Bed Agate from Central Kentucky

Bed agate and jasper collected during the winter of 2011-2012

Example of burgandy plume "moss" agate from my winter collection

The winter of 2011-2012 has been exceptionally mild and the rains have been heavy here in Central Kentucky. I've been collecting agates and cutting them with my new 14 inch Lortone Panther.

Introduction

The Blue Grass region of Kentucky is well-known for its agates. Agates from the Renfro-Borden formation in Estill, Jackson, and Powell Counties are usually considered the only agate-rocks worth collecting here. These agates are world-class and some of the best exhibition-pieces you'll ever see. However, Renfro-Borden agate (also called Mississippian agate) has a few weaknesses: almost no good green-coloration and many cracks that make it difficult for cabbing jewelry. One nice nodule might produce only three good cabs. What a shame to break up a magnificent piece and when it's done -- who's to say the cabs came from fortification-agate?

There are other agates in Central Kentucky. Some of it has a much higher cab-yield-rate and it makes some really nice jewelry. It's older than Renfro-Borden, has fewer cracks and no calcite. It's bed-agate according to geologists I've spoken with, and it forms differently from fortification-agate. Compared to Renfro-Borden agate the nodules are larger, more pancake-like, and in some cases they have a "belly-button" in the middle resembling a half-geode of the more familiar Mississippian-form.

I've asked knowledgeable people about Kentucky agate, and they haven't seen very many of these forms around the Bluegrass region. These agates are predominently gel and plume-agates along with silicified clay gels that cross over into the jasper families. I guess it's a paradigm-shift in the agate-way-of-thinking for Central Kentuckians where fortification and so-called "moss" agates are the only two agates known to mankind. On otherhand they call some of this stuff "agate" in Texas and Montana (where real dendridic moss agate is found). In my opinion the best tube agates from Texas rival some of the better fortification-agates from Estill county. No offense to Central Kentuckians out there, but I didn't grow up on Kentucky agate so my tastes are different and it's kind of like asking me which barbecue I like the most. My answer is "all of them"!

Please contact me if you have any experience with these agates you're about to see. I hope you enjoy the display I've put together (double-left click on the images for larger pictures).

Bed-Agate Nodules

The picture above looks like a familiar form of agate you might find in Jackson County but it didn't come from there. It's not even Renfro-Borden. Look at the "belly-button" socket in the nodule (refer to upper right-piece). Some of the slices have red-streaks from stalactites growing out of the "belly-button". Note the shape of the nodule -- it's more pancake-like. That isn't the upper half of a nodule -- it's the whole thing!

Bed-agate can have bands that run more in a straight-line (double left-click on the picture above for higher-resolution). This specimen has a bright peach-coloration along with some red fracture-lines that healed, and white streaks for highlights.

The burgandy pieces are called "moss-agate" here in Kentucky, but they're really plume-agate. As one geoligist said -- it doesn't get much better than this. A camera doesn't capture the purity and clarity. Note some forest-green coloration. The two orange-pieces are a nodule of plume-agate similar to some of Powell county's agate. Note the banding across the fill-line.

Plume-agate can produce some spectacular plume-shaped color-bursts. Note the "burning-bush" formations on these pieces -- almost like a painting.

The speckled variety of plume-agate (shown above) is familiar to Texans, but this agate came from Central Kentucky. It makes some nice cabachons especially with the fiery orange colors.

More bed-agate shown above with some eye-catching streaks in yellows and deep-red. Tiger-eye looks good with it. Red-tiger eye would be spot on.

The bed agate shown above was sliced through the "belly-button" (the top piece in the picture). Closer inspection shows good banding detail and tube agate formation in the "white spots" (double left-click on picture).

This streaky-looking material could be called "moss" agate here in Central Kentucky though it appears to be in the plume family. It has deep-burgandy feather-like plumes over a rich gold-ocre background. The gold color is intense under bright-light. The nodule tweeked around in my vice -- I'm still getting used to my saw.

Jaspers

Finally some decent green-material from Central Kentucky! It came from a smooth-slippery-stone that resembles porcelain-jasper. It's a gel-agate/jasper that looks like Peter Max's artwork -- in "sea of green" coloration as it were. It reminds me of a port-hole on a cruise-ship. Sounds like a good jewelry theme!

Shown above is the same thing in ocean-blue. The piece on the lower left shows some superimposed-banding. I suppose a corkscrew fracture in the node could have produced this effect. By the way... gel-agate/porcelain jasper has good structural strength and it polishes out very well.

This appears to be an orbicular variety of smooth jasper-stone.

Big Hunk of Bed Agate

Now for the piece de resistance. Well actually I broke it into two pieces. A few local people might possibly recognize this bed-agate form:

The piece shown above is one of the larger ones in my agate collection. It weighs 12 pounds. A slice section reveals a crazy lace pattern in dark-red that transitions into a light peachy-yellow color? There's more to it -- the outside is coated with citrine crystal formations that go through the piece like swiss cheese. In a few spots it's garnet-red. Note the bubbling concretion of light citrine on the left side.

Weighing in at 15 pounds the other half has some intense red colors:

Conclusion

I hope you enjoyed the show. If you've ever seen these types of agates/jaspers please let me know. I'd like to know more about them. I plan to offer cab materials on eBay and on this website.

To send me an e-mail please (right click here for my email address)