Fordite or Detroit Agate is highly sought after by collectors, but it is not actually a stone; it’s a piece of automobile history.
Henry Ford may have said you can have any color car so long as it is black, but paint color choices have long been important to car lovers. Lacquer replaced the slow hand brushing process by being able to be sprayed on during the production process. Soon after enamel paints were introduced, that were both hand sprayed and baked on a car body or other parts on the paint line. Acrylic paints in vibrant colors used this same process and followed.
As the body or parts were hand sprayed, paint would build up on the skids and tracks used for transporting them down the paint line. Many layers of different color overspray would build up and get repeatedly baked, forming a hardened slag. Over time, the slag became too thick and had to be removed because it interfered with the process.
Soon it was realized that this material could be cut and polished like gemstones into artistic works suitable for jewelry settings, and factory workers began taking pieces home as colorful souvenirs for their families. Fordite is now a general term for a material made up of paint layers formed during the hand spraying years in auto plants.
View the complete article here:- Fordite – Beauty Left Behind On The Factory Paint Line | The Old Motor
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