Cut or not cut?

[MarcoSr]

I am debating whether to cut or grind smooth in several areas two pieces of Indonesian petrified wood with botryoidal chalcedony that I recently received.

 

This is what I was supposed to have received:

 

 

 

 

This is what I received (The seller removed most of the yellow surface agate.):

 

 

 

 

 

I just don’t like the look of the pieces gouged and scratched so I want to remove as much of the damaged areas as possible and maybe grind smooth other areas.

 

First Question:  Should I try to cut the pieces or just leave them as is?

 

Second Question: Should I cut the pieces along the red lines or somewhere else?

Third Question: On the one piece should I also try to remove the top piece to expose more of the botryoidal chalcedony?  The back face of that top piece is really damaged.  On one side the top piece would be easy to cut because of the void underneath.  The other side would be very difficult because the void doesn’t really go all the way to the red line.

 

 

 

 

 

Fourth question: Are there areas I should try to grind smooth like area1 or area 3 or area 5?

 

Last Question:  Should I give up on trying to salvage the pieces and just try to cut out intact the botryoidal chalcedony in each piece?

 

Marco Sr.

[Coco]

Hello Marco,

For your first photo I don’t know what to tell you, I’m afraid that the two cutting strokes on the upper part are too apparent and remove the naturalness of your specimen.

On the other hand, I think that for the second one, you could cut according to your red line, and this surface would serve as a support, the wood would be placed on the cut part, so it would not see too much. I would cut a little bit sideways so that the chalcedony can be etter seen.

I followed your posts on these very colorful woods, they are very beautiful, they have shimmering colors.

I don’t understand what means to grind (polish?).

 

Coco

[MarcoSr]

5 hours ago, Coco said:

Hello Marco,

For your first photo I don’t know what to tell you, I’m afraid that the two cutting strokes on the upper part are too apparent and remove the naturalness of your specimen.

On the other hand, I think that for the second one, you could cut according to your red line, and this surface would serve as a support, the wood would be placed on the cut part, so it would not see too much. I would cut a little bit sideways so that the chalcedony can be etter seen.

I followed your posts on these very colorful woods, they are very beautiful, they have shimmering colors.

I don’t understand what means to grind (polish?).

 

Coco

 

Coco

 

Thank you for the reply.

 

That first piece is very difficult to fix and I think you are correct that it will not look natural if I cut off the upper part.  Plus I could really damage the botryoidal chalcedony on the one side trying to do that.

 

Wow I hadn't even thought about displaying the second piece by placing it down on the cut side.  That might work really well.  I think I might definitely cut that piece.

 

The surface of the pieces, in places, has gouges, scrapes, stratches etc. from the removal of the yellow agate.  By grind I mean to even the surface so it is smooth.  I only have a dremel tool to grind with and not a big grinding wheel so I might make the surface worse and really wavy if I try to grind it with my small dremel tools.

 

Marco Sr.

[Coco]

6 hours ago, MarcoSr said:

The surface of the pieces, in places, has gouges, scrapes, stratches etc. from the removal of the yellow agate.  By grind I mean to even the surface so it is smooth.  I only have a dremel tool to grind with and not a big grinding wheel so I might make the surface worse and really wavy if I try to grind it with my small dremel tools.

 

Marco Sr.

I think it’s a good idea, with a little tool like Dremel. You could try on a less visible part to see the result, and then you decide if you do it on all the surfaces where the yellow agate has been removed. Silica, on the other hand, is hard to abrade. The salesman made a big mistake !

 

Coco

[MarcoSr]

6 hours ago, Coco said:

I think it’s a good idea, with a little tool like Dremel. You could try on a less visible part to see the result, and then you decide if you do it on all the surfaces where the yellow agate has been removed. Silica, on the other hand, is hard to abrade. The salesman made a big mistake !

 

Coco

 

Coco

 

The silica is a real problem.  It tends to flake rather than abrade.

 

Marco Sr.

[MarcoSr]

This topic is no longer relevant as per PayPal I must return these two pieces to the seller at my expense to get a refund.  So I'm out of pocket $110 shipping costs plus the cost of the packaging materials.  PayPal does have a fund, that if they think you are worthy, you can get back from PayPal up to $30 by uploading a copy of your shipping receipt.  I don't get my refund until the seller receives the two pieces and accepts them.  So he gets his pieces back and refunds my money so he has no out of pocket loss after scamming me with these pieces.  I'm sure he will try selling them again.  You need to be aware of this policy that PayPal requires you to send the items back at your expense if their value is over $100, even if the seller intentionally damaged the item.  E-bay or Amazon would require the seller to pay the return shipping in this case.  Remember how PayPal gets their fees on your purchase. The seller pays them.  So who do you think PayPal wants to protect?  The buyer who pays nothing? or the seller who pays the PayPal fees?

 

Marco Sr.