Tag Archives: Turkish Stick Agate

Turkish Stick Agate: One Stone-Different Looks

My next cab is ready to be cut.

Turkish Stick Agate is an interesting pseudomorph agate, from Turkey with a variety of intriguing patterns and colors. The Turkish Stick Agates come in different types. A distinguishing characteristic of Turkish Stick Agates is needle-like tubes, forming what looks like pointy, sharp sticks within the stone, so it can be referred to as Needle Agate.

Experienced rock collectors will have in their mind what a certain agate looks like or what represents a body of agates with that name. When I say Lake Superior Agate for most people a red and white banded agate might appear in their mind, but we know that there are many types of Lakers.

When we say Stick Agate you might expect needlelike structures in a clear quartz agate, but there are many types of Turkish Stick Agate even from the same mines. I thought you would enjoy seeing these samples which are quite different. You can see another very nice piece at mindat.org.

Just a little aside folks.This brings up an important question; Can you poke your eye out with a Stick Agate? My mother had four boys and unlike kids today, we played OUTSIDE a lot. It was not uncommon for her to yell at us for doing dumb things. ” Don’t run with that stick; you could poke your eye out”. As I have grown up (maybe) I came to realize it was impossible to “poke your eye out” while running with a stick. You can only poke your eye IN. The only way you can poke your eye OUT is to stick the stick up your nose and then you could theoretically “poke your eye out”. Now back to our regular program…

Turkish Stick Agate with needles

The most characteristic form of Turkish Stick Agate shows needle-like patterns.

Turkish Stick Agate with banding and shadow effect

This one sports fortification banding showing some Parallax (shadow effect) and tubes.

Turkish Stick Agate with tubes and banding

Tubes and banding as well as beautiful colors make this a Turkish Stick Agate with no sticks!

High quality Turkish Stick Agate is quite expensive in the rough, and every time I’ve tried to get a break on it, Turkish miners, at the Tucson shows, decline to give much, claiming how difficult it is to find and mine. Much of this material comes from mines near Ankara, Turkey. Actually the good stuff comes from Cubuk, Turkey; but who knows where Cubuk is? (Central Turkey: I looked on a map)

Quality depends on how solid a particular Stick Agate is. Most Turkish Stick Agate has geodes with gaps, or vugs, and also can vary in hardness within a stone.

I find it intriguing that such variety can come from the one source. I am not an expert on Turkish Stick Agate, but I do know it is very beautiful. I guess that’s why I make jewelry from it.

I lied; When I did a search on Turkish Stick Agate, I came up as one of the experts. This has often happen. Bonnie (wife) says it’s because I’ve written so many blogs over the past 10 years. I guess I could say I’m a pseudomorph of knowledge on many subjects.

This agate has only become known in the United States within the last 20 years, and is not commonly available. Usually there is a Youtube video on everything, but there seems to be no video of actual mining Turkish Stick Agate.

In this blog I show three pieces of jewelry I made from expensive rough I bought a couple years ago in Tucson from the Non-negotiable (price) dealer.

Can you poke your eye out with a Turkish Stick Agate? Like a stick, the answer is probably “NO”, unless you take a small, sharp shard and shove it way up your nose. If you ever try this experiment, make sure your camera is recording it. I’m betting you could go viral; until Youtube pulls it off.

*pseudomorph

1: a mineral having the characteristic outward form of another species:
Good examples in the mineral world happen quite often in replacement fossils, where minerals replace, for example, wood; they often look like wood, with patterns, bark, and even knot holes. Another good example is petrified dinosaur bone where you can see every cell (each cell is actually an individual agate).
2: a deceptive or irregular form
In. The “sticks” in Turkish Stick Agates were originally Aragonite Crystals but they were replaced by Silica. The sticks still look like Aragonite, but they are not. Pseudomorphs are common in many Agates, but that is a whole other subject.
3: Don Reed
Don Reed, according to the Internet (and we should always believe the Internet), is one of THE experts on Turkish Stick Agates. Don Reed appears to be something he is really not. This may not be true, or perhaps it is…..Like the Internet; Don Reed would never intentionally deceive you.

Pseudomorph of Don Reed in Crystal Quartz from Brazil.

If this craziness is of interest to you, you should also read our embarrassing story about a missing chunk of this Turkish Stick Agate.

Visit our Turkish Stick Agate jewelry page for currently available pieces.

Where’s my Turkish Stick Agate?

I’ve built a custom tumbling unit that will handle three 12# barrels at one time. You might ask, what has has that to do with Turkish Stick Agate? I also bought a Diamond Pacific Cab Machine in Tucson last February. So how do these things connect?

Turkish Stick Agate Rough was purchased in Tucson

I found some absolutely fantastic Turkish (Pseudomorph) Stick Agate rough rock at the Keno Show in Tucson. It was very pricey old stock, but the best material of it’s kind I’ve seen in many years. I actually spent almost an hour searching through buckets of this stuff to find the cream of the old stock crop. Finding this Stick Agate happened after I bought a used Titan from a dealer at the 28th Street Show. The deal with the Titan included spare parts, wheels and several containers of tumbling grit (which had nothing to do with the Titan) that the dealer also threw in as he was getting out of the lapidary business.

(A pseudomorph is when the original crystal form of one mineral is occupied by another, chemically or structurally different species.  I love pseudomorphs (from the Greek “false form”).  Here’s a tip:  If you see triangular shapes occupying a rock you possess, it is most likely a pseudomorph of Aragonite. When someone asks what those triangular shapes are in a rock it also makes you look smart when you say “Oh that’s a pseudomorph of Aragonite” (Better if you practice saying “Pseudomorph” so it just flows easily off your tongue.) 

Move ahead to April: I got back home and unloaded all the stuff, started cutting and polishing new rock. I ask Bonnie about the stick agate; she looks and can’t find it. A picture of this Turkish Stick Agate had appeared in the February blog, so I had proof that this was a genuine purchase, not just something I thought about buying. I searched and searched for the Stick Agate and I cannot find it anywhere. A note is posted on the refrigerator “FIND STICK AGATE”.  When notes are posted on the refrigerator they become points of stress until acted upon (I know you guys know this).

 

What wonderful lapidary material.

I named this pendant “Bugs”. Notice the fully-banded agate bug on the left.

I wear this pendant. The auburn background is unusual.

Move ahead to October: I’m tumbling some Lakers for drilling and reach the 600 grit stage. While looking for 600 grit in one of the boxes I got with the Titan, I FIND THE STICK AGATE. I do know there are Desert Gnomes in Arizona, and I think those little bastards intentionally hid that Stick Agate bag (It could never have been Bonnie or I that did this).  That’s my story……..

ALL my stress is lifted from my shoulders, I can quit my anxiety counseling, take less drugs, and REMOVE THAT DAMN MEMO FROM THE FRIDGE!!! I will always remember October 9th, 2017 as one of the highlight days of my entire life!!

Here’s the really great thing: the Stick Agate is even more beautiful than I remembered it! The saws and Titan are simultaneously humming with Stick Agate Bliss. I think I’ll make myself a new pendant in celebration of my stress relief.

Now that our Missing Rock Saga is explained, let’s talk about Turkish Stick Agate shall we? From Cubuk, Northern Ankara, Turkey. TSA (Not Airport security) comes in various forms of Pseudomorphic Aragonite in Chalcedony. The Aragonite needles are hollow tubes that formed in the shape of church steeples.  Long needles forming fans are considered the best, but these agates can also contain sagenite or fortification areas. Some TSA has tubes and not the normal Pseudomorphic Sticks.

(Aragonite and Calcite are the same composition. The only differences are that the Calcite has form differently and under different conditions. Aragonite is Orthorhombic while Calcite forms in a rhombohedral crystal. Both Calcite and Aragonite become pseuddomorphs in other minerals because of their sensitivity to acids.)

One Stick Agate I re-found had a rare reddish background color. This was the one I grabbed for my personal pendant.

Hard to believe that this too is Stick Agate from the same mine.

Another piece had beautiful dark pink banding, and looked nothing like the other Stick Agate in the piles I sorted. One cab showed white botrioildal Quartz under clear Quartz with random reddish-brown tubes throughout the gemstone.

To add to the fun I saw one large bug or a couple bugs on a stick in one cabochon. Really extraordinary stuff. We’ve been celebrating the prodigal TSA for two weeks now. May you find your missing rocks.

You can find our current selection of these pendants at our Turkish Stick Agate Pendant page!