Break your own geodes

You've seen the ads with the neatly bisceted geodes revealing their sparkling interiors, haven't you? I implore you to resist the allure of the easily cracked open geode. From hard experience I know that geodes simply don't pop open after a few sharp blows of a hammer. When I got my geodes I wrapped one in an old magazine and carefully hit it a few times with a clawhammer, fully expecting it simply split open. Apparently I didn't take into consideration the millions of years it took for the earth to produce such a thing. I hit it harder. Nothing. Sometime later I took the two geodes outside, put them on a tree stump, and hit one of them somewhat hard with a sledgehammer. Nothing. I hit it a little harder. Still nothing. Soon I was wailing away like John Henry driving railroad spikes. Eventually the damn thing split, revealing nothing. Not all geodes have crystals in them. So I wailed away at the second until it cracked open. This one had crystals, but they were a bit uninspiring. So be warned.