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Post by stoner on Sept 16, 2007 13:48:55 GMT -5
Hey everyone, I need an opinion on the cabs pictured here. A Frind from the website my store is on asked me if I thought the large oval in the center of the pic was serpentine or "honey jade". These cabs are from an ebay auction she's looking at buying. My opinion is that they are some kind of generic stone that is dyed different colors. All of the larger ovals and circles are pretty much featureless, just different colors. What do you guys think?
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erbojones
has rocks in the head
Member since October 2006
Posts: 659
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Post by erbojones on Sept 16, 2007 13:55:44 GMT -5
I think they look reconstituted and/or dyed but I'm no expert just my gut feeling.
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Post by Bikerrandy on Sept 16, 2007 16:29:42 GMT -5
They look almost like cabbed quartzite to me. lol
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Post by LCARS on Sept 16, 2007 20:58:52 GMT -5
With the possible exception of maybe the light blue one at the bottom and a couple of the smaller ones, they all look like naturally colored quartzites to me. I've seen quite an array of hues and tones of colored quartz based stone that I never thought could be naturally occuring but I doubt anyone snuck over to the beach while I was sleeping and dyed all the quartzites just to mess with my head... ...Or did they? ;D There's one way to tell for sure if they're dyed. Flip one over that you think might be dyded and put a drop of sodium hypochlorate (bleach) on it and see if the color starts bleaching out on the surface within a few seconds. If it does, then it's dyed. If it doesn't then the color comes from a stable chemical bond in the rock itself. Note that dyes based on metal salts may not react the same way to bleach and they can in fact darken or change color either permanently or temporarilly when exposed to bleach or acids and don't ask how I came to know that. Of course, if you don't want to risk ruining the backside of one then you could try a fluoroscopy method. Most dyes have a distinguishable "residue" when viewed under UV (flourescent black light tube). If you have yellow sharp shooter glasses or yellow tinted safety lenses they will filter out the purple haze and let you clearly see any fluorescence caused by the permeation of an artifical dye into the stone. Different components of a dye will permeate to different depths and may be detectable to the eye under UV. That about exhausts my ideas for that, hope it helps. Rob
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Post by docone31 on Sept 16, 2007 21:09:37 GMT -5
It is an industrial standard to dye stones, either irridiated, heat coloured, or chemically treated. I see many obvious examples of dying in the photo above. An example of dying, glass is turned yellow by flaming silver. This colour cannot be chemically withdrawn. It is almost an exception to find a gemstone in a setting that has not be "treated". Onyx in most jewelery settings is actually dyed agate. Why is "dying" not publicized? The industry has for so long treated stones, that when it became an issue, the past practice became a current practice. Even diamonds are treated. A diamond can be in the setting when a repair is done. However, with a large VSG1, it is not that uncommon to put heat on a prong over the stone, and after pickling, the diamond has a dark line in it, or it becomes cloudy. It had been treated and the heat of soldering on a retip, or prong, burned the opticon within the stone. I have had it happen. People are shocked to find out their stone had a flaw. Same with emeralds, rubies, saphires, agates, zircon, amythist, alexandrite, and on, and on. The dyes used are not like clothing dye. They do not usually wash out. Again, there some that do. Depends on the source. Irridiating today is the most common dye technique. That definately does not wash out.
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Post by parfive on Sept 16, 2007 22:36:49 GMT -5
My first impression is they're natural. I don't see anything there that warrants the effort involved in dyeing stone.
Did the auction state these were rocks or stones? Some of 'em look more like glass to me, especially the clear one w/blue right below the 'honey jade'.
Rich
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Post by snowdog on Sept 16, 2007 23:58:34 GMT -5
not knowing where they came from , I'd prob say most are "remade/ dyed/ etc." --- about the only two that look natural to me are the upper left ( gray -- petosky ? ) and at 1 o'clock from the center yellow ( another petosky - little round one ) --- seems like so many cabs come out of India/ China these days look nice but don't have that " natural " look to them --- see 10,000 tigereye beads that look exactly the same and have a clear depth to them that I can't match ??
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Post by stoner on Sept 17, 2007 11:46:35 GMT -5
Thanks guys. You made some good points about the overseas cabs and whether or not they are dyed or just different color quartzite. One thing for certain, the one in question isn't serpentine or jade, right?
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Sabre52
Cave Dweller
Me and my gal, Rosie
Member since August 2005
Posts: 20,484
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Post by Sabre52 on Sept 17, 2007 15:34:39 GMT -5
Ed; I think everyone above had made very good points. Quartzite is a common material and comes in all those colors and some or all could certainly be quartzite that is quite natural. However, I have also seen dyed quartz tumbles for sale out here in shows that look very similar to the cabs you've pictured and the very homogeneous nature of many of those stones makes me lean towards at least some of the larger cabs being dyed stones or as someone mentioned, glass of some sort.....Mel
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