jamesp
Cave Dweller
Member since October 2012
Posts: 36,165
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Post by jamesp on Oct 19, 2017 11:07:40 GMT -5
Great thread James! Hank that's a good point on muriatic acid! I threw some pretty calcite of various colors into a tumbler with a mix of other stones last year. I let it roll my standard month or so with 60/90 and then checked it. Honestly the calcite was gone!!! LOL Oh well, maybe I get more snd try the acid trick! Fluorite in the rotary not much different Bill. I rotary tumbled the fluorite with small rocks, pea gravel to slow the wear down. I had put 2 or 3 fluorites in with a normal agate batch and noticed in maybe a week or two it was going to disappear quickly. By the way. I have been using those knapped obsidian flakes you sent me as test morsels at various stages to see the change in finish. I had tumbled a big bunch of them in coarse SiC and could drop them in the vibe and then pull them to see the progress. They were so thin I could inspect the chipping and sharp edge frosting rate too. Invaluable to the experiments. www.worldofgaia.net was by far the finest orange calcite I ordered in from 3 different companies. It is the one in the photo above. I had to question whether it was a real rock and not hard candy. It was like $8 for a half pound. On Ebay. Says 1 to 1.5 inch rough. It is some kind of pretty stone. Hope it's natural and not artificially colored.
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jamesp
Cave Dweller
Member since October 2012
Posts: 36,165
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Post by jamesp on Oct 19, 2017 11:13:41 GMT -5
Whenever I see irregular pieces of Calcite with a shine I know it,s had an acid bath. I suspect that some folks are also treating clusters with the same bath or they are spraying the acid on, then washing it off. That way they could control the degree of etching. Have a lot of Calcite from the Mercury Mines between Lajitas and Terlingua collected 25 years ago or so. Most of it does not have a high luster and could use a light bath to shine it up. Have debated doing that but have hesitated as I am not sure I would sell it as natural. Probably would use the word "enhanced with acid". A lot of the Calcite crystal from Terlingua have the phantoms, kind of nice. Good luck with Calcite tumbling, 220 and check every 6 hours or so, maybe a good bit of clay. Henry Perfect Henry. Thanks for the tip on the recipe. Muriatic bottle is on site. 220 too ! Maybe you can tell me if the calcite in the above photo is natural in color ? It says it was from Mexico. It is so shiny. Had to be acid etched. Ah, I just broke a piece in half. It is not shiny at the break. This has to be treated with acid. Not that it matters, it is beautiful in color and not fractured much.
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Post by HankRocks on Oct 19, 2017 12:29:15 GMT -5
The color looks ok to me. I would say it's definitely been acid treated, it does not shine like that on natural breaks. It probably has a waxy feel to the surface. I am not aware of any colorization methods for Calcite.
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jamesp
Cave Dweller
Member since October 2012
Posts: 36,165
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Post by jamesp on Oct 19, 2017 18:44:34 GMT -5
The color looks ok to me. I would say it's definitely been acid treated, it does not shine like that on natural breaks. It probably has a waxy feel to the surface. I am not aware of any colorization methods for Calcite. No doubt Henry/ It has been acidified. 100%. But, the color is delicious. I'll try tumbling it. Bet it won't take a polish for me. Then I'll cheat and acidify it by gosh. Thanks for the acid awareness trip.
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jamesp
Cave Dweller
Member since October 2012
Posts: 36,165
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Post by jamesp on Oct 19, 2017 18:58:14 GMT -5
Fluorite in regression. Yep, when you arrive at polish - pull it. After it hits polish it starts to bruise/microfrost. No doubt about it. Makes fluorite a fast tumble but you got to know when to remove it. It is the biggest piece tumbled at 2 inches which makes it more vulnerable for frost damage. 48 hours. Best finish was at 28 to 35 hours w/my machine. Nasty on pointed end or cleavage has effect This soft heat treated rhyolite at 48 hours is still improving. Lamp outline visible. But pits are in it. still running. Will see. I think a Lot-O would polish this stuff. Obsidian got a nice polish but a far cry from the shine Chuck's Lot-O put on his obsidian. I think my machine is micro frost or bruising it. Too much impact force. Still running, doubtful of improvement. Betting 2 days in Lot-O with AO 14,000 and good media would do super wet on it.
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Post by Garage Rocker on Oct 19, 2017 19:14:00 GMT -5
Good, I had a big dinner tonight. No room for crow pie. Good information, thanks for putting in the leg work!
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jamesp
Cave Dweller
Member since October 2012
Posts: 36,165
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Post by jamesp on Oct 21, 2017 4:18:32 GMT -5
Good, I had a big dinner tonight. No room for crow pie. Good information, thanks for putting in the leg work! Been letting it all run way past due time. Really want to inspect bruises on the soft stuff. Impressed with the faster breakdown time of the garnet. Problem is finding garnet in finer grades. Got some big rocks to put in the vibe. They should succeed.
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