How is petrified wood formed

Water, rich with minerals such as calcium carbonate and silica salts, seep into wood buried in the ground. The organic matter of the wood is replaced or enclosed by the minerals and eventually turns to stone.

With a little searching I have found information that suggests that the petrification process only takes decades, years or even only months given the right conditions. One such example is a natural well at Mother Shiptons Cave in England, take a look www.mothershiptonscave.com..

Definition of Petrified Wood

Petrified Wood: "petro" in Greek means "rock" or "stone". Petrified wood literally means wood turned into stone. It is a type of fossil. All organic materials have been replaced with minerals (usually silicate like quartz) while retaining it's original form.

How I carve stone

I am not an expert and have learned how to do this mostly by trial and error, and a little advise from some rock hounds.

The technic I use depends on the type of stone I am carving. Soft stone like sandstone or soapstone I use any type of blade, such as an exacto knife. Harder stones like petrified wood, agate or jasper I use a flex shaft grinder with diamond bits. When using a powered tool like the flex shaft grinder I keep the stone wet, to avoid blistering the stone and damaging the diamond bit. I polish the hard stone pieces by hand using different grits of sand paper, starting with a heavy grit and working to a finer grit. I keep the stone wet whiling doing this to avoid blistering the stone. I use sand paper that is made to get wet, so that the sand paper doesn't fall apart.

If you know more than me please tell me I always want to know more and maybe you have/know a better way.