Manganese Dendrites can be cut and shaped in different ways, and for a variety of reasons.
Reasons to cut a Manganese Dendrite:
- Construction – for building stairs, walls, columns and whatever… to make it fit.
- Coasters – when they get wet, the dendrite shows though in a brilliant fashion. (on most darker color rocks)
- Furniture – to make it fit.
- Display – you might want to shape the rock a certain way to show it off
- Standablity – so it stands upright in the direction you want
- Framing – usually the back side is trimmed flat, and you can also remove excess unwanted rock
- Remove excess rock – sometime the picture is only on one side of the rock, and you can throw away most of the excess without losing any value. You can even increase the value this way.
- Jewelry – detailed shaping of the rock (or parts of a pair or puzzle)
- Crafts – just to make it fit right.
Ways to cut a Manganese Dendrite:
- Cross Cut or Mitre Saw – good for removing bulk pieces of rock.
- Table Saw – Wet or Dry – for finer shaping.
- Dremel Type Tool – for finer shaping and also cutting smaller pieces.
- Chisel or Hammering – Can sometimes remove bulk pieces of rock. This method can damage a rock, but can sometimes break it along a fault, exposing more dendrites.
- Grinding – a table grinder / bench grinder can shape larger pieces.
All these above methods can damage a rock if not used carefully, and can still break a rock, even if used carefully.
Manganese Dendrites can NOT be polished. At least not on the picture you want to display. To give it a polished look, you can either get it wet or use a rock paint to make it look shiny.
