Post by puppie96 on Dec 16, 2003 4:12:19 GMT -5
I hope somebody can help me out here, but all this is going to sound really dumb.
I've been trying to tumble sapphire & ruby. (Surprise.) As time has gone along, I've discovered that many rounded pieces that even look iridescent (that doesn't look right, oh well) have still not shed the "shell" of hard black (sometimes other colored) stuff around them -- I can see spots where it's chipped away and you can see the glassy looking stuff underneath.
Here's my question: for those of you who have been doing the sapphire thing, does this sound like what you have seen? Next question: Is this something you'd see in other stones, say garnet, a rounded stone that seemed to shed it's shell like an eggshell?
I am very puzzled, because in my very first tumble ever, I had a rounded alluvial looking stone with a fracture and a small crystalline area sticking out -- during the tumble the fractured area split off and turned into a pretty little gemstone in a sort of orangey/rust red. Eventually the dull brown/black outer surface began to crack and the gem underneath was visible. finally it was all off and after polishing, it is a dark red stone which is pretty clear when you hold it up to the light, and it took the best polish of anything in the batch. I THOUGHT but I am not certain, that I picked it up in a creek in an area where there were supposedly garnets. It is remotely possible, though, that this was actually a saph/ruby rough that I picked up at a rock show that I got mixed up with the other. I'm just not sure.
So. If anybody was patient enough to get through all of this and make any sense of it, what do you think, is it
(a) garnets and saph/rubies both look like this,
(b) I got a saph/ruby mixed up with other stuff,
(c) garnets are somehow sneaking into my various orders of saph/ruby rough.
I would really, really like your opinions.
Thank you so much.
I love this board!!!
I've been trying to tumble sapphire & ruby. (Surprise.) As time has gone along, I've discovered that many rounded pieces that even look iridescent (that doesn't look right, oh well) have still not shed the "shell" of hard black (sometimes other colored) stuff around them -- I can see spots where it's chipped away and you can see the glassy looking stuff underneath.
Here's my question: for those of you who have been doing the sapphire thing, does this sound like what you have seen? Next question: Is this something you'd see in other stones, say garnet, a rounded stone that seemed to shed it's shell like an eggshell?
I am very puzzled, because in my very first tumble ever, I had a rounded alluvial looking stone with a fracture and a small crystalline area sticking out -- during the tumble the fractured area split off and turned into a pretty little gemstone in a sort of orangey/rust red. Eventually the dull brown/black outer surface began to crack and the gem underneath was visible. finally it was all off and after polishing, it is a dark red stone which is pretty clear when you hold it up to the light, and it took the best polish of anything in the batch. I THOUGHT but I am not certain, that I picked it up in a creek in an area where there were supposedly garnets. It is remotely possible, though, that this was actually a saph/ruby rough that I picked up at a rock show that I got mixed up with the other. I'm just not sure.
So. If anybody was patient enough to get through all of this and make any sense of it, what do you think, is it
(a) garnets and saph/rubies both look like this,
(b) I got a saph/ruby mixed up with other stuff,
(c) garnets are somehow sneaking into my various orders of saph/ruby rough.
I would really, really like your opinions.
Thank you so much.
I love this board!!!