Back from camp, birthday weekend.

[waco]

Out for four days with the wife and dogs camping in the high Oregon desert. Great rock hounding in my state. My find of the weekend was on day three. 15 yards from camp
A 38 pound green petrified log!!!!
Super excited about this piece. Thought I’d share.

 

[Brad]

Nice find.
What do you plan to do with it?

 

[waco]

Probably polish out the flat side and it will go in the back yard somewhere. Under a tree possibly. Or I could sell it. Might get $400-$500 for it.

 

[Brad]

How hard are they to polish?
Never did much with rocks, we don’t get interesting ones around here. Lots of sand and limestone.

 

[462]

Cool, man.

I know squat about petrified trees, and since it appears someone cut the tree to a round, how long does it take to get to that condition?

 

[Pistolero]

That's pretty amazing. Nice color, too.

Bill

 

[waco]

Cool, man.

I know squat about petrified trees, and since it appears someone cut the tree to a round, how long does it take to get to that condition?

Not cut. Broke sometime after being turned to stone.
Depending on who you talk to, 100’s of thousands to millions of years.
I really don’t know. Oregon is a very volcanic area and we have lots of very interesting minerals all over the place.

 

[462]

Thank you. A very clean break then.

 

[waco]

Thank you. A very clean break then.

Indeed. It will make it easy to polish out.

 

[waco]

How hard are they to polish?
Never did much with rocks, we don’t get interesting ones around here. Lots of sand and limestone.

I have a 4” angle grinder that you can hook a garden hose to. The head is a Velcro pad and I have sanding discs from 50 grit through 3000 grit. It’s a pretty easy process if you don’t have to level the material too much. This piece is pretty flat so it should go fairly quickly.

 

[creosote]

Nice find Waco,
We were just looking at my daughters, & grand daughters rock collection an hour ago.
Nuthin like that though.

 

[fiver]

that's a real nice one, big too.
most of the ones from southern Utah come out brown, or brown and white.

 

[waco]

We found some smaller brown, Greg, red, and black pieces as well. Green is the sought after color from this location. Cobalt and copper in the soil are what give the green color I believe.

 

[Pistolero]

Yes, copper definitely has green and green-blue salts. Not sure about cobalt. Fine looking piece of old tree,
no doubt. Polish it up, put a oversized 1/2" thick glass top on it and a wooden base to raise it up as needed,
have a coffee table.

Bill

 

[Spindrift]

That is absolutely fascinating. Maybe you could post a photo some time, after polishing? Congratulations on a great find!

 

[Ian]

Cobalt occurs naturally only as an oxide or a compound, most of which are blue. The pure metal is silverish.

 

[KHornet]

Very pretty!

Paul

 

[waco]

That is absolutely fascinating. Maybe you could post a photo some time, after polishing? Congratulations on a great find!

I will do that for sure!

 

[waco]

Cobalt occurs naturally only as an oxide or a compound, most of which are blue. The pure metal is silverish.

I have some pieces that have blues and purples as well...

 

[Brad]

A simple guide to colors by metal