Flowering Tube Onyx

The family that found this material in central Utah called it Flowering Tube Onyx and usually just called it Tube Onyx. Tube onyx is beautiful worked into cabs. It is tricky to work, because heat buildup while grinding it causes it to separate along the distinctive banding. You can stabilize the material to get past this issue, or you can try backing it with a thin slab of a more stable rock, such as petrified wood or bassanite, or epoxy.

These slabs have been stabilized with butvar, a museum grade consolidant.  This will help to hold together the rock along fracture weaknesses.  This technique is described in my article on stabilization or my youtube video.

The slabs have been drop tested, which means they were dropped onto a hard surface to ensure they did not break apart.