[Rockhounds] Need ID of Massive Moh 7.5 Crystal

[drtanuki]

It is glass scrap that is sold at the Bangkok weekend market.  The scrap glass mostly comes from China to be cut into fake jewels. The sharp fractures are incorrect for garnet beryl and your other suspected suggestions.  Best in your purchase,  Dirk Ross...Tokyo

BTW:  the glass scrap is sold in many colors for about 1$/kg or so, unless they saw you as a fool.  I work often in Thailand and SE Asia and have seen this material being sold for at least 20 years.  ddr 


--- On Mon, 10/6/08, Tim Jokela Jr. <tjokela at execulink.com> wrote:

> From: Tim Jokela Jr. <tjokela at execulink.com>
> Subject: Re: [Rockhounds] Need ID of Massive Moh 7.5 Crystal
> To: "Rockhounds at drizzle.com: A mailing list for rock and gem collectors" <rockhounds at lists.drizzle.com>
> Date: Monday, October 6, 2008, 12:11 AM
> Wellll..... it's hard to judge from a single pic, but at
> the risk of looking 
> foolish, as I'm no gem expert, here's my mental
> process upon seeing the 
> photo:
> 
> It's not a crystal or a crystalline rock, it's a
> mass. No rounded edges, so 
> can't be from an alluvial deposit as one might expect
> in that part of the 
> world. And hence can't be a tektite/moldavite. No
> apparent crystal faces, so 
> no hints to ID there, though that lack is certainly a clue
> - a piece that 
> big with no xl faces... hmmm. Absurd size for a garnet,
> rather excessive for 
> a tourmaline, (would be kilobucks for a piece of tourmaline
> carving rough 
> that size) not terribly large for a beryl, but the color is
> very wrong for 
> beryl. Size also very wrong for say forsterite
> ("peridot"), or diopside, 
> zircon, pargasite and other green rarities; what other
> green minerals can I 
> think of... fluorite would show cleavage. Not a whole lot
> of green minerals 
> found in 5" gemmy chunks you see. Shaky provenance, no
> locality info... 
> great whopping hunks of gem material like that seldom fall
> into tourists 
> hands; the path from miner to buyer then cutter is well
> beaten.
> 
> Taking into consideration the size, color, color zoning,
> bubbles, perhaps 
> some hints of conchoidal fracture, no real obvious
> cleavage, no apparent 
> matrix or crystal faces... looks a lot like glass to me.
> Glass can have 
> variable hardness so that's not really hard evidence
> against.
> 
> A hands-on examination would confirm it quickly. Take it to
> a local jewelry 
> shop with a good gemologist, or a local gem & mineral
> club, or a 
> university/museum's geology/mineralogy department, and
> see what they say.
> 
> Given the above, I sure hope you didn't pay much for
> this. If you did; let's 
> hope I'm proven wrong by the gem folks on the list!
> 
> Cheers,
> 
> T
> 
> 
> ----- Original Message ----- 
> From: "Jim Marshall" <thai_buyer at yahoo.com>
> To: <rockhounds at lists.drizzle.com>
> Sent: Sunday, October 05, 2008 10:40 AM
> Subject: [Rockhounds] Need ID of Massive Moh 7.5 Crystal
> 
> 
> To all,
> 
> 
> I need the help of a serious rockhound. My travels have
> brought this large 
> crystalline rock into my hands. It weighs 2.15 kilos. It is
> a dark green, 
> that transitions to brown with yellow/gold crystal
> encrustations. The green 
> section is transparent / translucent while the darker
> composition is less 
> so. Using a set of hardness pencils (points) I have done a
> scratch test and 
> all results show - 7 does not scratch and 8 does. Locale of
> origin: Thailand 
> / Cambodia. Based on the scratch test, it is obviously not
> quartz or glass. 
> My best guess at the moment is a variety of green Garnet,
> but I am not sure 
> which variety. Other less likely possibilities are beryl or
> tourmaline but 
> neither comes from this area and I don't think either
> one is found in a 
> similar size. You may email me (Jim) at:
> Thai_buyer at yahoo.com if you would 
> like to discuss. Picture link below:
> 
> http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v177/thai_buyer/?action=view&current=IMG_0687.jpg
> 
> Thanks,
> 
> Jim
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
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