Those are unique crystals. The smaller ones have an X, which gives them the name cross rock. Usually the bigger they get the less of a cross, or even the square center, they get. The real large ones, about an  inch across or more, usually just have a ray pattern. Each one is different and the pattern changes as you take off more slices. They're like snow flakes, no two are alike.

I love "elegant" solutions. To be elegant a solution has to be as simple as possible. The wooden guide is something I'll be making next week. The slab to raise the slab is another elegant solution. I'll be making that too.

Thanks. 

There's a dirt road about 20 minutes away from my house were we pick up those things by the hundreds. They're coming right out of the road. Every time they scrape the road, thousands more show up.

I've seen that pattern in chiastolites.

I add some borax. No foaming problem that I've encountered. Inhibits rust, but then I drain, dry, and WD40 my saw after each use. The water feels pretty slick.

I picked this up on our club's last trip to Exeter, Calif. There are piles of this stuff scraped out of the nearby tangerine orchard.

Try something called Opticon. http://www.ebay.com/itm/OPTICON-FRACTURE-SEALER-HARDENER-LAPIDARY-8-FL-OZ-RESIN-No-224-NEW-/130807766726

Or something cheaper like clear spray paint, or a clear varnish.

Put a half inch of sand in an oven proof container.
Place stone on top of sand and cover with another half inch.
Put in cold oven then:
175°F Several hours (overnight is fine)
275°F Four hours
375°F Four hours
475°F – 500°F Four hours
Leave in the oven overnight, without opening the door, or until pan is cold.

Maybe not....

MinDat says this: A new interpretation of the origin of tiger's eye was recently given by Heaney and Fisher (2003): "Tiger's-eye is an attractive and popular gemstone that is ubiquitous in stores that cater to rock and mineral collectors. For more than a century, textbooks and museum displays have identified the material as an archetype of pseudomorphism, i.e., the replacement of one mineral by another with the retention of the earlier mineral's shape. Our study has revealed that the textures responsible for the shimmer of tiger's-eye do not represent pseudomorphic substitution of quartz after preexisting crocidolite asbestos. Rather, we argue that tiger's-eye classically exemplifies synchronous mineral growth through a crack-seal vein-filling process."

 

Trade for a hunk of Mariposite?

Is that some barite there?

It will work, just get creative. You can break it up and tumble it, or make a bunch of long, skinny, pieces. It would make some nice knife handles.

I have to find someone with a 4wd that wants to go. It's not an easy place to get to. You can see it from the highway, but you have to go way down river, cross, and then take a road called the "Burma Grade", then a maze of dirt roads, and end up with some sketchy map coordinates. OR, go into Yosemite and out a locked gate. I work there so I have the key to the gate.

Would make for a fun day though.

We have some jade nearby too. There's a chunk about 3 feet wide, 6 feet long, 4 feet tall. Every rockhound in the area knows exactly where it is. No one has a helicopter to get it out so it just sits there.

I am going to Trumble Peak. It's near Yosemite NP and MinDat says that there is some benitoite up there. I seriously doubt it, but it would be fun to look. It also mentions a barite lens in the same area. Might be some crystals or something.

I like my slabs around 1/4 inch, or 6 to 7 mm.