Benathema
has rocks in the head
God chased me down and made sure I knew He was real June 20, 2022. I've been on a Divine Mission.
Member since November 2019
Posts: 703
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Post by Benathema on Dec 19, 2019 2:20:51 GMT -5
This is material I started about a year ago. From all I can tell based on location information it should be fluorite. I don't think I have the right UV to see it fluoresce (395nm and 365nm 4W flashlights). Though I had some small chunks and crushing them in a dark room with pliers gave a blue flash of triboluminescence. Haven't see if it's thermoluminescent either. But! It is green and it is softer. Started on 120/220 SiC and did that for several weeks in a 3 lb barrel. Then ran it through prepolish and... stopped... I had seen the soft stone polishing recipe on therockshed and held off until I was ready to try it. Without further ado, here are some chunks of dry rotary polished fluorite. Some room for improvement there on the next batch, whenever I get to gather some more up.
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Post by captbob on Dec 19, 2019 8:40:19 GMT -5
Sure that's not aventurine?
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Post by RickB on Dec 19, 2019 11:32:00 GMT -5
Don't think it is fluorite if you tumbled it for two weeks in 120/220 SIC. It might have vanished if in there for that long. Instructions on tumbling fluorite from the Rock Shed www.therockshed.com/instructions3.htmlStep 1 - Load the tumbler with the recommended amount of rough Fluorite, add 120-220 grit and run until shaped nicely. This may take 12 or more hours in a vibrating tumbler or up to 30 to 48 hours in a rotary. Check them frequently so that you don't grind the Fluorite all away.
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Post by greig on Dec 19, 2019 21:10:52 GMT -5
Any fluorite that I have tried to tumble turns to clay in short order. It looks like a feldspar to me, so I am thinking amazonite.
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NRG
fully equipped rock polisher
Member since February 2018
Posts: 1,630
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Post by NRG on Dec 19, 2019 23:53:14 GMT -5
Not flourite is my vote.
Looks like a quartzite/aventurine to me.
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NevadaBill
fully equipped rock polisher
Member since January 2019
Posts: 1,332
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Post by NevadaBill on Dec 23, 2019 12:03:54 GMT -5
No rock expert here. I like the ones with light brownish streaks going through them. Thanks for sharing.
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pizzano
Cave Dweller
Member since February 2018
Posts: 1,390
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Post by pizzano on Dec 23, 2019 12:20:37 GMT -5
Not Flourite.........quartzite/aventurine would be my guess too.
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Post by TheRock on Dec 24, 2019 2:16:40 GMT -5
Looks like Aventurine to me too, see Pic above.
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Benathema
has rocks in the head
God chased me down and made sure I knew He was real June 20, 2022. I've been on a Divine Mission.
Member since November 2019
Posts: 703
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Post by Benathema on Jan 11, 2020 21:53:20 GMT -5
Y'all probably right. It makes sense too since it did take a couple weeks for any sort of grinding to happen at 120/220. I was going off the description posted by someone online who described it as fluorite. Can't believe everything on the internet, eh?
This is interesting because whether quartzite or adventurine it means I can be a little more aggressive with it and probably improve the finish. I guess more interesting than that is there's quartzite/adventurine near me in CO and I'm not finding anything online about that being in this area... hmmm... neat.
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Benathema
has rocks in the head
God chased me down and made sure I knew He was real June 20, 2022. I've been on a Divine Mission.
Member since November 2019
Posts: 703
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Post by Benathema on Jan 11, 2020 21:54:26 GMT -5
It's not amazonite, I've been able to find some of that. This doesn't have crap for cleavage planes like the feldspar/amazonite does.
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Benathema
has rocks in the head
God chased me down and made sure I knew He was real June 20, 2022. I've been on a Divine Mission.
Member since November 2019
Posts: 703
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Post by Benathema on Jan 11, 2020 22:01:20 GMT -5
Maybe an image of what the rough looks like would be useful...
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Deleted
Deleted Member
Member since January 1970
Posts: 0
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Post by Deleted on Jan 12, 2020 0:18:16 GMT -5
Maybe an image of what the rough looks like would be useful... Yes, that looks very much like aventurine rough I've had. Sugary texture. A piece from my quartz reference box:
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chosenstones
off to a rocking start
Member since January 2020
Posts: 11
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Post by chosenstones on Jan 19, 2020 23:34:02 GMT -5
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