Slabbing a Terlingua Texas “Zebra” Rock

Added: 2026-05-15

[00:00:00]Greetings to all the rock lovers out there. Welcome back to the channel.

[00:00:02]Let's slab another rock. This time we are going to slab this very interesting looking rock that I found out near Terlingua, Texas.

[00:00:11]That's right. Way out there in West Texas.

[00:00:14]Now, I don't believe this is a courtsy rock. I think it's more of a calcite.

[00:00:19]In other words, it's going to be a little softer than the quartz, but that doesn't mean that it won't produce some beautiful slabs. Look at all the contrasts.

[00:00:28]Lots of whites and grays and blacks, I know, but I think that it can produce some beautiful patterns.

[00:00:36]You can see it in here.

[00:00:37]All the different layering.

[00:00:40]Hmm.

[00:00:41]There's some darker stuff there that Heck, maybe this does have some calcedony in it. I honestly don't know.

[00:00:47]Don't get me lying. I'm not geologist.

[00:00:50]What I do know is that we are going to find out what the slabs look like.

[00:00:55]What I'm going to do next is get this in the shop. I'll get it on the saw.

[00:00:58]I'll make a few slabs, and then I'll bring them back in here, and I'll show you what they look like.

[00:01:03]Our unusual Terlingua, Texas rock has been slabbed. Did it turn out to be interesting on the inside? Well, we knew on the outside it was interesting. We saw all those waves and patterns in there.

[00:01:17]So, what about the inside? What do we see? Hmm.

[00:01:23]Well, it's okay. It's not great. I don't know that it's hard enough to take a shine. It's probably just going to be the calcite.

[00:01:31]Let's keep going.

[00:01:33]Ooh.

[00:01:36]Well, it's a cool pattern.

[00:01:38]I do like that. I I almost want to call this a zebra agate.

[00:01:44]Maybe that's what we'll do. We'll call this a zebra agate. The world's first.

[00:01:49]I just made that up.

[00:01:51]Watch, someone's going to tell me that, you know, there actually is a zebra agate you know, from some other country.

[00:01:55]Well, I'm saying this is the Terlingua Texas zebra agate.

[00:02:01]Again, I'm not so sure it's chalcedony, although parts of it appear to be chalcedony, then other parts look more like the calcite. Hmm.

[00:02:12]I do like those patterns.

[00:02:14]Two more.

[00:02:17]Yeah, that's a nice looking rock.

[00:02:20]Could I cab this? I honestly don't know. I'm It just doesn't have that feel. You know what I'm saying? That very hard feel like chalcedony. There are some great patterns in there, though.

[00:02:35]As I turned it, I started to see a a figure right here, like a man with his arms out. His I don't know, his legs are sort of in a weird position. There's his head up there.

[00:02:45]Maybe he's about to get on a Is that a bicycle or something?

[00:02:48]I don't know.

[00:02:50]Seeing crazy things. And finally, Mhm.

[00:02:56]A most interesting looking pattern in this in our zebra rock. Let's call it a zebra rock. I don't really think we should call it an agate.

[00:03:06]So, what have we got left of our zebra rock? Mhm.

[00:03:13]Cool stuff.

[00:03:16]Cool stuff.

[00:03:17]How should we grade this?

[00:03:20]Wow. Well, you know me, I like agates and I like to be able to take rocks and shine them. You know, shape and shine them into cabochons or just tumbled stones. I don't know that I could do much with this because again, I don't think this is the quartz, the silicon dioxide.

[00:03:35]I do have a way to test it.

[00:03:38]Let's do this really quickly before we grade it. I happen to have a little bit of hydrochloric acid, a 10% solution.

[00:03:45]So, if this is calcite, this should fizz. If this is chalcedony, it should not. What's it going to do? Let's put a little drop on here.

[00:03:57]Well, I don't know about you, but I'm seeing a lot of fizzing right there, which tells me that this is definitely a calcite.

[00:04:04]So, considering that, I think for grade, I'm going to give this rock I'm going to give it a solid B.

[00:04:12]Well, I sure hope you enjoyed this video. It was a lot of fun to cut this rock. We definitely got some beautiful patterns.

[00:04:19]Unfortunately, the rock is going to be a little too soft to do much with in the shop, but it doesn't matter. We still got to enjoy nature being an artist, and that's really a wonderful thing. Listen, thanks again for watching, and if you like these videos, please check my playlist. I've got lots more of these rock slabbing videos for you to enjoy.