"My precious"

An amazing chunk of Agate...

I found this gorgeous rock in "Milsbeek" Netherlands, in a sand quarry.

And I know forever where it was when I found her.

She was beaten up by her long trip ( all the way from the Idar Oberstein area in Germany to the Netherlands ), surviving ice ages, and waiting for ages to be sucked up by the sand quarries dredger and thrown on the pile of the big rock where it was picked up... by Me...!

She is also a big problem too...!
How am I going to saw, grind and polish her?
It took me days to watch, turn around, turn around, turn around... look for cracks, bursts, raptures, and other roughness I had to take away, to make this fabulous rock into the "precious" she is today.

With some help from a friend and co-rockhound, I decided what I had to do, where to start and make this rock into the gem it is now.

After the sawing, there is the grinding on a diamond disc grit 100 and dry it looked like this...

Oh my god, there is a lot of work to be done...
I do not work on agate as I would on other rock... It is so hard that I use a somewhat "off" method to get the job done quickly and thoroughly.
I use a very quick rotating but very worn grinding belt grit 220, I do not use water, I stroke the agate over the belt, very gentle and soft. After 4 hours I'm almost ready for polishing...!

I always take pictures of my work, before the final polish because you can see the grinding tracks, and there is no use in polishing if you are not ready with the grinding...!
When I was satisfied, and I'm a perfectionist, I went for the ultimate polish, first on diamond powder 1500, and after that: Cerium Oxide grid 15000.
The outcome is wonderful