[Rockhounds] Chinese Crystals on E-Bay

[dm.schmidt]

believe me Tim, it is not difficult to get 50 carat and larger cut pieces of 
Mexican material.

a friend of mine knows someone who has been selling multiple tonnes of 
Mexican material to the Chinese

the largest cut stone I ever saw (of the Mexican material) was a 285 carats 
(if I remember correctly...it may have been bigger)

the Smithsonian also received as a donation a 100+ carat straw coloured cut 
stonesupposedly from Oregon that was actually from Mexico
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Tim Fisher" <nospam at orerockon.com>
To: "Rockhounds at drizzle.com: A mailing list for rock and gem collectors" 
<rockhounds at lists.drizzle.com>
Sent: Tuesday, April 29, 2008 8:01 PM
Subject: Re: [Rockhounds] Chinese Crystals on E-Bay


> 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
> -- 
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