SiS: HUGE 9" Petrified Wood Round - DRAMATIC African WOODWORTHIA - BIG HEEL CUT!

Description

This is one of the single largest, perfect and most intricately detailed of the Zimbabwe Woodworthia specimens I've had the pleasure of offering!  These logs are usually more fence post sized but this one is several times the average size for this fossil deposit!  The growth rings really stand out in this high contrast specimen, as do the bold rays from a trunk that had started to decay before petrification - just enough so to make it a true work of natural art millions of years later!  The finely detailed annual rings are pierced by the bold rays to form one of the prettiest  and most striking fossil formations you'll ever see in petrified wood.  This one has dark, highly agatized wood in a nice green and brown shade with strong rays and bold rings - it represents some of the gemmiest wood available from this forest and it really took a truly remarkable and eye pleasing polish.  This is the heel cut from the end of the log, rough and naturally weathered on the back.  It's thick enough to show the characteristic spine scars around the perimeter edge as well.  One of my all time favorites in a wonderful collector size specimen!
This round is from a larger log that still has the stellar rays emanating through the entire round from the spike knots this wood is identified from. In the last couple of years I've started seeing some really fascinating petrified wood coming into the US at the big import shows from Zimbabwe, Africa! The wood is typically green, brown and black and exceptionally well preserved on the exterior. The interior reminds me of a lot of the Utah wood in detail (i.e. it's hit and miss) but the best pieces show beautiful spike knots leading up to the spine bases that coat the exterior logs. You'd recognize these specimens anywhere as the logs are consistently the same colors inside and out, and the exterior is coated with an unmistakable pattern of spine scars. The wood grain itself varies in quality, but the best of these pieces show spike knots in cross section (they look like rays coming from the center of the log) and a good cut will show several of them.
This wood is quite unique and really a much more interesting fossil than most of the woodworthia we get here in the US. The green color is something you have to see in person to understand - it's not really comparable to any other petrified wood and it's difficult to get a representative photograph that really does the color justice. The wood has a reasonably high silica content so we're able to coax a nice polish out of the specimen.
This is one of the few complete rounds I was able to locate that really took a nice polish. If the timeless mystery of this piece isn't enough for you, then I'm certain the simple, natural, gemmy beauty of it will be. The colors are dark and subtle, and the wood grain is unique to this exotic species.
This round is cut from the center of a very solid log. It's really a nice piece, but what else would you expect from a business named "Sticks-in-Stones"?! We've applied all of our considerable lapidary skills to bring out a mirror finish and produce a specimen worthy of display in your own collection. You can also make out some of the spine scars on the edge of the slice.
This piece measures about 8 3/4" x 8" across the polished face and is cut between 0.4" and 1.35" thick.  Weight is 5.38 lbs.  Stands sold separately.
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