High quality Fire Agates are wonderful to work with because the amount of options provided by the intense fire layering. Choosing the right layer to stop at can be tricky! This stone traveled over 5000 km before returning to my work bench for a second look! To achieve a maximum coloration, I removed some of the top layers of red fire, exposing more of the under-laying green. This created a new bulls-eye effect, which complements this stone nicely and creates a finer higher quality finished piece. Knowing when to stop the cutting process with Fire Agate is extremely difficult but with luck, the right tools, and skill, re-cutting some already finished pieces can bring out new treasures. Re-cutting your own work can be frustrating at times because is illustrates your previous mistakes but Fire Agate is always just asking for a second look (or third)!
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Discovery
This silver hinged specimen is one of our teaching pieces we use at Gem Shows to demonstrate where the Fire Agate colour layer might be found in Slaughter Mountain rough. As an intact nodule, there was little to no indication of fire. Luckily (or unfortunately) for us the top corner had broken off (and was saved) during the mining operation and the colours shone through below the chip (so we paid a premium price!) After grinding away the rest of the chalcedony covering the stone we decided to leave the gem in-situ and rebuilt, with modeling clay, what had been ground away. This allows people to see the incredible discovery process of finding the magic hidden beneath the chalcedony.
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