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Post by washingtonrocks on Mar 8, 2015 21:14:34 GMT -5
Went to the spot where I've found some unusual Omphacite and came back with a few more specimens this afternoon. This is the only one I got around to cutting so far. This one's really unique in that the individual crystal formations can be seen in the matrix giving a spider-web or stained glass effect. My camera phone doesn't pick out detail too well. Thanks for looking.
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Fossilman
Cave Dweller
Member since January 2009
Posts: 20,711
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Post by Fossilman on Mar 8, 2015 21:25:24 GMT -5
Liking that!
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Post by snowmom on Mar 9, 2015 5:43:37 GMT -5
lovely- looks like stained glass. hope you take more pics of this one! as a matter of fact, amend that, I would love to see other samples of oomphacite, too, to compare what is typical with what is not (this slab?). You got my curiosity going. Gonna go look at pictures in a couple of search engines now. thanks for the post!
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Post by washingtonrocks on Mar 9, 2015 19:56:59 GMT -5
snowmom, I've posted these before, but here's a few more Omphacite samples that I've personally collected for comparison. These aren't the translucent variety like the stone above, but I do like the colors in these better. They're the inky green to nearly black opaque variety. Unfortunately, I only have a small collection compared to the Nephrites that I've collected. Some of these also contain Jadeite.
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Post by washingtonrocks on Mar 9, 2015 20:04:03 GMT -5
And here's a finished cab from material that's translucent, similar to the first specimen and found in the same location. This stuff's very crystaline.
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Post by snowmom on Mar 10, 2015 7:06:51 GMT -5
WOW! beautiful stuff, I need to learn more about this. Thanks for the photos.
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SirRoxalot
freely admits to licking rocks
Member since October 2003
Posts: 790
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Post by SirRoxalot on Mar 13, 2015 12:43:04 GMT -5
How do you distinguish omphacite from jade?
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Post by jakesrocks on Mar 13, 2015 16:35:25 GMT -5
Been many years since I've seen Omphacite, or even heard the name for that matter.
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Post by washingtonrocks on Mar 14, 2015 11:49:49 GMT -5
How do you distinguish omphacite from jade? SirRoxalot, The GIA has recently amended their definition for jade to include Omphacite as long as the stone is green in color, so semantically, this is jade...There's a Titanium heavy Omphacite that can be found here in Washington (and in Guatemala as well) that is blue, and as such, doesn't get the jade designation apparently, but maybe that will change at some point too. If blue Nephrite and Jadeite are considered "jades", why not Omphacite? Jadeite and Omphacite have nearly indistinguishable tangible characteristics and are often found intermixed anyway.
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Post by washingtonrocks on Mar 14, 2015 11:53:07 GMT -5
Been many years since I've seen Omphacite, or even heard the name for that matter. I've run into a lot of people in lapidary that have not even heard of Omphacite. Such an under appreciated stone!
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