rollingstone
starting to spend too much on rocks
Member since July 2009
Posts: 236
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Post by rollingstone on Dec 1, 2005 16:02:51 GMT -5
I think this stuff is so cool! I've been looking for some for quite awhile, and came by this rather by accident. Anyhow, this is 70 million year old "peanut wood" from Western Australia. You've really got 3 different fossils going on here at once. The tree is a conifer from the age of the dinosaurs, that became driftwood in the ocean and was riddled with holes from teredo, a small clam-like mollusc, also known as "shipworms" because of all the problems they caused to boats in the age of large wooden ocean-going vessels. Although they are like clams, they use their shells mainly to bore into wood, and they have a long trailing soft body, the "worm" part of them. You can follow the paths some of these carved as they bored into the wood. Once in the wood, they filter sea water for food like other clams, with the wood giving them protection from predators. When the teredo died and the logs ended up at the bottom of the sea, the holes got filled up with radiolaria sediment (radiolaria are microscopic sea life that coat themselves with a shell of silica). This white silica is what makes gives the white colour to the "peanuts". So there you have it -- petrified wood, petrified clam tracks, and radiolaria remains. How doe this relate to tumbling? Well, I bought these with the intention of busting them up and tossing them in the tumbler, but when I sit here and look at the peanut wood, and it tells me a story of several cycles of life and death from 70 million years ago, there's no way I'm busting them up. Group shot of peanut wood slabs:  Close up, showing the centre of one tree, and the tree rings swirling away from it, intersected by white "peanuts"  |
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Post by Bikerrandy on Dec 1, 2005 16:22:25 GMT -5
That's really cool, I wonder how someone figured all this out?
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Post by Cher on Dec 1, 2005 16:42:08 GMT -5
Oooooooooo wow that stuff is cool. Can't say
that I blame you for not wanting to cut it up.
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Post by gaetzchamp on Dec 1, 2005 18:53:12 GMT -5
Rolling-
Freaking awesome is all I can saw. I just love stuff live that. Cool story too. I've heard stories and seen picts of petrified wood w/ insect bore holes in them but never clams. Where'd you get them and why not try to sacrifice one for the tumbler? Are they just too rare.
Anyway. Really neat post!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Gaetz
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Post by Alice on Dec 1, 2005 20:25:46 GMT -5
How cool is that? Awsome!
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Post by krazydiamond on Dec 1, 2005 21:01:27 GMT -5
that is cool stuff........i can see cabs in it, but only for hard core dino poo lickers.
that is an amazing story about the clams...
thanks, Rollingstone,
KD
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Post by pinemountaintrader on Dec 1, 2005 22:04:28 GMT -5
Hubby was looking over my shoulder as I read this post. Now he's hinting that he would like some rocks for Christmas too or more specifically, Peanut Wood!
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Post by americanbulldogsnj on Dec 1, 2005 22:55:30 GMT -5
Just too cool!!! Im speechless...
Marian
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Post by rockds on Dec 1, 2005 23:44:51 GMT -5
thats pretty neat stuff!!
robert
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firecop
starting to spend too much on rocks
Member since November 2005
Posts: 103
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Post by firecop on Dec 2, 2005 0:43:13 GMT -5
Those are some great patterns! I say find a small one for the tumbler!
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rollingstone
starting to spend too much on rocks
Member since July 2009
Posts: 236
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Post by rollingstone on Dec 2, 2005 2:13:25 GMT -5
Thanks all. Why don't I bust one up?... well, in the first pic, the bottom-left slab is polished, so it's a keeper. The top-left slab is quite thin, about 3/16", so I think the pieces would be too thin to tumble well. That leaves the piece on the right, which is about 1" thick, but it also has the best wood-ring patterns. So it's a keeper for now too, although some day I may sacrifice it. No rush. I have seen this stuff made into cabs and things like eggs and spheres and they do look fantastic. I've never seen it tumbled though... I think it would tumble very well, but it's pretty pricey so that's probably not the best use for it.
Gaetz asked where I got it -- I was bidding on something else on ebay and another person was bidding against me, so I looked up some of their other purchases to see if they were bigtime rock folks or just dabblers, which brought me to the site of one of the sellers they had bought from previously. I continued this tangent by clicking on the sellers "other items for sale", which brought me to this peanut wood, with just two hours left in the auction. Then I saw that the seller wasn't offering items for sale outside the US... normally I would have never come across the item because I have my ebay set to only show items available to Canada, but by following the winding path I outlined above, I hit upon this by complete fluke. I emailed the guy right away and said that if he had more and was willing to ship it to Canada, I would be interested. He got back to me just 5 minutes before I had to leave for my daughter's soccer game and said that this was the only peanut wood he had, but if I was willing to pay the shipping and a handling fee I could go ahead and bid on the auction, so I put in a bid and when I got back I found I'd won the item.
I don't think that the seller (jeepfanatic) normally sells rocks, but he had bought a bunch of lapidary material at an estate auction in Ohio, where some lapidarist had been collecting rocks for 40 years or so, and had left his collection to his grandson, who wasn't interested in it and put it up for sale. The grandson might not have appreciated the slabs, but I sure do!
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Post by LCARS on Dec 2, 2005 3:32:38 GMT -5
Trippy!  |
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Post by gaetzchamp on Dec 2, 2005 11:59:14 GMT -5
Rolling-
It goes to show that if you're willing, patient and thorough, you can find good deals.
Good job.
Gaetz
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stefan
Cave Dweller 
Member since January 2005
Posts: 14,113
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Post by stefan on Dec 2, 2005 12:02:21 GMT -5
OMG what a cool story (both of em) it was like you were destined to get that stuff! THanks for sharing- OK peanut wood just got added to my ever growing list of needs!
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Post by rockyraccoon on Dec 2, 2005 14:53:08 GMT -5
rollingstone i think they found a good home. love all the info behind the pet wood. thanks for sharing that with us.
kim
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Post by krazydiamond on Dec 2, 2005 16:55:26 GMT -5
wow, you're not kidding that's expensive, i just did a little surfing, that stuff is golden!
KD
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Post by connrock on Dec 2, 2005 17:03:03 GMT -5
WOW!
That is some unique wood for sure!
I have rockhound friends from Australia and you can bet I'm going to see if this wood is still being found!!
Thanks,,,,
Tom
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rollingstone
starting to spend too much on rocks
Member since July 2009
Posts: 236
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Post by rollingstone on Dec 3, 2005 2:38:28 GMT -5
Kim, thanks, you are right, they did find a good home  Tom, I looked on your friend's site awhile back (from the link you posted in the Vendor's section), and they listed all sorts of gorgeous Aussie wood, but I didn't see any peanut wood. However, they do state that their website doesn't list everything they carry, and I never did follow-up with a direct contact. Let us know what you find out! |
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Post by connrock on Dec 3, 2005 9:28:51 GMT -5
The web site you mentioned in the vendors section may have some of the peanut wood but the 2 guys I was referring to are the Australians who supply Dan with his wood,,,,Darren Jones and his mate Tully.
They were here in the States last summer for about 3 months and visited both me and Dan.They are coming back again this summer for a longer stay!!
Darren and Tully are out collecting right now and I don't know for how long.They sometimes go for weeks!I would say that if there's peanut in "Ozz" (as they call it),they are the 2 guys who will know where to look for it!
Tom
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