Petrified Wood | What Do You Really Know About It? 

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Another thing to consider when looking at them is that they are all different species of trees which had different hardness and cellular structures

Two years later I see your video of petrified wood. This helps me really understand the concept of time for wood to become petrified. I have at least a dozen rocks set aside because I couldn’t figure out if it was petrified wood or not. Now I know it’s not, I thank you so much for explaining things to us instead of talking down to us and our knowledge of things. Love your podcasts too!

I don’t care about opinions or to be told I’m wrong about something. It infuriates me. Nit pickers are the worst! Teach me how I’m wrong! Now if you do it in a way that someone can learn something that’s different. I’ve never heard you belittle or talk down to anyone. I like how you give information freely and to be as accurate as you can. Thanks

I used it for my aquarium. I love the look of it and how ancient it really is.

That made my understanding of petwood so much clearer , thanks mate , I love the way you explain things to people.

Informative. I can see why some people can misidentify some rocks as pet wood. Thanks for trying to educate us.

Thank you! I never dreamed there was so much variation in petrified wood!

Very informative, thank you. I did pick the correct "Not Petrified" but found myself questioning myself! You were trying to trick us and that usually makes me question myself. Fun little adventure.

Another good one 👍 Thank you for the variety of samples!

I enjoy these explained videos i love the learning as much as the sparkles lol hopefully you'll do more again in The future ..also jist wanted to take a second to say thank you for sharing this passion through your mind and eyes .

Such a good topic and great explanation as always!👍

Awesome presentation. Your vid made it much easier for me to understand how petrified wood is created. I also guessed the right rocks that were not petrified wood. I am very much a novice when it comes to rocks. Thank you for sharing.

Well AActuallly!!! haha great video, people in our local groups always mistake the metamorphic rocks for pet wood. When you first start out it can be quite confusing but once you find a piece and understand how it's formed it gets a lot more easy to identify.

Good video, and good explanations of characteristics to look for to help identify these different pet. Wood specimens.😎

This was VERY helpful. Thanks!

Thank you! Very informative.

Thank you for educating me.

Great explanation! Thanks Jared!✌🤠

Nice informative video. Cheers!

Very good video brother, thanks for sharing!👍😊⚒

More knowledge for me thanks again !!

I really appreciate your informative videos you've taught me a lot and yes I picked all four non petrified wood pieces I was very proud of myself

hey man, thanks for the general explanation of petrafried wood....nice collection u got

I’m just learning and I love your videos

Lol well I got 3 out of 4 correct. Petrified wood has always been my favorite. So many shapes, size and color. Great video as usual. Always enjoy your perspective on rockhounding

Thanks! I'm doing a sort of refresher/crash course in petrified wood, fossils and a couple other goodies, in preparation for a little presentation (with visual aids from my collection) I'm giving to my son's first grade class. As they've been learning about geology, layers of the earth, volcanoes etc from their awesome teacher.... I suggested letting her use some pieces for visual aids, but she ended up asking if I'd want to come give a little presentation. Me: sure that'd be fun! (Then the panic sets in..gigglesnort) Admittedly, I'm struggling with a bit of imposter syndrome.. so it helps calm my nerves and encourage my confidence to keep researching, learning new information and just confirming what I already knew. Thanks, for sharing so much beauty and information!

Very awesome! TY for the info!!

Informative video!!

Great topic to go over. Looking forward to a more in depth discussion on the topic. Im interested in hearing about what minerals cause what particular colors, Crystalization and not just opalized but how the opal gets its color. Good job!

Very informative video. I have a few rocks that I thought were petrified wood and now I know there’re not. But they still look interesting of course.Thanks!

Useful for sure. I did manage to pick the four before you revealed them. Very enjoyable thanks!

I guessed all four right! I'm proud of myself, keep doing videos like this testing skills it was fun and educational. Great video

Love your videos dude! Also I am obsessed with the saddle mountain area. Closer to vantage there is opalized wood that is distinctly different than the agatized stuff found farther east towards saddle mountain. Also if you can find a legal place to collect in the washes along the bottom of the big cliff near beverly dunes you will find agates alongside agatized wood. That area has become my favorite and would love to organize a small meet up to explore if you are available sometime. Thanks for making the videos dude!!

Great job!

Thank you …. Good channel!👍you rock!

Enjoy your videos! This was really good and I love your take on not nitpicking. I love to pick up rocks and tumble them and I also have a High Tech slant lap. I find the occasional petrified wood here which is nice. I also find an occasional agate. I haven’t done too much rock hounding but I like to bring stones home from wherever I travel.

I have difficulty differentiating petrified wood branches from limb casts.

@ 6:01 There's a side view of a crow flying, and above the crow there's a hawk swooping down from above. Name this piece death from above.

You are the Engineer of the Rockhounding!😀 a I like your explanation of how you identify the different rocks and hardness scales and the geology of the rocks talk about. It might be boring for some but I find it very interesting.

i got 2/4 with my guess, was unsure of the last two. Wow...this helped visually to understand a bit better the differences.

Thanks for the videos! Keep it up! Hello from Puyallup WA

I did pick those 4 from process of elimination thru ur explanation of all the other rocks.

Thanks for this video. Most of mine that I've found in North and South Carolina look like the one you had from Montana, but the colors are more brown and yellowish.

Very interesting!!!

I love all of my pieces I’ve collected truly a very awesome type of wood

Yeah, I picked the correct 4! Have you seen petrified Ginko tree?

Thanks for this video. pet wood is my favorite. Stay safe

I've picked up what I thought was petrified wood, upon testing hardness figured out it wasn't. 🙃 love learning

3 out of 4! This was great!

Thank you

I got all 4 correct! what did I win? Nothing? ok fair enough lol. Great video. being a woodworker and an observant rockhound helps the most. When I look at wood I always look for the medullar rays, the lines going perpendicular to the growth rings, sometimes they are small, and sometimes they are large like in oak or sycamore, but they are almost always apparent in pet wood even if it is agatized. always look at the end grain to find the rays. Im just trying to teach you something because you didnt mention it, and I thought that its worth taking note of. palm wood has no medullar rays, just small tubes, but its easy to identify to be honest.

Very helpful! I am so proud that I picked 3 out of the 4 that were not the pet wood lol. Literally jumped for joy haha. Thanks for another great video!!!!!!!

I now believe that I have stepped over some specimens of petrified wood while gathering rocks from the American River near my Sacramento home for various craft projects. I may even have some in my backyard now. Indeed intriguing. Subscribed to learn more.

Great video! Just found something on the beach that looked like a small plank of wood, but felt like a cold smooth stone, and even sparkles a bit in the light. Was wondering if it was pet. Wood, but had never seen examples outside of like a museum or something so I wasn’t sure, but now I’m feeling pretty positive about it after seeing this video!

useful tips :) I spotted 2 out of 4, thought that little cow patty shaped one was a knot >< I'm hoping to find some nice chunks to make knobs for my kitchen units, love the idea of pet wood instead of new wood

I have buckets full of petrified wood. If you ever come to Cody, WY I'd take you out where I go daily, too much rain recently though. You'd need a dirt bike or a 4 wheeler. My 4X4 trucks might get out there, but it would be stressful. There's a ton of fossil material, huge gastroliths, a lot of jasper (Red, Green, and Yellow), chalcedony, quartz, carnelion agates, sodalite, aventurine, sugilite, brecciated jasper, jade, gryphaea, ammonites, belemnites, tons of desert rose, and limestone with plant matter inside sometimes fish. I just got into when I bought a dirt bike a couple years ago. I took a spill and landed in a bed of devil's toenails. Everywhere. I was hooked. I hate these rainy days. I should be out there right now.

This video even held the interest of our six year old grandson. Thanks Jared!

The ones you got from saddle mountain I never would have guessed was petrified wood.

I love you saying that they could kick rocks. I admit I am very obsessed with my two favorite gems iolite and sunstone. In 1991 in India they found deposits of intergrown iolite with sunstone and they call it sunstoneiolite. The problem is when iolite has a lot of inclusions of copper or hematite they will describe it as a sunstone effect iolite. The top quality of actual sunstone effect iolite is cheaper then sunstoneiolite of much lower quality just 5% of actual sunstone in the iolite makes the value quite higher. I understand that the term sunstone iolite was used before 1991 when they were found actually grown together into a single gemstone. I have iolite from before 1991 that is described as a commonly known as sunstone iolite in sub description. My issue is that unscrupulous sellers use the term intentionally or don't know that sunstoneiolite exists and frankly when I started collecting I spent around $50k on rough and gems that were misrepresented. Some were a simple mistake most were intentionally misrepresented. I have found countless fake or intentionally misrepresented gemstones on websites especially eBay. Would you please make a video on purchasing and how to avoid fraud or just unknowledgeable sellers. Since that time I have gone back to college for geology and now I'm getting my graduate of gemology. I'm retired I am doing the metallurgy gemology lapidary arts and making jewelry because I love it. It is the only art form that didn't drive me insane trying to learn. My life partner is a artist and practices in multiple mediums my oldest son is a architect and geologist my youngest is a fashion designer and both son's are also professors at a university nearby. I was told by my doctor to find a hobby to keep strength and freedom of movement in my hands I finally started making jewelry and loved it then I thought why am I purchasing gems instead of cutting them myself and so I started do lapidary studies and loved it. So now me and my life partner retired early before fifty. I get to spend my days working in the workshop while she works on her stuff and our son's are often thier at our sides we setup so it would accommodate all of us and could work in the same space and has been some of the most enjoyable years of our lives even though doing our own things working there music playing we get a lot of time bonding with each other. I'm very blessed and I know this. I will for free evaluate people's jewelry and gems and sadly found countless accounts of people being taken advantage of so anyone who deals with things related to gems or rare stones I beg please make a video explaining how to not get ripped off and know what you are purchasing and if it is a fair value. Sorry for spelling grammar mistakes and rambling I had a stroke it effected my writing amongst other things thank you

Old Aussie stoner and rock hound ⛏️😊👍👌 I don't have as much petrified wood as I thought.

Sick video bro I love petrified wood

Awesome content! Just a thought, but that piece you referenced as opalized and agatized at 5:52 looks a lot like a piranha. It'd be cool to get it shaped and smoothed but at the same time it would hurt to sand that beauty.

Awesome video!! I hav several pieces of what I think mite b petrified wood that I found wen I lived in Illinois. I am going to do sum testing of hardness to see what I really have. Thanks !!!

I found a massive piece of this 300lbs+. Found it today. That’s how I got here lol.

Thank you very interesting,always learning 😊,I picked the right rocks that weren’t pet wood 😊

Hi Great clips thanks! I got a question, I have what looks like metamorphic rock from the river it's water worn but I've notice what looks to be stems in and on the rock, and what mite be flowers with stigma in some. How old do u think if this is what it is? Thanks.

Off the bat I could could tell which weren't petrified wood. I've been hunting petrified wood along the Columbia river for years, its very interesting how diverse in appearance they can be.

When cutting petrified wood into slabs, is there a generally preferred direction or angle to cut, or do you just make your best guess and run with it?

I picked all 4 non Pet Wood! That was interesting! Agates & Pet wood are my favorites. 😁

Good one man! I find the occasional piece of Pet wood here on the west side that is black (carbon) with some iron with teenie tiny druzy pockets. It's very strange looking stuff.

great video!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Love your videos and love how you Imitate people saying, “actually.” Lol.

i still have hopes of finding pet wood here in the UPPER PENINSULA of MICHIGAN!! great video

I also picked correct. It was easier than then your out hunting lol. Good presentation Jared. Havavgudun bud.

Nice video. That was well worth my time. Thank you. I have some cool limb casts that I found in a coal tailings pile while doing some excavating. One piece has a 1'' core of droozy with the bark very intact which is grey and the the inner layers tan. I guess the hardness of soap stone. I have talked to the rock shop in Kent and the Issaquah Valley Rock Club. Seems like everyone looks at me suspiciously. I was shocked and still am intrigued by this stuff. Maybe its worthless. Some of my pieces definitely will take a polish. So maybe its some petrified wood and some not quite there yet wood even though there is quartz and droozy stuff on the inside. Do you have any ideas?

I got the rocks right but didn't know about the hardness test.

Hello CR, I still have trouble IDing petrified wood. I have picked up a lot of not petrified wood, but brought it home just in case. Nowadays I have a far better idea what to look for. I guess the really hard thing to do would be to ID what species of tree it is. Very interesting topic, I love learning about it. And, it's Washington state's state gem. Bravo!

Is there a limit to what can be petrified? What about leaves or moss? I keep finding bark/tree grain patterned rocks in my backyard but there's so much of it idk if it's actually petrified wood. Now some of it very much does look like wood with obvious grains but alot of it is either bark or a thicker leaf or a pile of ferns maybe because it's thin slabs often stuck on top of each other a d these thinner slabs are often opalozed.

Ty! Are you a geologist by trade? If not you must have rock hounded for lots of years. There’s so much to learn.

Hi CR, I have a piece of petrified wood, in which the core is replaced by very hard and colorful silica, but the bark is quite soft (more like crumbly limestone). It formed in limestone nearby where I live and yes it is definitly petrified wood. As the piece is about 40 cm long, I thought about cutting it in the middle and than cutting one half lengthwise... but I don't know if that's a good idea... my saw runs with a lot of water and I don't want to destroy the bark. I thought about stabalizing the bark with epoxy first, but well then it's more plastic than rock... I'm open to other suggestions. Nice video, always looking forward to new content from your channel. Greetings

I got three out of four. Rocks 😍

That’s genius to test for hardness.

How long does it take for wood to petrify?

He said "Go kick rock's" 🤣🤣🤣

I picked 4 of 4! I'm getting better...lol

i have a solid black petrified wood is it worth anything?

What's the difference between agatized and opalized wood I have some blue material that I found here on the US and I'm being told by several people they think it's petrified wood it's blue and some what transparent

I’m newly subscribed to your channel. , I really enjoyed this video and learned a lot . ,, now I will be able to distinguish between petrified wood and rocks . ,,, can you tell me where I’m Louisianais the best place tofind agates? I really appreciate you for researching and sharing the context with us! Your AweSome.,,my each and everyone of you are awesome and powerful in your own kind of ways,,, and you sparkle and shine ;) Shine Brightly too babe ;$ I love you!❤️😘💕

The one you picked up from Saddle Mountain has a rabbit head carving and a face carving. I’m sure there are more, but I saw those first. Indians and even people before them would use them for tools, but they also carved their art into them. I have a lot of animals and human faces! I think it’s pretty cool! I’m still learning, and I have a few pieces that I thought were petrified wood. Thanks for the info!

I think this is a fantastic video! I agree with you about the minutia of classifying wood mineralization. And even though I've been collecting pet wood for my entire life, I still use different words to describe certain properties even if it's not exact because...I don't know. I'm usually so detail-oriented, too. Oh well. But this was a great video and I appreciate it!

I really like that Cragley looking opalized petrified wood! P.s. I actually guessed correctly! Which ones where the not pet wood! I am actually proud of meself!!

Check out Jim Grays Petrified Wood Company in Holbrook Arizona!! They have the most beautiful rainbow wood in the world!!

Great explanation! I only find it useful to differentiate between agatized or other terms when it seems someone isn’t quite understanding what the difference is to a non petrified wood agate. Otherwise you’re right, it isn’t important. The chemistry of silicification is fascinating. When you have amorphous silica in volcanic ash and it mixes with water, magic happens! 😜

I have a question nobody has been able to answer. I has a very old large oak tree get diseased and a huge limb about 30' up break off and smash fences etc. Upon cutting and removing one of the large pieces that was closer to the trunk, sparks flew and it was perceived there was a metal object. That piece was left behind because it could've go through the chipper, and when i later moved the huge round, what i saw shocked and intrigued me. It wasn't metal the saw contacted, it was what appeared to be rock! I chipoed away at the wood until i removed a very heavy, dense rock like specimen about 2.5' long, and around 5-7" wide, cylindrical shaped, and the surface looked like typical petrified wood. Only the surface glittered with sparkles! Knowing how petrified wood is formed, this specimen has me perplexed. Has anyone heard of this occurring before? And how is this even remotely possible?

You always educate me. Are harder stones heavier? Thanks again for your video. Be safe and stay healthy 😷⚒ I got lucky, 4 for 4. Woo hoo👍😁

I’ve read that wood can become petrified in less than 100 years if conditions are right. Is there any way to tell the age of the wood without expensive test?

So what about carbonized wood? And I feel like I find pieces of jasper-like wood with occasionally as well.

At 6:31 looks like a petrified face! Walkind Dead stuff. Lol😅

Interesting stuff. As i understand it there are 2 or more processes at work that turn organic material into rock. Theres a fast process where mineral rich water flows over a thing causing it to fossilize rapidly and then theres a much slower process which takes many moons. How can you tell the difference if there is one, and what is the difference between a fossil wood and a petrified wood? Thanx ..