eruyanik
starting to shine!
Member since March 2018
Posts: 32
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Post by eruyanik on Mar 31, 2018 10:17:03 GMT -5
it looked to me as a kind of coral but the stone weighed dearly. found some similarities with the rough zircon. look at the last photo! galaxies galaxies.. everywhere galaxies everywhere stars.. all those colors on the rock pointing out the galaxies.. the stars.. some stray comets.. Attachments:
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Fossilman
Cave Dweller
Member since January 2009
Posts: 20,709
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Post by Fossilman on Mar 31, 2018 15:25:01 GMT -5
Window it for ID...
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Post by pauls on Mar 31, 2018 16:06:18 GMT -5
If it is noticably heavy then it could be Zircon, it could also be Garnet or Ruby. Or something else.
It seems to be the right shape for a worn Zircon crystal.
You will need to do a few basic tests to narrow it down. Specific Gravity will give you a number that you can compare with the SG of your possible minerals. You will need really accurate scales to do this, accuracy of at least .01g but .001g would be better. Hardness, Ruby is really hard you should be able to eliminate that with this test. Optical tests, Zircon has a high refractive index, but being dark it might be difficult to test this stone. This is unscientific but it works for me when hunting Zircons. If you place it on the ground do the flaws and cracks in the stone catch the sunlight and reflect it back to you. I walk towards the sun and pick up everything that reflects back at me, I come back and walk the same patch of ground at different times of the day, as the sun moves new stones pick up the light.
Polish a small "window" so you can see inside the stone.
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eruyanik
starting to shine!
Member since March 2018
Posts: 32
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Post by eruyanik on Mar 31, 2018 16:21:32 GMT -5
If it is noticably heavy then it could be Zircon, it could also be Garnet or Ruby. Or something else. It seems to be the right shape for a worn Zircon crystal. You will need to do a few basic tests to narrow it down. Specific Gravity will give you a number that you can compare with the SG of your possible minerals. You will need really accurate scales to do this, accuracy of at least .01g but .001g would be better. Hardness, Ruby is really hard you should be able to eliminate that with this test. Optical tests, Zircon has a high refractive index, but being dark it might be difficult to test this stone. This is unscientific but it works for me when hunting Zircons. If you place it on the ground do the flaws and cracks in the stone catch the sunlight and reflect it back to you. I walk towards the sun and pick up everything that reflects back at me, I come back and walk the same patch of ground at different times of the day, as the sun moves new stones pick up the light. Polish a small "window" so you can see inside the stone. thank you for the great details and explanations! i liked it a lot that how you hunt zircons down:) opening a window is a bit worry to me as long as the stone is beutiful this way but i will try to check other choices. refractivity is the simplest one with the basic hardness test on the other hand! with my best regards.
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