What is Fordite and why is it so cool?

Fordite, also known as motorcity agate, motor agate, or Detroit agate. It is a lapidarist term for polished pieces of finely-layered paint masses from automobile factories. The masses consist of automotive paint which has hardened sufficiently for many years to be cut and polished. It's the most common name for this Michigan-made product, but there are no known direct ties to the Ford Motor Company. Fordite is much easier to pronounce than 'General Motorsite' or 'Chrystlerite'. The history of Fordite is directly related to the paint and enamel process for the automobiles. The beginnings of Fordite started with the invention of the "spray gun" in the 1930's. The spray gun application was much faster than the brush method and what used to take over a month, could be done in a third of the time. Around 1955 General Motors started applying re-flow acrylic paints to vehicle bodies. These acrylics had a gloss finish, this material had to be baked at 360 degrees for an hour to cure the paint. The re-flow acrylics were much more cost efficient and led to a smoother finish.

The paint continued to build up until it obstructed the production process at which point the tracks and skids would be removed and replaced. This baking process allowed the paint to become a stable product suitable for cutting and polishing in to Fordite.The paint slag was often tossed aside and disposed of until some of the workers discovered what occurred with you sliced through the material vertically. The assembly line workers would knock off pieces to take home to their families and soon the word was out about this unique paint byproduct also known as a slag.

Factories like the River Rouge plant in Detroit began to see rock and mineral enthusiasts arriving at the plants to help remove paint slag. The material produced great variations of color and unique color patterns. It was in demand from car enthusiasts.

Why is Fordite so expensive?

Believe it or not, this is actually rarer than most stones, including diamonds! Why is it so rare? Well, today cars are not painted in the same way, so the old paint that has been chiseled off the assembly line and booths are no longer available. Simply speaking, there are limited quantities of this unique piece of history!