Charoite's mineral collecting chat.

I wanted to work on banded ironstone formations in grad school, but I did not want to move to Minnesota. Nonetheless, I have always found them attractive, as well as a fascinating relic proxy indicator of the ancient earth's primeval atmospheric conditions
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Charoite said:
Found a person selling gem specimens at bid on ebay. I only bought one to test the waters with it being from Pakistan. They are very well known for their gemstones there. They have some of the finest Aquamarine around from what I've read. I went for something cheaper though and am very satisfied with it. It was a type of Kunzite native to the area, and looks like it was meticulously dug out with simple tools. Happy enough with them I went and put a bid on a small Aquamarine. If all goes well I'm going to consider purchasing a larger specimen after I save for it. Here's a pic of what I'd save for.

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Gorgeous!

The Weather Channel used to have a series featuring ppl who scraped around in the Rocky Mountains for various gemstones like aquamarine.
 
ThatOwlWoman said:
Gorgeous!

The Weather Channel used to have a series featuring ppl who scraped around in the Rocky Mountains for various gemstones like aquamarine.
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Sadly the thing sold since I posted this. Oh well, they'll be others. I didn't have a $150 to spend on one thing anyway.
 
Charoite said:
I'd be interested in going to areas you can harvest your own rocks and minerals when this shitstorm we are in calms down.
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Me too! My dad acknowledged my interest in geology when I was 12 or 13 or so. He took me on foraging trips in the stony, rocky (at that time) primitive parks around the St. Louis area. Our neighbor across the street was a Professor of Geology at Washington Univ. He gave me a beautiful rock collection when I was 14. That guy who I sent you your Yule gift from is a rock guy/paleontologist. With a doctorate even. Wouldn't it so cool to go mineral and fossil hunting with someone like that??!
 
ThatOwlWoman said:
Me too! My dad acknowledged my interest in geology when I was 12 or 13 or so. He took me on foraging trips in the stony, rocky (at that time) primitive parks around the St. Louis area. Our neighbor across the street was a Professor of Geology at Washington Univ. He gave me a beautiful rock collection when I was 14. That guy who I sent you your Yule gift from is a rock guy/paleontologist. With a doctorate even. Wouldn't it so cool to go mineral and fossil hunting with someone like that??!
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As long as they remember that guys with broad shoulders and a bit of chunk don't mix well with tight spaces.
 
Charoite said:
As long as they remember that guys with broad shoulders and a bit of chunk don't mix well with tight spaces.
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That's why you bring a girlfriend. :D

My wife and I visited my sister and her BF in Bend, OR. They have a cinder cone in the middle of town (Pilot Butte) and several good places to go hiking through lava tubes. The one we were in narrowed down until no one could crawl any further.
 
You know with some basic lab equipment you can create quite a few of these minerals in a garage lab. An understanding of the industrial processes and the chemistry involved doesn’t hurt either.

Obsidian would be easy to make. Once you make it you can easily convert it to Franklinite by heat treating it.

I’ve made synthetic rubies from beer cans. That was kind of fun as the first step of the two step process is a reverse Bayor Process. Had a lot of fun. It started with my machinist brother in law asking me if it was possible to make rubies from beer cans. I told him I’d look into it. Next time I saw him I told him it was possible. So after drinking some inspiration we picked up some chemicals we needed from the hard ware store. Then we picked up some graphite welding rods at local welding shop and before the day was done and fueled by beer by golly we did it.
 
Mott the Hoople said:
You know with some basic lab equipment you can create quite a few of these minerals in a garage lab. An understanding of the industrial processes and the chemistry involved doesn’t hurt either.

Obsidian would be easy to make. Once you make it you can easily convert it to Franklinite by heat treating it.

I’ve made synthetic rubies from beer cans. That was kind of fun as the first step of the two step process is a reverse Bayor Process. Had a lot of fun. It started with my machinist brother in law asking me if it was possible to make rubies from beer cans. I told him I’d look into it. Next time I saw him I told him it was possible. So after drinking some inspiration we picked up some chemicals we needed from the hard ware store. Then we picked up some graphite welding rods at local welding shop and before the day was done and fueled by beer by golly we did it.
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I built a nuclear device using juice cartons and straws. The only glitch was obtaining fissionable material.
 
Mott the Hoople said:
You know with some basic lab equipment you can create quite a few of these minerals in a garage lab. An understanding of the industrial processes and the chemistry involved doesn’t hurt either.

Obsidian would be easy to make. Once you make it you can easily convert it to Franklinite by heat treating it.

I’ve made synthetic rubies from beer cans. That was kind of fun as the first step of the two step process is a reverse Bayor Process. Had a lot of fun. It started with my machinist brother in law asking me if it was possible to make rubies from beer cans. I told him I’d look into it. Next time I saw him I told him it was possible. So after drinking some inspiration we picked up some chemicals we needed from the hard ware store. Then we picked up some graphite welding rods at local welding shop and before the day was done and fueled by beer by golly we did it.
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You need to look for the signs between obsidian and slag. You definitely won't get the play of colors of Rainbow, cat's eye, or gold sheen.
 
Mott the Hoople said:
You know with some basic lab equipment you can create quite a few of these minerals in a garage lab. An understanding of the industrial processes and the chemistry involved doesn’t hurt either.

Obsidian would be easy to make. Once you make it you can easily convert it to Franklinite by heat treating it.

I’ve made synthetic rubies from beer cans. That was kind of fun as the first step of the two step process is a reverse Bayor Process. Had a lot of fun. It started with my machinist brother in law asking me if it was possible to make rubies from beer cans. I told him I’d look into it. Next time I saw him I told him it was possible. So after drinking some inspiration we picked up some chemicals we needed from the hard ware store. Then we picked up some graphite welding rods at local welding shop and before the day was done and fueled by beer by golly we did it.
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What can you do with homemade synthetic rubies? I know they are so hard it's difficult to polish them.
 
Charoite said:
You need to look for the signs between obsidian and slag. You definitely won't get the play of colors of Rainbow, cat's eye, or gold sheen.
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Yup, you would. Slag has far more calcium but obtaining the correct chemical composition is easy.

Rapidly cooling it so crystal nucleation centers don’t form but that not so fast that it becomes to amorphous and shatters. You can probably determine an appropriate anealling temp via reference literature.
 
Dutch Uncle said:
What can you do with homemade synthetic rubies? I know they are so hard it's difficult to polish them.
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Same as you would with a natural Ruby. You polish it with diamond grit.

More than likely it wouldn’t be gem grade from a garage lab set up but Rubies are really just a purer form of corundum which makes an excellent abrasive product.
 
Mott the Hoople said:
Yup, you would. Slag has far more calcium but obtaining the correct chemical composition is easy.

Rapidly cooling it so crystal nucleation centers don’t form but that not so fast that it becomes to amorphous and shatters. You can probably determine an appropriate anealling temp via reference literature.
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Yeah right


Blessings
 
Mott the Hoople said:
Yup, you would. Slag has far more calcium but obtaining the correct chemical composition is easy.

Rapidly cooling it so crystal nucleation centers don’t form but that not so fast that it becomes to amorphous and shatters. You can probably determine an appropriate anealling temp via reference literature.
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You'll never get obsidian though. Obsidian you can only get from lava as the mineral composition, viscosity, and rapid cooling inhibit structuring of crystals. Obsidian barely has a crystalline structure and it won't have air bubbles. Probably some of the sharpest natural material that's been used in hunting since way back.
 
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