riverrock
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Post by riverrock on Apr 19, 2013 10:42:27 GMT -5
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Fossilman
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Post by Fossilman on Apr 19, 2013 10:56:07 GMT -5
Nice! Are they rocks or glass?
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riverrock
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Post by riverrock on Apr 19, 2013 12:37:53 GMT -5
They are rocks that are encased in glass. The rock piece is very small i t works like a magnifying glass .
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jamesp
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Post by jamesp on Apr 19, 2013 13:01:51 GMT -5
And the metal work/design is out of the box and desirable for crystals,tumbles,eggs,spheres,fossils and specimens.Those are incredible.
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Post by helens on Apr 19, 2013 13:44:05 GMT -5
They can't be regular rocks or they can't be encased in glass.
I have done EXTENSIVE experiments trying to get rocks in glass, and there's no way to do it without destroying the rock.
Soft glass melts at 1350 degrees F. Borosilicate around 1750 degrees F. Rocks start cracking, no matter how slowly you bring the heat up, at around 750 degrees F. How's that going to work?
Further, if that were glass, there would be bubbles, LOTS of bubbles no matter what. This is because the glass COE (coefficiency of expansion) will NEVER precisely match the COE of a multi-mineral rock, each of which would have its own COE (which is what causes the fractures at higher temperatures). What that means is that as the glass cools down, it will start to tear that rock apart, by itself, as it shrinks at a different rate during cooldown than the rock. And lastly, trapped air will try to escape... because heat excites molecules. This is a fact and not theory. The air inside the rock caused by prehistoric fractures at the time the rock formed, will expand... and try to make it's way out. There's NO way around this either, and no matter how diligent you are, you cannot pick all the air bubbles out. This has virtually no air bubbles.
Those are either encased in Lucite/plastics... (you can test this by super heating a wire and poking somewhere in the back and see if it starts to melt.... since the wire will melt long before glass would, nothing will happen if it's glass. If it smells AT ALL, it's not glass), or they are NOT rocks, and some chemical mix GROWN IN THE GLASS.
I'd love to know which it is... so please do try the hot wire/needle/pin test:)!!
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jamesp
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Post by jamesp on Apr 19, 2013 13:56:01 GMT -5
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Post by helens on Apr 19, 2013 14:48:01 GMT -5
My son got one of those phantom quartz points... and it looks exactly like a red moss inside a quartz crystal. I did a whole bunch of searching back then because I was sooo curious how it was done. Definitely glass, but I can't remember HOW they did it... tho I do remember seeing the method.
No time to look again right now... but it's very curious.
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riverrock
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Post by riverrock on Apr 19, 2013 14:56:09 GMT -5
Then PHANTOM QUARTZ is what is is i guess. I broke one when i was putting a clap on it and felt like glass. Helen if you send me your ship to address i will send you one to look at it.
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Post by helens on Apr 19, 2013 16:30:17 GMT -5
Riverrock, that's very generous of you... but I see you are in Canada, and your shipping is pricey to the US. Also, I'm leaving Monday for Las Vegas for 2 weeks, I won't be back til May 6, so mailing me something now is a bad idea, I won't be here.
How about you do the hot metal test on the back to see if it's resin/plastic/epoxy first? It shouldn't take long, just get any metal (safety pin, needle, wire) super red hot (hold it with pliers not your hand!), and touch to the back of one of the pendants and see if anything happens. If you do that to a piece of glass, any glass, absolutely nothing will happen at all. But if it's composite material, then you'll see smoking... it might smell, or it may melt.
That's the fastest way to see if it's glass or not. If it IS glass, then we have to figure out HOW they did that!!!
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riverrock
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Post by riverrock on Apr 19, 2013 17:08:37 GMT -5
I took a lighter to one and no melting or no smell , did no harm to it. And I don,t mind mailing one out to you.
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riverrock
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Post by riverrock on Apr 19, 2013 17:09:49 GMT -5
This way I would know as well when someone ask me.
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jamesp
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Post by jamesp on Apr 19, 2013 18:07:23 GMT -5
I am looking at a site in China.Those may well be quartz.
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jamesp
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Post by jamesp on Apr 19, 2013 18:42:57 GMT -5
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jamesp
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Post by jamesp on Apr 19, 2013 18:45:44 GMT -5
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Post by helens on Apr 20, 2013 8:04:39 GMT -5
riverrock, a lighter wouldn't do it... you need a heated wire. You'd have to hold a lighter on it a long time to tell, especially if it had a high melting temp. That's why the red hot metal... you know you are over 1000 degrees when it's red hot but not molten.
I'd love to see one... but I'd try to take it up in a kiln to see changes, then hit it with a torch to see if it's glass. Do you know any lampworkers where you are in Canada who could do a test for you?
Either way, I'll look into it more when I'm back:).
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Post by helens on Apr 20, 2013 8:09:38 GMT -5
Ahhh!!! I JUST remembered what that stuff was called... Strawberry Quartz.
And I found a wiki that said it was manmade, and glass. So the stuff IS made into glass.... but how. I'm wondering if they are melting the glass in crucibles with minerals... which when they expand form the mossy effect?
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Post by gingerkid on Apr 20, 2013 8:54:18 GMT -5
Hi, riverrock! Please don't burn your cabs!! Those are very nice cabs that your friend picked up for you. :cheesy: The ones with the reddish-colored inclusions might be iron oxide or hematite platelets in quartz. The cabs with the green and pink "fluffy" inclusions could be lodolite in quartz. It's sometimes called "Garden Quartz." I love quartz with inclusions!! There are a lot of fakes out there, too. Here's some sites you may want to check out for extra clues of what you may have in your cabs: www.quartzpage.de/inc_text.htmlwww.bwsmigel.info/geol.115.essays/gemology.included.quartz.html
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deedolce
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Post by deedolce on Apr 20, 2013 9:59:53 GMT -5
I learn so much here. Very cool quartz~
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jamesp
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Post by jamesp on Apr 20, 2013 12:04:59 GMT -5
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Apr 20, 2013 14:26:30 GMT -5
The Brazilian "lodolite" stones come from pieces of genuine quartz at their attachment points to the colorful matrix on which they grew. The backs are always rough matrix, not smooth quartz, on those.
A scratch test will usually work to determine glass from quartz (lightly scratch a piece of known quartz in a hidden area). Quartz will easily make a deep scratch in most glass. There are some harder-than-normal glass recipes that approach quartz in hardness, as well as fused quartz, but those aren't so easy to work as normal, softer glass types.
The first photo looks like moulded glass. I know they used to make "sulfide" glass marbles (very collectible), so perhaps bits of something else can have been placed in there. The fake tourmalinated and rutilated "quartz" piece are mostly combinations of colored glass (no real rutile or tourmaline). The Chinese wikipedia also had an article on putting limonite into synthetic quartz to make "rutile," but the link now seems to be blocked.
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