Art Piece
Is my art piece made from petrified wood?
I recently bought a carving that I believe is made out of petrified wood. If it is, it could be worth some money. The carving has no markings so I have no way of knowing where it was made of from what. How can I find out more about my art piece and what it is made from. Dose anyone know how to tell for sure if this is petrified wood or not; and if it is, what kind?
Does the carving feel like stone, rather than just some type of hard wood? To be petrified wood, the wood is replaced by minerals, so the wood "becomes" rock.
In petrified wood, quartz is the primary mineral which replaces the wood, with some other minerals present as impurities that give the wood its color(s). So you could do some standard mineral tests to see if the characteristics fit those of quartz:
hardness - Quartz has a hardness of ~7, so it can't be scratched by a fingernail or a steel nail (you might want to try this in an inconspicuous place just in case it does scratch).
specific gravity - This you can test for if you have a way of weighing the statue and submersing it in water so you can measure the displacement. Both measurements will need to be (eventually) in metric units, but if necessary, you could use English units and convert. To get the volume, you might be able to use a dishpan, or plastic storage container filled with enough water to sumberge the statue. Make a mark of where the water level sits with the statue completely submerged, then remove the statue, letting as much water drip back into the container as possible. Then add a known quantity of water (cups would do) until the water gets back to the marked level. Just keep count of how many cups were used. Then divide the weight in grams by the volume in ml to get the specific gravity of the statue. Quartz has a SG of 2.6 - 2.7.