Post by Jason on Mar 1, 2011 10:42:17 GMT -5
I have not posted in awhile and wanted to add something new. I don't have much agates or material used for cutting so I hope you don't mind me posting just a regular specimen. I traded a amethyst crystal for this selenite at a gem show a few years back. If I remember correctly it's from peru. I had never seen a selenite like this before when I got it. Like most of us I had seen and bpught the selenite balls. The blades on this were fantastic being completely transparent. I was told last year or the year before that an earthquake in Peru had collapsed part of the mine but not sure how much weight I would put on that info. You can still find it for sale in many places.
I ended up selling this specimen last year and since I don't really have anything new I must resort to pics of specimens from the past which I hope you don't mind either. This was by far the hardest thing I have ever shipped in the mail and will probably be the hardest I will ever have to do. Imagine shipping an item exactly like this made of glass..with the thin blades all over it. The packaging and care needed to be taken with something like glass would be great. Now imagine something 5,10, 20? times softer and more brittle than glass. With selenite being a 1 1/2-2 in hardness I had never shipped or sent anything as brittle as this. Only thing I can think of that would be harder wouyld be natrolite. Lucky for me and my packaging ;D ;D skills it arrived intact..(whew..thank god) .
Some pics I took a while back.
I ended up selling this specimen last year and since I don't really have anything new I must resort to pics of specimens from the past which I hope you don't mind either. This was by far the hardest thing I have ever shipped in the mail and will probably be the hardest I will ever have to do. Imagine shipping an item exactly like this made of glass..with the thin blades all over it. The packaging and care needed to be taken with something like glass would be great. Now imagine something 5,10, 20? times softer and more brittle than glass. With selenite being a 1 1/2-2 in hardness I had never shipped or sent anything as brittle as this. Only thing I can think of that would be harder wouyld be natrolite. Lucky for me and my packaging ;D ;D skills it arrived intact..(whew..thank god) .
Some pics I took a while back.