How to Carve Petrified Wood

Rock Tumblers

• Tumblers carve rock in much the same way nature does it, only quicker. Place a sample of petrified wood into the barrel, and the tumbler erodes rough edges and sharp points by turning it over again and again through special grit and water. The process shapes and refines the rock by smoothing it out and eliminating jags and scratches until it has a fine burnished finish.

Vibra-Lapping

• Vibra-lapping uses vibration to grind and carve a piece of petrified wood. First use lapidary saws and diamond-edged grinders to trim the piece of petrified wood. Then place the sample into the pan of the vibra-lap, add special machine grit and some water, and the vibrations will erode the rough areas from the stone. The process takes multiple sessions in the machine to completely polish the rock.

Spheres

• Using diamond-blade lapidary saws, sculpt the sample into a cube shape first. Continue cutting away hard angles and grinding down ridges to carve the stone into a ball shape. Then place your petrified wood into a sphere-maker machine, which utilizes a set of curved bowls that grate against the sample to shape it into a three-dimensional circle. Repeated steps are required to finish it properly, but when you're done, you will have a perfectly shaped petrified sphere.

Faceting

• Faceting uses a grinding wheel and a dop, which is a steel rod, to shape flat surfaces onto a rock. Faceting machines use heat and friction to sand down edges and shine the stone so it will reflect light more brilliantly. These machines require more interaction with the user than the other methods.