Labradorite

[keithw]

Hi all. New here, been tumbling for a year, so, still new. Labradorite finds in a salted bucket.
My question: would labradorite be hard enough to tumble with amethysts? TIA!

[chris1956]

Welcome from Missouri.  Lots of tumblers that probably have the answer to your question.   I haven't tumbled Labradorite.  Just finishing up some amethyst and it was very hard.    

[rockjunquie]

Aug 26, 2024 11:39:17 GMT -5 keithw said:

Hi all. New here, been tumbling for a year, so, still new. Labradorite finds in a salted bucket.
My question: would labradorite be hard enough to tumble with amethysts? TIA!

Follow this link and the directions found there to get posting your pictures. 

forum.rocktumblinghobby.com/thread/99564/members-using-cloudinary-upload-button

Welcome, BTW!

[vegasjames]

Aug 26, 2024 11:39:17 GMT -5 keithw said:

Hi all. New here, been tumbling for a year, so, still new. Labradorite finds in a salted bucket.
My question: would labradorite be hard enough to tumble with amethysts? TIA!

Welcome from Southern Nevada.

I would not mix labradorite, a feldspar, with amethyst, a quartz.  Labradorite is a hardness of 6-6.5 as where amethyst is 7. And a difference of 1 is significant.

[chaosdsm]

Aug 26, 2024 11:39:17 GMT -5 keithw said:

Hi all. New here, been tumbling for a year, so, still new. Labradorite finds in a salted bucket.
My question: would labradorite be hard enough to tumble with amethysts? TIA!

Labradorite is typically too soft to mix with Amethyst, but the hardest Labradorite & the softest Amethyst could work together in a tumbler......   In general, any rock/mineral that has a hardness of 7 or higher can damage Labradorite.  Any rock/mineral that has a hardness of less than 6 can be damaged by Labradorite. 

Safe to tumble with Labradorite: this is not a comprehensive list by any means.... there are over 6000 known minerals and new ones are discovered every year. 

Amazonite 6-6½

Andesine 6-6½

Anorthoclase 6-6½

Benitoite 6-6½

Bixbyite 6-6½

Bytownite 6-6½

Chondroite 6-6½

Helvite 6-6½

Hyalophane 6-6½

Labradorite 6-6½

Marcasite 6-6½

Microcline 6-6½

Nephrite 6-6½

Norbergite 6-6½

Oligoclase 6-6½

Petalite 6-6½

Prehnite 6-6½

Pyrite 6-6½

Rutile 6-6½

Sanidine 6-6½

Smaragdite 6-6½

Sugilite 6-6½

Tantalite 6-6½

Xonotlite 6-6½

Zoisite 6-6½


Somewhat safe to tumble with Labradorite: meaning in the hardest form of these, they may scratch Labradorite.

Axinite 6½-7

Chalcedony 6½-7

Chrysoprase 6½-7

Diaspore 6½-7

Ferro-Axinite 6½-7

Gadolinite 6½-7

Grossular 6½-7

Hiddenite 6½-7

Jadeite 6½-7

Jasper 6½-7

Kornerupine 6½-7

Kunzite 6½-7

Mangan-Axinite 6½-7

Peridot 6½-7

Pollucite 6½-7

Serendibite 6½-7

Sinhalite 6½-7

Spodumene 6½-7

Tanzanite 6½-7

Thorianite 6½-7

Tinzenite 6½-7

Magnesio-Axinite 6½

Nambulite 6½

Vesuvianite 6½

Cassiterite 6-7

Clinozoisite 6-7

Epidote 6-7

Hancockite 6-7

Pyrolusite 6-7

Sogdianite 6-7


Most of these I've never even heard of before!

[hummingbirdstones]

Welcome from Northern Arizona!

[rocknuv]

To chaosdsm. What website do you use for the mohs hardness values? Thanks.

[chaosdsm]

I normally just do a google search, but since I love Labradorite, I thought I'd dig a little further.  That particular list came from IGS - International Gem Society - specifically from this page: www.gemsociety.org/article/select-gems-ordered-mohs-hardness/

[gemfeller]

While hardness would probably be a big issue, a more important one IMO is that Labradorite has perfect cleavage in two directions that intersect at approximately 90 degrees. Amethyst quartz is not only much harder but has no cleavage planes. Labradorite would likely end up as little broken chunks in a rotary tumbler especially.

[jasoninsd]

Looks like you got some answers to your question...so I'll just saw welcome to the forum from South Dakota!