Where is the best place to find petrified wood in Houston?

[Dylanw]

Hello, Im new to this forum, but im trying to find some petrified wood. Its going to be part of a pen I make for my dad, The main body of the pen will be petrified wood, the center band will be made out of meteorite, there will be a small moldavite tektite jewel on the clasp, and the metal will be plated with iridium. So  as far as I know it will b the only one of its kind so im very excited to start but im wanting to practice using petrified wood before I actually start making the pen, I heard there is a place in or near Houston that you can find petrified wood, If it helps I live near Humble 

 

Thanks guys and happy hunting  

[digit]

Sounds like some pen! I also dabble in woodturning and I'm quite familiar with pens being made from various tropical hardwoods (on a wood lathe). What process do you expect to use for shaping the pet wood to fashion this stony pen?

 

I believe I've heard of petrified palm wood being found somewhere in Texas but as I'm in South Florida and have not yet made it to that Great State, I'm afraid I can be of little help other than to possibly alert @JohnJ to see if he has any recommendations for local places that might provide the raw material you are looking for.

 

Good luck on the project--please post photos if you succeed in gathering the needed materials and fashioning the pen.

 

 

Cheers.

 

-Ken

[oldtimer]

That sounds like a fantastic pen and a very worthwhile project.

How do you plan on making it.  I am sure we all want to know.

[oldtimer]

If you are looking for a place to buy try this.  http://www.katyrockshop.com/fossils/

 

There are other places probably as in stores.  Or you could source out some from the Internet to practice with till you find some.

[Carl]

There's a ton of petrified wood (Eocene Yegua Fm.) up near College Station, which is only an hour and a half from Houston. You can find it in a stream just south of Arnold Middle School or Mary Branch Elementary (depending on who you ask) on West Villa Maria Rd., near College Station. Watch that poison ivy! I haven't been there since 2006 so you might want to check before hand to see if it is still accessible.

[garyc]

Jasper, tx has some nice wood. Sorry I don't know specifics.

[JarrodB]

It's also pretty common at the North Sulphur River. 

[Dylanw]

Thank you guys for the awesome suggestions, I plan on taking a trip up to whiskey bridge and I might be able to ask some people there if they have a specific place they go to find petrified wood.

 

Also for the pen, I plan on shaping the pet wood using either steel sanding paper or diamond coated sanding paper on a belt sander, for the hole down the middle I'm going to use Diamond core drill bits or diamond grinding bits while submerged in water to prevent the pet wood from over heating and cracking, I'm not a lapidary artist by any means, but to do something that has not really been attempted before (At least as far as I can tell) you have to start somewhere right  

[digit]

That's the spirit! Do us the favor of taking photos of the process (even mistakes along the way) and add to this post with updates of your progress. This could be an informative topic for anybody trying to do this (or something similar) in the future. We'd love to see the pen come into being and the steps along the way. Think of it as your 15 minutes of fame.

 

 

Cheers.

 

-Ken

[Dylanw]

4 hours ago, digit said:

That's the spirit! Do us the favor of taking photos of the process (even mistakes along the way) and add to this post with updates of your progress. This could be an informative topic for anybody trying to do this (or something similar) in the future. We'd love to see the pen come into being and the steps along the way. Think of it as your 15 minutes of fame.

 

 

Cheers.

 

-Ken

Thank you, I will. Im actually making two as part of a set, one is a fountain pen, and one is a slimline pen, The fountain pen will be plated with iridium, It will have a gold nib, Pet wood body and a cut Moldavite tektite jewel embedded in the clasp (if i can), Im really looking froward to making it but its been delayed in the mail for a few days now, but when I can pictures  will be coming soon, I might make a video just to neatly assemble everything. The part im a little scared of is the assembly because the parts need to be pressed together, and im afraid the petrified wood might crack but if I never try i'll never know.   

[Dylanw]

The petrified wood just arrived in the mail!!

 

Its birch from the Eocene era  

 

Any ideas about the minerals that make it up?

[Dylanw]

On 12/20/2017 at 2:21 PM, Dylanw said:

The petrified wood just arrived in the mail!!

 

Its birch from the Eocene era  

 

Any ideas about the minerals that make it up?

well....I think its birch

[ynot]

On 12/20/2017 at 12:21 PM, Dylanw said:

Any ideas about the minerals that make it up?

There are several dark colored minerals that act as replacement materials in petrified wood. Without doing some tests it is impossible to be sure from pictures.

Also - in order to identify wood it is necessary to look at the cellular structures. This does require magnification.