stefan
Cave Dweller
Member since January 2005
Posts: 14,095
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Post by stefan on Mar 7, 2005 11:43:32 GMT -5
Doc- I'll take the pix tonight- But Now I'm thinking- Can they heat treat this in the matrix? I'll try to get a good pic and let you decide! Yes Mel Fisher was Quite a man- What he has done for treasure seekers everywhere is remarkable- I love his story! I vaugly remeber that Key West incident- Seems like his spirit will live on forever! If I remeber correctly- the red beryl came from a new (10 or so years ago) mine in china or russia- It was a featured rock at a local show and only 2 dealers had it- One was selling Non- matrixed chunks for like $2000 a caret (uncut!) the other guy only had stuff in the matrix and It was going for like $50 for a small (1/4 inch) crystal in a fist size chunk- 2 years later my sister came across some at a friends shop- $10 bucks for the same size matrixed chunk- Not sure what the going price is on the crystals only- Oh here I go rambling on again- sorry!
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Post by Alice on Mar 7, 2005 12:21:55 GMT -5
Doc, you mentioned the Atocha. Is it possible that Mel Fisher came to montreal in the early 1990's with the atocha treasure to the Birks store? It's very possible that I met him if he did in fact travel with the treasure. I packaged up some of that treasure to be shipped to their next location (I don't remember where it was being shipped to).
The atocha is one facinating story.
I remember they had a large silver bar sitting on a table and they would tell everyone "if you're able to pick this bar up without sliding it off the table, it's yours!", of course no one could do it because of the angles.
And they also had the worlds greenest emeralds. I'm wondering if salt water had anything to do with the color.
A lot of interesting artifacts!
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Post by Alice on Mar 7, 2005 15:47:46 GMT -5
Doc, thanks for letting me know about oiling. It's good to be informed about such things.
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Post by Alice on Mar 7, 2005 18:25:25 GMT -5
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stefan
Cave Dweller
Member since January 2005
Posts: 14,095
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Post by stefan on Mar 7, 2005 19:02:48 GMT -5
WOW that big one is looking SWEET Even it you can't facet them they are still great looking! Doc here is the red beryl and a green beryl (emerald) I don't think this stuff was heat treat but I could not find where the info on it was (think it was lost in one of the basement floods) Sorry if the pix suck- My camera just does not like closeups!
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Post by Alice on Mar 7, 2005 19:12:29 GMT -5
I'm actually thinking of taking a hammer to that big one. It's just too big. Or just remove it entirely from the barrel.
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Post by Tweetiepy on Mar 7, 2005 22:17:55 GMT -5
It's funny how I don,t think of emeralds & rubies as simply rocks. When you see them faceted they look like glass. But those are amazing...
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Post by Alice on Mar 7, 2005 22:57:23 GMT -5
What's amazing, are the people that are able to facet those rocks into a gem that look like glass.
I'll take more pictures on Day 7 of tumbling if anyone's interested. I'll more then likely be recharging the grit on day 7
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stefan
Cave Dweller
Member since January 2005
Posts: 14,095
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Post by stefan on Mar 8, 2005 9:05:04 GMT -5
Oh yes please keep us posted- I am fasinated!
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Post by Alice on Mar 8, 2005 14:29:40 GMT -5
Pup, I got the emerald, ruby, and sapphire mix in today. It's hard to tell which are rubies and which are sapphires. Guess I'll get a surprise when they start wearing down. I'm finding myself picking though all the emeralds (I love emeralds, especially the dark green "glowy" ones). I'm thinking of picking through my barrel, and removing the fillers, and all the light blue emeralds (I think they're called aquamarines?), and throwing in the ruby / sapphire mix. I'll save the blue, the really light green and the white emeralds as fillers for other batches (I'm not really crazy about those ones) and just filling the barrel with rocks that show some of the darker green and ones that are entirely covered with matrix. one emerald I got today, kind of shows how emeralds are formed and are surrounded by the matrix. It's really interesting. Pictures are posted on this page (sorry about the quality) andy321.proboards16.com/index.cgi?board=Pictures&action=display&thread=1110655754
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stefan
Cave Dweller
Member since January 2005
Posts: 14,095
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Post by stefan on Mar 8, 2005 15:46:18 GMT -5
WOW Alice that looked awesome! One thing- SCALE- How big was that?
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rollingstone
starting to spend too much on rocks
Member since July 2009
Posts: 236
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Post by rollingstone on Mar 8, 2005 15:56:49 GMT -5
It's hard to tell which are rubies and which are sapphires. In a mix of sapphires and rubies, the red and pink ones are rubies; all other colours are sapphires. To distinguish between sapphires, they usually state the colour, ie. blue sapphire, yellow sapphire, etc. If you've got emeralds and aquamarine mixed in with the rubies and sapphires, I wouldn't have a clue how to distinguish them
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Post by Alice on Mar 8, 2005 16:01:43 GMT -5
It's not a huge rock. It's about 1 1/4 inches long X 3/4 inches high (a little larger then the diameter of a bottle of liquid paper). I should have put a quarter in the picture, but didn't think of it. the close up emerald in the picture is a little larger then the diameter of pencil, and about 1/2 inch long. My son says he's going to try to get the emerald out with a file. I wished him luck
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Post by Alice on Mar 8, 2005 16:13:58 GMT -5
Rolling stone
The sapphire / ruby mix... I washed and I scrubbed them. Some of them I was able to see some blue, some purple, and some red, but the majority there was no color to be seen other then the rough (they pretty much look identical).
My son's home from school and is very anxious to open up the barrel so that we can throw in the rubies / sapphires LOL I'm happy to see that he's getting back into tumbling. It's a good thing too! He needs a hobby other then Nintendo and TV.
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Post by puppie96 on Mar 8, 2005 23:31:37 GMT -5
Alice, just keep throwing them back. Treat them like any other rock, assume that you need to smoothe these things out and that they will keep improving. They are pretty now and they will remain pretty throughout the process, only even more so. These things are fun! I promise you, though, that fun will turn to frustrating if you try to rush them, because you will realize yours could be a lot better. You will see pictures of other people's, you'll stay up late and really search up a lot of sites where they are selling polished & tumbled stones, and you'll see some polished ems that look like yours could, or else on Ebay, or here or wherever. You really are not going to destroy facetable stuff. The only thing to really be concerned about is what is in the teeny tiny stuff when you rinse out each load. I even have an extra fine strainer I use to re-strain the residue at the bottom of the bucket after I've put the load through the colander. (BTW, I have a feeling many on the board think I'm too casual about the whole tumbling process, but I think a lot of stuff doesn't merit the attention it is given, and I am super obsessive about other stuff like this.) Anyhow, your really nice looking clear crystals are going to be in the gravel and those, you don't want to get away. Just keep throwing back those gray stones. Don't worry too much about the ruby and sapphire. If it is red it is ruby. The rest is sapphire. I've actually had a gray emerald go through with a whole load of the ruby & sapphire mix and the gray emerald finally showed green and didn't get destroyed. Looking at your photos tempts me to start up some more...but I might get some argument from others who suffered through this obsession. pup
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Post by docone31 on Mar 8, 2005 23:53:01 GMT -5
Puppie, I agree with you. I got into this "hobby" to tumble enough of the stones to facet them. I always had a feeling that a lot of emeralds were discarded for gemstones as they did not meet a certain criterion. I do not think I have ever come close to the final polish a lot of us have accomplished but once. It was my first time and I think by accident. Tumbling has since become a kind of alternate obsession. I have also met some really neat folks. You can destroy a gemstone with too much tumbling. The shock of tumbling induces fracturing. These do not show up untill the stone is faceted. Mine run is so plentiful, it is ok to just tumble untill untill a stone becomes polished. Saphires, and rubies take forever. Emeralds are another tough one. I think, ideally, for a well polished emerald, the bbl should be completely just emerald. The little chips that strain out, I use for filler with other batches. I had two tumblers, one cab station, and faceter going at one point. It was fun. It was exciting. I incorporated it into my business and it is now not so new. I sure did learn a lot though. You will too Alice. It has just begun.
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Post by puppie96 on Mar 9, 2005 3:28:50 GMT -5
Doc, I learned a lot from your posts back when I was doing this a year or so ago. It took a while to finally get my ems to a point that I considered "finished." I think that because you had other goals, skills, and equipment besides tumbling for tumbling's sake alone, your approach to the ems was different from mine -- your goal being to expose the facetable stone and not worry about the rest, mine to end up with a professional looking well polished tumble batch. Of course, the "treasure hunt" aspect was part of it too, and I was always on the alert for pretty green crystals popping out. I would still take them through to the end and polish them, though, and didn't seem to lose much bulk in the finer grinds. They are lots of fun. those damn corundums though, belong in a barrel labeled themroxsux. I've got a teaspoon or so of tiny polished ones in different colors and a whole lotta junk!
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Post by Alice on Mar 9, 2005 9:56:45 GMT -5
Thanks Pup I'll keep throwing them back until I'm happy with them.
My son and I went through the barrel yesterday and got rid of the fillers and the larger emeralds, and replaced them with the ruby, sapphire and emerald mix. We were picky as to which ones would go in the barrel.
This morning I looked through some of the rough that didn't make it into the barrel yesterday, and there are a few that I sort of wish I had thrown in (the light conditions weren't great when we sorted through them).
One of them in particular is the size of a quarter, has very little matrix on it (very little compared to all the other rocks), and the green color is just georgeous. It's not clear, but the green just glows! Maybe it'll throw it in the next time we open the barrel. Alice
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Post by puppie96 on Mar 9, 2005 13:04:55 GMT -5
I'd vote for tossing it in when you can. If you lose as much bulk as I did, you will soon have plenty of room for more.
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Post by Alice on Mar 9, 2005 15:40:46 GMT -5
I was just playing around with the nice green one, and took a small chisel to it (chisel made for wood). Wow, that black matrix is pretty easy to take off. There's a few spots where it's hard to get to, but all in all it's coming out real nice. I'm thinking at this rate it would do well in just fine grit and somewhat keep it's shape. I'll keep everyone posted on what I decide to do with it Alice
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