Station: [5] Geode

Here we take a look at a big geode. It looks like a petrified dinosaur egg.
This is what all gemstones look like as long as they are inside the bedrock.

The gemstone miners had to be very skilled in order to take such a geode out of the rock without damaging it. If it was damaged during the process, months of hard work had been in vain. 

Once such a geode had been found, it was not immediately clear what gemstone it contained. It therefore had to be broken open first. However, its weight could be used to estimate whether it was a druse or an almond.
If the geode was relatively light, it was highly likely that a druse had been found. An almond, on the other hand, is much heavier.

As already mentioned, people mainly searched for agate almonds or rock from jasper veins. These were then taken to the water mills in the area, e.g., the historic Weiherschleife. 
There, the gemstones could be cut on large sandstone wheels.
They were then used to make jewelry, vessels, or even church items such as baptizing fonts.
It was only through this difficult and exhausting cutting process that the gemstones acquired their final value.  

Rock crystal, amethyst, and smoky quartz druses were simply thrown away because they could not be processed with the tools available at the time.
It was not until around 1875 to 1880 that it became possible to process these types of stone, after Bohemian garnet cutters brought the art of faceting to Idar.  

This can also be seen very clearly in the historic Weiherschleife in Idar-Oberstein.