[Rockhounds] Chinese Crystals on E-Bay

[Tim Fisher]

The pieces I have seen first hand have been dead ringers for 
untreated Plush, Oregon red sunstones. They always have some 
schiller, a dead giveaway that they are not from the Ponderosa. Their 
red sunstones never have schiller. I have never seen Mexican "straw" 
sunstone as large or as clear as the Plush material (or the 
"Chinese"). Of course there could be a source that is fairly unknown 
(makes sense if you are exporting it to China to be faked). I have 
seen straw from Plush and from SE of Spencer ID that was big enough 
to treat. I agree that if a treatment has been found to make straw 
stones into dead ringers for Plush, OR reds, the market is 
effectively dead for the Plush miners.

At 03:35 PM 4/29/2008, you wrote:
>dm.schmidt wrote:
>
>>all of that Chinese andesine- the bright red or glue/green shift 
>>material...it is all  treated Mexican material.
>>there should be some trade release coming out shortly stating this.
>>for years everyone swore up and down it was natural...it's not.
>
>
>The ones I analyzed all turned out to be oligoclase.  However I'd 
>like to know how you can treat feldspar to give it that reddish 
>color.  There was something odd-looking about all of it when I 
>compared it to Ponderosa material, but I couldn't quite figure out why.
>
>Let me know when you see the release!
>
>best,
>Don

Tim Fisher
Ore-ROCK-On!
Email address at http://OreRockOn.com