of the best oak found anywhere on the planet! The incredible preservation of the oak wood combined with the gorgeous chocolate, black and red colors and high contrast medullary rays in the log make this one of the most sought after fossil woods. This exceptional specimen was obtained from an estate that collected these logs several decades ago. The color is classic Swartz Canyon with a cherry's and chocolate color combination and few are this flawlessly preserved. Like most of the Swartz oak petrified wood, this piece is very highly agatized! The high agate content means that this piece has polished up beautifully. It's just amazing how beautiful petrified wood can be and the fine oak specimens found in this remote Central Oregon desert location are among the finest in the world.
This piece has fabulous cell structure and wonderful eye appeal. The wood grain is very visible in this piece both in the form of annual growth rings and medullary rays. This is a nice, smaller sized specimen which is not often found in this location (the logs that preserved tended to be on the large side). The smaller size makes owning a wonderful, classic oak from one of the "big three" affordable and displayable!
This stone has been professionally cut and polished on a special lap that produces a flat face and a mirror perfect shine. The polish really is liquid perfect - a difference in the quality products Sticks-in-Stones has built its reputation on!
It measures about 12 1/2" wide across the two points or about 11" x 10 3/4" as it sits in the photo. It's cut about 1/2" thick and weighs 3.94 lbs.
A nice, unique naturally wonderful stone collectible exclusively from Sticks-in-Stones Lapidary.