Can anyone help me identify this stone? Thanks for any help…Rob
My first thought is azurite/malachite but I’d suggest posting on facebook in one of the rock ID groups. I have many unknown slabs and have had some of them identified that way. I do tend to be a lumper not a splitter myself and have many I just call “some kinda agate” I’ve learned that there is a name for every pattern.
Ben Brauchler
Hard to tell from the image, but it looks a bit like sodalite.
I have thought sodalite, but the blue and green turquoise bits confuse me. I have not seen them in sodalite before. There does appear to be calcite which I think does happen in Sodalite. I have 100s of lbs. of rock rough, slabs and rough cabs that I inherited from my father. Much of it I can not identify. Right now I have a customer who wants a blue stone, but something other than Lapis, in a bracelet. Thanks…Rob
Well, while it isn’t common, sodalite does appear in green as well. I’m just not sure if it is usually all green in those instances or if it can have veins of green running through the blue. . . .?
One way to narrow it down is, is it soft or hard. Vince LaRochelle
I have already tested it with a steel file and the file will just faintly mark it. Sodalite and Lapis are both in the 5 - 6 range which makes sense based on the steel file.
And what about Chrysocholla?
I’m inclined to think it’s silicated azurite with chrysocolla.
Karen Hemmerle
I have looked at pictures of chrysocholla and silicated azurite with chrysocholla and both look like possibilities. I may have to confer with our local Gem and Mineral Society of which I am a very lapsed member because I have a couple thousand more pieces that I can’t identify. Thanks from snowy Central NY where we have a modest amount of snow (10" - 12") in the driveway. A minor nuisance for us, but with the 14 degree temperature and wind, enough to close school. My grand children are happy.
Robert: Possibly Azurite/Malachite. The following from a friend who mines
Azurite/Malchite. "Was it found in an area with copper? Try
grinding it into a powder and put in a flame…burn it. If blue to greenish flame appears it contains copper…then it is probably Azurite/Malachite."
Diane
It was found in my fathers cellar where it had been since about 1965. Before that, I have no idea. I will do the test that is suggested (my mineralogy courses are coming back to me as we discuss this topic more). I do know that it is so full of cracks and fractures that I can’t cut a decent piece to polish and work into a bracelet. Thanks…Rob
Dear Rob: Still…an interesting quest.
Have fun.
Diane
Dikra
Thanks! It is always fun…Rob