How much could it cost to slab or polish this piece of petrified wood?

[Misha]

Hello everyone,

A while back I was gifted this fairly large piece of pet wood from Arizona. I don't really know what I can do with it as I don't have any equipment to polish or cut rocks like this.

 

I was wondering if any TFF members have such equipment, and if they did how much it would cost to either polish this piece at one or both ends or alternatively, slab it and polish some of the slabs. I don't know if it would be worth the time or money to do so, I am just trying to see what I can do with a piece like this.

 

Thank you very much for any help,

Misha

Edited February 19, 2022 by Misha
Forgot to add photos

[minnbuckeye]

Good luck!! A few months ago, I tried to find someone on or off the forum to polish a small piece of stromatolite for me but was unsuccessful. For as much polished material that is out there, I would think many polishers would be available and enjoy the work. 

[Fossildude19]

Misha,

You might look into inexpensive angle grinders and sanding attachments.

[DPS Ammonite]

Contact a local lapidary society. They may know the cost and make a recommendation for someone to help. 

[FranzBernhard]

3 hours ago, minnbuckeye said:

to polish a small piece of stromatolite

That was quartz-based, wasn´t it?

 

3 hours ago, minnbuckeye said:

enjoy the work

Not really, if everything is done by hand and you already have a lot of specimens in the pipeline.

 

2 hours ago, Fossildude19 said:

inexpensive angle grinders and sanding attachments

Good idea, but amounts to quite a bit of money per specimen when doing only one specimen. 

 

2 hours ago, DPS Ammonite said:

local lapidary society

For only one specimen, this is the way to go, I think. 

Just a note: There are no societies of this kind here in Austria. But that´s a small country with few people. US is different, but don´t forget to add gas or shipping costs to costs of polishing itself.

 

3 hours ago, Misha said:

if they did how much it would cost

I don´t know if it is allowed to give numbers here, but think about a few dollars to a few tens of dollars per specimen.

 

3 hours ago, Misha said:

I don't know if it would be worth the time or money to do so

It takes some experience with the material to know beforehand. This Arizona pet wood seems to be a common material, so experience should be out there and some members could know.

 

Franz Bernhard

[Ludwigia]

I have experience with cutting and polishing, although I'm not making an offer here since I'm so far away. I just wanted to say that cutting slabs and polishing this very hard substance would take a good number of hours, so find out an hourly rate and go from there. However, if as suggested you can join a lapidary club and do the work yourself, you would be much better off as far as expense is concerned.

[oyo]

You can do that job yourself. You can use metal sandpaper to do this. Use sandpaper of different grit thicknesses. Start with coarser grits to flatten the specimen and finish with very fine grit sandpaper for a smooth polished finish.
The process is laborious but cheap and can be done by anyone. Plus your specimen already looks pretty flat which will save you work and time.
If you want to polish many specimens it is not advisable but for a single one it can be useful.

Let's call it paleobricolage.

[Bobby Rico]

I’ve polished many corals, it’s pretty easy, just hard work, but fun. You need sandpaper called ‘wet & dry’, which for this purpose should be used wet. I start with 100 grit, then move on to 200, 300, 400, 600, 800, 1000, 1500 and finish with 2000. I also use a wooden board (and old plank) with any grade sandpaper stapled to it to rest the piece I’m working on so it doesn’t slip around.
 

It roughly takes about two to three hours in total to do one piece, about 10-15mins polishing with each grade of sandpaper. 
 

Like I say it is hard work but well worth it  for the lovely results. 
 

[Ludwigia]

10 minutes ago, Bobby Rico said:

It roughly takes about two to three hours in total to do one piece, about 10-15mins polishing with each grade of sandpaper. 

 

I would imagine that it would take much longer with his piece, since his is quartz and yours limestone. Also if the surface is uneven it would take quite a while before he gets it properly plane with the 100 grit.

[Oldies]

That's a nice piece of petrified wood with the bark, though it's not a large piece by any means.

I've looked for people that will cut & polish for others, there's very few that will or advertise that online. Over the years I've found 3 that would do this -

1 - advertise online but comes with a minimum, Benjamin. For the price & what you have (For me) I'd look at just buying a new piece that's already cut/polished.

1 - would cut/polish for me because I've bought from him plenty of times, otherwise he wouldn't do this for others.

1 - I found the business card at a local rock shop, small time.

 

The cheapest way would to spray it with a clear coat sealant & be creative to protect the bark area from run off, it'll give it that shine look.

If you have a drill or angled grinder you can find grinder attachments (to level the surface) & polishing pads online for fairly cheap if you want to add a new hobby to your list of polishing rocks. 

Best of luck to you.

[Bobby Rico]

25 minutes ago, Ludwigia said:

 

I would imagine that it would take much longer with his piece, since his is quartz and yours limestone. Also if the surface is uneven it would take quite a while before he gets it properly plane with the 100 grit.

I only use a phone so the picture are small. Is this side not flat on top?

[daves64]

Another option is to use loose (powdered) grit on glass plates, working down to finer & finer grits.

Edited February 19, 2022 by daves64

[FranzBernhard]

2 hours ago, Bobby Rico said:

Is this side not flat on top

Yeah, looks quite flat. But I don´t think it is a cut plane. Grinding something flat by hand is really laborious, even limestones...

Franz Bernhard

 

 

[Bobby Rico]

3 hours ago, FranzBernhard said:

Yeah, looks quite flat. But I don´t think it is a cut plane. Grinding something flat by hand is really laborious, even limestones...

Franz Bernhard

 

 

Can’t really see with my phone how uneven it is. Yes it can’t be sanded flat it would take a long time.
 

A cheeky time saver is to use a hand sander for polishing  . The Wet and dry sandpaper can be used if you glue some Velcro to it. I prefer to do it by hand but this works too,

 

[Misha]

Hi everyone, 

Thank you for all the responses and suggestions. 

I actually have some wet and dry sandpaper that I have used to polish things like agates and crossections through sedimentary rocks. The hardness would be good enough to work on this piece but I don't think hand polishing this is an option as the top face, even though it looks fairly even has quite a few deep pits and cracks that I just won't be able to get out with that sandpaper.

The angle grinder or local mineral society approaches could both work as well, but this isn't a piece that I have any particular attachment to and don't know if it would be worth that work just to get it polished.

In the end, I may just give it to someone else who would value it more than me and be able to do something interesting with it.

[Bobby Rico]

That’s a nice piece I would  keep it.