UK School Of Rock & Fossils

🪵This is my latest find of petrified wood.
Initially this piece had to go through a hydrochloric acid bath, as it was covered in algae ect.
However it revealed this amazing texture!

This is interesting because other pieces haven’t displayed this white exterior. Though when Chert/Flint form within chalk beds, they can sometimes end up with a white crust from the chalk.
Which leads me to believe this piece was petrified amoungst that material.
Making it slightly Chert-ified wood

Today’s haul

I only started collecting these 25 days ago.
There’s 60 altogether.
I’ve also got a new and improved camera to better represent these posts from now on 🙂

Back to the cutting table and I think this was my favourite cut of the day.
Chert outer layer I believe, and quartz centred

This is my first handmade Cabochon attempt.
Found by me, cut by me and close to the finished piece.
This is also the first Moss Agate I’ve found that expresses the perfect green colour, as locally more iron rich red moss is more typical.

From all the research I’ve done so far, I would describe the matrix of this rock to be secondary Chert (Which is silica based rocks formed in chalk)
The green mineral would be considered an inclusion in the surrounding Chalcedony.

I will update any post with more accurate information as I learn. Because I really do want this to be a great resource!

Got lucky again on this week’s hunt with another really detailed piece of petrified wood!

What I’ve noticed from observing other people’s finds and also my own, is that petrified wood has an almost painted appearance on some pieces.
The US have great examples of that kind of texture

This piece is just incredible.
I’m leaning towards Jasp-Agate as an ID.
Parts of this rock glow in the light typical to an agate, overall it feels more like a Jasper.

Sometimes, it really doesn’t matter what it is.
Sometimes it’s just beautiful

So my dad studied geology, and he currently lives out in Burkina Faso.
He came across this “rock” which looked remarkably similar to a piece I actually bought last year at a rock and gem show.

The first two pictures are of his specimen, the second two are of the geode specimen I bought!

Though it’s not gaurenteed that there will be an agate geode within it like my specimen, nonetheless a quite promising find!

I’m very much hoping to be able to cut/own this piece, though my dad isn’t a fan of cutting rocks it seems!

So this piece, has been a favourite for quite some time.
My first Syringopora fossil. When I found this piece, my first thoughts were fossilised coral. With some research I came across a specimen found in Ireland that was almost identical.

What’s really cool about this piece are the holes inside.
Inside these vugs, there are tiny calcite crystals. Where the voids have filled with crystal.

I got a jewellers loupe to try take a better photo of these vugs.

If I were to do the acid test on this piece, it would almost certainly react.
However this is one of those pieces that I’m totally happy with my ID on it

So this is actually the first piece of petrified wood I ever found. This piece was a little larger when I found it, but I’ve been slowly polishing it up.

It was a great one to identify because the knot goes entirely through the piece, and just for fun there are small microcrystalline Quartz pockets in the grains.

This Sea Urchin is one of the most beautiful I’ve collected. Stands perfectly as seen here, and is the best heart shape I’ve had so far.
My dad loves these, so I go out of my way to find the very best.

The largest piece of petrified wood I’ve ever found. There’s something really special about this piece, I have more beautiful pieces, yet I find myself staring back at this one.

Might give it a cut one day as it hints at Agate veins in the middle

Hello everyone,
I decided to create this page because of the fossil I found pictured below.
I shared this page to a UK group, hoping for some more information.
After likes started mounting, I was banned lol
The page was like 90% ammonites...So it was lame anyway ;)

We will not be doing that to people on this page, AT ALL.
If you've got something awesome, No-one will appreciate it more than me, and the community I hope to build.

The goal of this page is to act as a reference point for anybody in the UK wanting to make the most of their time out and about.
To give advice, and to praise the awesome things we find on our little rock.