For the knowledgeable stone people out there or anyone else. I have
a piece of clear tourmalated quartz with what I think is an oddity.
I wonder if anyone’s seen this.
There is a hexagonal crystal plate of what I suspect is green
tourmaline with a long black toumaline crystal going though it.
Looks sort of like the sword in the stone. Anyone seem this
phenomenon?
Derek Levin
Derek, If the green plate is truly hexagonal then it is probably not
tourmaline. Tourmaline has a trigonal crystal habit, and if you
look down the length of the schorl (black tourmaline) you will find
that it is distinctly three sided with striations paraleling the
long axis of the crystal. The rock does sound fascinating though,
and I for one would love to see some pics of the piece. Thanks &
g’day Rick Carew
Rick,
Technically you are right, but looking at some of my large crystals
of tourmaline, they are triangular, more like a trilliant shape, they
look like they have six sides. Most actually have five. Two faces on
each of the three sides, where the faces meet in the middle of each
side, they are a little rounded, or blend into one face on one of the
sides. Richard in Denver
Looks sort of like the sword in the stone. Anyone seem this phenomenon?
Yes, tourmalinated quartzes can be very interesting. If the effect
is attractive, I believe they’re quite collectible. In rare cases,
you can even get “sliders”, where a needle-like tourmaline crystal
goes right through the quartz, and you can slide the tourmaline back
and forth.
In addition, you can also get rutilated quartz, which can have
attractive golden needles. I think some people call it by a special
name, something like “angel hair quartz”? There are other
interesting inclusions as well; you can get “blue quartz” (natural
quartz which is suffused with little blue speck-like inclusions,
giving it a blue colour - not to be confused with synthetic blue
quartz), and “strawberry quartz” (with little red inclusions).
Recently, I've seen a few quartzes which were cut as round gems,
where the rough was carefully selected and oriented so that a
single, isolated needle inclusion stuck right up through the centre
of the gem. The needle reflects in all of the facets, producing
radial reflections like the spokes of a wheel. The effect is very
interesting.
?8-)
-Michael.