Agates

[kbobam]

These are all good looking, but I'm really liking the 'negative space'
(probably not the right word) look of the two in the upper right.
What are they?





I'llhavethat1's pic from color of the month thread added for discussion -- steph

Edited March 15, 2015 by Steph
Added that1's pic when I broke off the agate posts to a new thread. :)

[I'llhavethat1]

From my marbles 101 study book: upper right is an Akro and on it's left is an Agate.

[Steph]

The agate is incredible.

[kbobam]

I could use a little 001 instruction on that word 'agate', if anyone's up to it.

Like an explanation of all the different ways the word is used.

Let me ramble a little here to more clearly explain my confusion.

An agate is a rock, or gemstone if you prefer.

Presumably these rocks have been made into little balls at times.

I'm assuming marble people would call these marbles, and

rock people would call them mineral spheres, but don't really know.

There are quite a few marble companies with the word agate in their name.

How did it get to be so popular?

Assuming that these companies are producing glass marbles.

So are they just saying in their name that they make marbles that look like rock?

When kids used to refer to 'aggies', was that a fairly 'general' term, or was it more specific?

If someone refers to a 'handmade agate', does that mean it could be either of two definitions?

1. A marble that looks like a kind of rock, that's made without the benefit of fancy machinery.

2. A piece of a certain kind of rock, that's been carved/ground/polished into a sphere without fancy machinery.

If you made it this far, thanks for listening! ( :

[Steph]

I'll give it a try if no one else does but on some of those questions I'm sure someone can be more efficient than I. I kinda dither over some of the terms myself.

[I'llhavethat1]

From what I understand, true 'Agates' (slanged as Aggies) were prized by players since they were more dense and not as fragile as glass. Higher density = better chance of knocking an opponents marble out of the ring. Plus they were prettier than most clays although labor intensive to make by hand.

Along came the industrial revolution and companies started to make marbles more efficiently out of glass, trying to simulate the look (of these prized Agate marbles) hence the names ___ Agate Co. etc.

I wasn't around back then so this is purely my opinion. Orange you glad you asked?

[Steph]

"2. A piece of a certain kind of rock, that's been carved/ground/polished into a sphere without fancy machinery."

"Handmade" (or "hand-ground" or "hand-faceted") agate would be close to that. Machinery was used but there was someone tending the marble on the grinder. Manually rotating it so that it would be ground all around.

[kbobam]

Thanks for the agate info!

Not sure where my mental block was exactly, but now I

feel like I can see the whole picture and it all fits together. ( :

[1Alleynut]

From what I understand, true 'Agates' (slanged as Aggies) were prized by players since they were more dense and not as fragile as glass. Higher density = better chance of knocking an opponents marble out of the ring. Plus they were prettier than most clays although labor intensive to make by hand.

Along came the industrial revolution and companies started to make marbles more efficiently out of glass, trying to simulate the look (of these prized Agate marbles) hence the names ___ Agate Co. etc.

I wasn't around back then so this is purely my opinion. Orange you glad you asked?

"2. A piece of a certain kind of rock, that's been carved/ground/polished into a sphere without fancy machinery."

"Handmade" (or "hand-ground" or "hand-faceted") agate would be close to that. Machinery was used but there was someone tending the marble on the grinder. Manually rotating it so that it would be ground all around.

Perhaps we could take this off of the color of the month post and start an (Agate) post I would gladely add some information and some photos of hand faceted as appose to the machine ground and or Mineral Spheres and perhaps some members could also add some pics of some of theres from old to new than can ba quite impressive and a wide array of colors depending on what part of the world the original stone was located, Also early on in the machine mades this is why they chose the titles of there companies as such trying to replicate the beauty and quality of the german hand faceted agates that were very previlant and popular at the turn of the century. I will continue this in the very near future, off for dinner. DB.

[Steph]

[Hipocritter]

Here's my pocket agate.

I call this Bull's Eye Agate "Traveling Music".

We have traveled many thousands of miles together.

.

[pedidoll]

my ex travels with that kinda stuff in his pockets!!

[BobBlock]

I've heard that if an agate has hit marks on it from playing, you can put it in a can of Crisco overnight and they heal. I've never tried it, but that's what the old time players say.

[1Alleynut]

I was sleepy after dinner and just couldn't get to it, So Good Morning! and here we go, The early hand faceted types were first created in Germany, as early as the late 1850's and perhaps a little earlier, a good portion of these are all natural not dyed until a few decades later, these Agates as seen in the first photo are the most common colors associated with the early hand faceted types, marketed as fine Carnilian Agates, which was also used in the late 1920s through the 1930's by Akro Agate, same name and or colors,and Cornilians.( Please post a photo of a box set if you have one and note the similarities in the colors) With the Early German types they are of a very hard material reaching 9.0 on the MOHS hardness scale which is right under Diamonds at 10. Slighty pourous, once ground into shape they were soaked in colored dyes then heated then polished to great some beautiful hues of blue, green or yellow, which are difficult to find in the hand faceted types,besides the straight white were abundant but you cant see the banding and beauty unless color was added. Most but not all early ones are 1in and under, however there are some fine examples of Large ones out there just few and far between, The information put forth earlier in this post is well done and correct on all parts, My dad used to play marbles as a boy and mentioned that in the early 1950's in the local tournaments, "Aggies" and "steelies" were basically forbidden from use, they could and easily can blow apart a glass marble, which would get some kids rather upset he told me. Next will be the Large Modern Agates and mineral spheres.

[Hipocritter]

All are faceted agates.

.

[1Alleynut]

Very Very Nice Board Full !! So then off to the present we go, when they can be large, then more often described as (mineral spheres), the bottom row and top right are 1 1/2in while the top row first 3 are at 2 in Most of the modern are from Brasil and or China, and they can get very large and intense just depending on how much you want to spend, and a very good majority of them are dyed.

[1Alleynut]

In the Late 1920's there are also the "onyx" types, which were put into Box sets with Numerous labels Califorina Onyx Marbles also sporting some very nice Bullseye patterens concentric rings and fine layering, a very soft material used for just about eveything from bowls, ashtrays, chess pieces, to dinnerware, The original Box sets of these intact should be considerd (rare). Hand faceted and Machine ground examples.

[1Alleynut]

Then here are some Natural colored Agates from Botswana South Africa, generally always in these colors light pink and or lavender hues on a mostly grey or off white matrix with almost always very deep heavily layered intense 3-d shimmering effect in hand that is quite incredible, Also would be called Mineral Spheres due to there age of manufacture, mostly used for jewelry and beads and very easy to see why.

[1Alleynut]

Nice Color.

[1Alleynut]

Then lets travel off the coast of Madigascar for some Ocean Jasper, mining has since been prohibited on this material, it is always on a white quartz type matrix with many many shades of pink and dark to light green with a insane amount of Bullseyes on some of the better specimans, a very brittle stone often fractured on many of the specimans, once again allthough quite a few under 1in these also would be designated as mineral spheres.

[1Alleynut]

Red Jasper & Tiger's Eye, a few more Mineral types that can produce some intense bullseyes, due to the high iron content the rusty looking Tigers Eyes can also have some amazing bands of shimmering gold and or silver which appears very metalic on the surface, Often seen from the 50's throught modern times in rock and mineral stores just with polished peices by the handfuls in western roadside souvineer shops, quite popular.and can be real fantastic in large specimans.

[1Alleynut]

The Real Moss Agates, can also be quite stunning if you are in to a wide array of very Earth tone colors, to many shades of green brown lavenders to pinks, always with open windows of sometimes multipul opalescent or foggy white concentric rings, with many of the prime examples in slab form actually appear to have interior (moss) frozen on time. To find almost every example shown in these posts try ebay under Mineral Spheres or Agate Spheres, and you will get an eyeful, warning it can lead to Agate Addiction.

[1Alleynut]

So to summerize abit, what were the early glass companies trying to produce? MFC and Navarre with the hand gathered types with the often perfect (9's) followed by the exterior concentric rings, Perhaps the (Bullseyes) was the goal, then off to Christensen Agate Co. some of the early slags and more so the Striped Opaques with the heavy colorerful banding, immatating natural agates very well, Off to Akro Agate, The Carnilians and Cornilians box sets are very impressive when it came to immatting natural stone, the colors of the glass used was really spot on. How about Alley Agates, Vitro Agates, Heaton Agates, Champion Agates each has there specific styles all intended to replicate the beauty of natural stone, Thus the word Agate in the titles or company name, Which company do you think did the best job of this? So if you have them availble any kind of stone or glass box sets Please post some photos if possible, Since I dont, last November After Visiting a local gem and mineral show I was very inspired to try and accomplish some with very tight bands and striations in varying natural and un-natural colors, because The Glass artisans cant,or haven't yet. I thought someone needed to get on it, Tigers Eyes you bet! tight banding with subsurface depth you know it! Dave Becker, Blackhawk Agates.

[1Alleynut]

So lets get it rolling Break out your Agates!

[Hipocritter]

Thanks for all the super input.

I'll be reading for weeks !