Skip to content

Polished Petrified Wood

Agatized wood from Madagascar, sawn from silicified conifer logs and hand finished into eggs, freeforms and full round sections.

Buy Polished Petrified Wood by Weight, Cut and Preserved Grain

Polished petrified wood is fossilised timber in which silica charged groundwater has replaced the cell walls of a buried trunk with silicon dioxide, so a piece that still looks like a log is chemically quartz and holds a mirror polish at Mohs 6.5 to 7. Astro Gallery of Gems buys these silicified logs in Madagascar, commissions the sawing and hand finishing into eggs, freeforms, cross cut rounds and bookend pairs, then weighs, measures and photographs every result before it goes online, so each of the 10 pieces on this page arrives with its own recorded weight, dimensions and grain.

Egg, Freeform, Log Section or Bookend Pair: Choosing the Cut First

Buyers of fossil wood settle the cut before the locality. A sawn and lapped face opens growth rings and cell structure across its whole width, while a ground ovoid trades that flat window for a shape that sits well in the hand. Astro Gallery of Gems orders the cutting against that trade off, then states the finished weight and every dimension on the listing.

CutWhat it gives you and who buys it
Polished egg, 168 grams to 2.2 lbsA symmetrical ovoid from roughly 1.75 by 2.5 inches up to 3.5 by 4 inches, which carries the entry pricing and most of the gift buying here.
Freeform, 1.1 to 6 lbsOne base flattened so the piece stands unaided, outline left where the log ended, giving the widest polished face per pound and the most visible grain.
Cross cut round, about 1.4 lbsA short disc sawn across the trunk with the fossilised rind still wrapping the rim, reading instantly as a tree on a shelf.
Longitudinal slabSawn parallel to the trunk axis and lapped on both faces, stretching fibre runs and knot lines into stripes rather than concentric circles.
Bookend pairTwo halves of one round polished on the mating faces, so the pattern mirrors across the gap when a log diameter allows the cut.

Live Prices Against Weight for Each Piece Currently Cut

Every row below names one physical object that has been weighed, measured and photographed alone. The price on the listing is generated by the catalogue at page load, so a piece that sells drops out of this table instead of lingering as a link that returns nothing.

PieceDetailPrice
Genuine Polished Petrified Wood (3") Egg from Madagascar 3" $ 99.00
Natural Petrified Wood Log from Madagascar (1.4 lbs) 1.4 lbs $ 110.00
Polished Petrified Wood Egg from Madagascar (2.2 lbs) 2.2 lbs $ 250.00
Polished Petrified Wood Freeform from Madagascar (1.1 lbs) 1.1 lbs $ 135.00
Polished Petrified Wood Freeform from Madagascar (1.75 lbs) 1.75 lbs $ 260.00
Polished Petrified Wood Egg from Madagascar (1.4 lbs) 1.4 lbs $ 169.00
Weighed, measured and photographed individuallyEach fossil wood piece here is one of one, held in stock, and the price you see on the listing is the price that reaches your cart.
View all 10 pieces Request photographs

Origin, Species and Age: What the Rough Brings to a Finished Piece

Fossil wood carries its birthplace in its colour. Iron and manganese oxides that soaked into a buried trunk decide whether a polished face runs red and violet or brown, gold and cream. Astro Gallery of Gems inspects the sawn ends of Madagascan rough before committing to a lot, because a trunk riddled with hairline shatter never survives the saw.

Madagascan agatized woodSilicified conifer logs from the Ambilobe area and the Mahajanga basin, Triassic to Jurassic in age, running brown, yellow, orange, white and black. This material supplies the eggs, freeforms and rinded log sections listed here.
Arizona rainbow woodAraucarioxylon arizonicum from the Chinle Formation near Holbrook, roughly 225 million years old, coloured red and violet by iron and manganese. Collecting inside Petrified Forest National Park is unlawful, so lawful rough leaves private claims only and Arizona rounds stay scarce.
The silica exchangeGroundwater carrying dissolved silicon dioxide infiltrated the buried trunk and precipitated chalcedony and macrocrystalline quartz around the cell walls. That swap lifts the finished stone to Mohs 6.5 to 7 and a specific gravity near 2.6, which is why it polishes.
Species and cell anatomyConifer tracheids, ray cells and annual growth rings survive replacement when silica arrives slowly, and a loupe resolves them on a lapped face. Astro Gallery of Gems rejects rough whose anatomy has been erased into plain agate, because collectors pay for readable structure.

Arizona Red or Madagascan Brown: Two Ways to Buy Fossil Wood

Madagascan brown and goldMadagascan agatized wood reaches the bench in larger, sounder logs, so eggs, freeforms and paired bookends stay available at working prices and the rinded outer bark line survives the cut on many pieces. Buyers furnishing a room choose it because the browns, ochres and creams settle against oak, walnut and linen without competing.
Arizona red and violetChinle wood from Arizona reads as a collector material rather than a decorating one. The manganese purples and hematite reds photograph hard, the legal supply from private claims is narrow, and a large sound round commands a figure well above equivalent Madagascan weight. Buyers chasing species and formation provenance accept that premium.

Cell Structure, Fill and Polish: Grading a Cut Face

Four faults account for nearly every disappointment in fossil wood, and each shows in a well lit photograph rather than requiring the piece in hand. Astro Gallery of Gems photographs the polished face, the rind and the base for exactly that reason.

Readable cell structureHold a loupe over the lapped face and look for parallel tracheid rows and radiating ray cells crossing the growth rings. Material where silica arrived too fast shows swirled banding and no wood anatomy, which separates a fossil from a pretty chalcedony.
Fracture fill and stabilisationSome cavities left by rotted heartwood are filled with clear resin before polishing, reading as a glassy patch that stays bright while the surrounding quartz dulls. Astro Gallery of Gems states any fill, stabilisation or repair in the description.
Polish depth across mixed hardnessOne face can carry quartz at Mohs 7 beside softer clay and pyrite pockets, and a rushed wheel leaves those zones sunk below the surface. Travel a reflected light line across the face and watch whether it crosses unbroken.
Rind integrity and base grindThe fossilised bark rind is the most friable part of a log section and chips first in transit, so study the rim in the photographs. On freeforms, confirm the base has been ground flat, because a piece that rocks was hurried.

Tracheid, Rind and Freeform Defined

Agatized woodPetrified wood in which the replacing silica crystallised as chalcedony, giving translucent, waxy zones that glow when a lamp sits behind a thin edge.
PermineralisationThe process by which dissolved minerals fill cell cavities without destroying the cell walls, which is why anatomy survives in the best fossil wood.
TracheidThe elongated water conducting cell of a conifer trunk, visible as fine parallel lines on a polished longitudinal face under magnification.
Cross cut roundA disc sawn perpendicular to the trunk axis, presenting concentric growth rings and the full circumference of the fossilised rind.
RindThe outer fossilised bark layer of a log, rougher and darker than the interior, prized when it survives intact around a polished section.
FreeformA piece polished all over with its natural outline retained and one base flattened, so the log dictates the silhouette rather than a template.

Fossil Wood on a Console, in a Gift Box and in the Crystal Trade

Three buying audiences meet on this page and one set of documents serves all of them. Interior buyers use a polished round as a low horizontal accent on a console, or set a bookend pair so the mirrored grain frames the books between. Gift buyers take the eggs, which travel safely and need no explanation. Crystal buyers reach for fossil wood under the vocabulary of grounding, ancestral memory and the root chakra, which Astro Gallery of Gems names because buyers search with it.

What the gallery documents is material, locality, age, weight and treatment. Astro Gallery of Gems asserts nothing about health or energy for the pieces sold here, and a listing that calls a stone grounding is reporting trade usage rather than an outcome.

Keeping a Polished Fossil Wood Surface Bright

Petrified wood asks less of an owner than almost anything else in the catalogue, because quartz at Mohs 6.5 to 7 shrugs off dust, sunlight and ordinary handling. Wipe the polished faces with a dry microfibre cloth, or a barely damp one followed at once by drying, and keep abrasive creams and scouring pads away permanently. The fossilised rind and any resin filled cavity are the exceptions, since both react badly to prolonged soaking. Never leave a piece standing in water or run it through an ultrasonic bath, and slip a felt pad under a six pound freeform to protect a polished shelf.

Paying for a Piece and Getting It to the Door

Buying runs the same way for a 168 gram egg and a six pound freeform. Add the piece to your cart at the price shown on the listing, then complete a secure checkout that accepts Shop Pay, PayPal, Apple Pay, Google Pay, Visa and Mastercard. An itemised invoice follows by email, recording the piece, its weight and any fill disclosed in the description. Before that point, ask Astro Gallery of Gems for a loupe photograph of the cell structure or a measurement across the rings, and the team will send it.

Astro Gallery of Gems has packed stone for shipment out of New York since 1961, and fossil wood gets the treatment its weight demands. The team wraps the polished faces first, isolates the friable rind, blocks the piece against movement inside the carton and double boxes everything above a pound. Each parcel leaves tracked and fully insured, whatever the destination, and the gallery completes the customs paperwork before dispatch so the declared value matches the invoice. Astro Gallery of Gems attaches the returns policy and the guarantee shown on about us to every one of those steps.

Rated everywhere we trade

4.6★849 reviews 99.5%138,000 sold 4.7★404 reviews 4.5★126 ratings #128of 1,994 4.1★119 reviews
See the grain before you decideAsk for the polished face, the rind and the base photographed under raking light, and those frames come back within the working day.
Browse the fossil wood Email the gallery

Petrified Wood Questions Answered Before Checkout

How much does polished petrified wood cost?
Small polished eggs at gram weights open the range, freeforms and log sections occupy the middle, and the heaviest multi pound freeforms sit at the top. Every price in the table above updates from the catalogue as stock moves, and each figure was set against that one object rather than a size band.
Is petrified wood a real fossil or is it just stone?
Petrified wood is a genuine fossil in which silicon dioxide replaced the original organic material cell by cell. The result is chemically quartz, yet the growth rings, tracheids and bark rind of the original conifer survive and remain visible on a polished face under a loupe.
Where does your petrified wood come from?
The pieces on this page are cut from Madagascan rough, principally the Ambilobe area and the Mahajanga basin, and every listing names the country. Arizona Chinle material is a different and much scarcer commodity, since collecting inside Petrified Forest National Park is prohibited by law.
How old is the wood in these pieces?
Madagascan silicified conifer logs date to the Triassic and Jurassic, which places them between roughly 145 and 250 million years old. Arizona Chinle wood is about 225 million years old. Ages are stated as geological ranges because a single log cannot be dated to a year.
Will I receive the exact piece in the photograph?
Yes for every individually photographed listing, and each of those pieces is one of one. Where a listing is marked as a stock photograph, the description says so and the pattern, colour and weight will vary slightly within the range stated.
How do I clean polished petrified wood?
Dust it with a dry microfibre cloth, or use a barely damp cloth and dry it at once. Keep the piece out of ultrasonic cleaners and away from prolonged soaking, because water works into the porous rind and behind any resin filled cavity.
Can petrified wood be used as bookends or on a coffee table?
Yes. Cross cut rounds and paired halves sit flat and hold books without a stand, and freeforms above two pounds carry enough mass for a coffee table or console. Place a felt pad under the ground base to protect a polished surface.
Do you ship petrified wood internationally and can I return it?
Yes to both. Orders leave double boxed, tracked and fully insured, and the gallery prepares customs paperwork in advance of dispatch. Returns are accepted under the terms published on the returns page, and requesting extra photographs first resolves the question for most buyers.

Fossil Wood Beside the Rest of the Cabinet

Petrified wood belongs to two families simultaneously, and buyers arrive from one side or the other, chasing a fossil or chasing a polished silica stone. Collectors following the fossil thread move into teeth, ammonites and bone, while buyers following the polish move into jasper, agate and septarian.

Other fossil material
FossilsFossil teethMeteorites
Other polished silica stones
JasperAgatePolished septarianGeodes
Same shapes, other stones
Polished eggsSpheresPalm stonesBookends
Scaled for a room or a gift
Home decorLarge carvingsGifts
Before you order
Shipping and returnsAbout Astro GalleryMineral specimens