Bought Stone Sphere - ID needed

[Carol M]

My husband [Mike] and I were at a large Amish farmers market in Pa, and a fellow there had a lapidary stand....so naturally I had to see it.
Mike saw this sphere which really appealed to him, and after several attempts to walk away....he bought it.   The man at the stand said it was Onyx....and it may well be....but I've never seen Onyx like this so I thought I'd see what you guys thought it was.

It's a 6" diameter sphere on an 'Ironwood' Stand.   After much dickering, Mike bought them both [sphere and stand] for $125 USD.  The white 'reflection like' marks on the left front are actually reflections.  The bands of colour go all the way around the sphere.

Is it Onyx?  or something else.  Comments??

[lopacki]

Carol,
This stone is called Onyx by most people, it is not true Onyx but a soft stone that mainly comes out of Mexico, you see all kinds of carvings and such out of this material at many of the larger shows, especially in the Southwest.

All my best ........ Danny

[light house jack]

It is often called cave onyx and very common in Mexico. The last time that I was there they had hundreds of chess sets from this material. Soft and easy to carve.

[itsandbits1]

so it is something like the "bumble bee" jasper, that isn't really jasper but softer, more like flourite

[dickb]

I like it too. The price you paid for the sphere and stand sounds pretty fair to me. I really like the color banding.

Dickb

[southerly]

I have always understood it to be a banded calcite. The name onyx has been applied to it for so long I reckon it now defines it, even though the original use of the term Onyx was for a tightly banded black and white agate.

Thanks,
David

[Carol M]

Sounds unanimous.  Thanks guys.