Snakes and Stones

[Lord Sorril]

I thought that was varnished wood for a second. Tiger's eye?

I was thinking along the same line, petrified wood? but Tiger's Eye is a real good guess too.

Bogertophis called it! Petrified wood. There are some jaspers that look similar, but, petrified wood is much more common and is hugely varied in color and pattern--depending upon the original source and environment in which it was formed.

Fun fact: It can take millions of years to form a natural piece of petrified wood. Scientists can replicate the process in a laboratory and can accelerate it to days...it isn't quite the same quality, but, it can be done.

As for the possibility of tiger eye: red in tiger eye is extremely rare in nature. The red tiger eye that is most often sold on the market is yellow tiger eye that has been heat treated. Due to the process you will almost never see any yellow/red variegation in a piece. I haven't worked with red tiger eye yet, but, I am told that is much more prone to internal stress fractures which decreases the odds of a near perfect piece.