The MLP Arena
Pony Talk => Off Topic => Topic started by: Broken Irishwoman on June 17, 2018, 03:03:07 AM
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Hi! :D
I have a thing for gemstones, and I would like to learn more about them. I'm still very much a beginner, I'm pretty much at the point where I think that every purple stone is amethyst, and every clear stone is clear quartz. :P Of course I don't really think that, it's just that I wouldn't know what else it could be.
Yesterday bought these pretty little stones, but I'm not sure at all what they are. Does anybody here have any idea?
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The clear ones at the top look very much like clear quartz, except they have tiny little opal-like bits. The one on the left could be moonstone? The orange one is a complete mystery to me, when you hold it to the light it has grey/bluish sheen. The purple one could be amethyst, but I know there are other, lighter purple stones too. The pinkish one on the right is too purple-ish for rose quartz, I was thinking maybe fluorite? Especially because it's kind of "dull", and I know fluorite tends to be kind of dull (maybe I'm using the wrong word here, I definitely don't mean it in a bad way, just that it's not a very clear stone).
Any help would be greatly appreciated! Thanks! :D
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Looks like an agate of sorts--or a chalcedony. Is the purple one milky?
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A little! The purple bits are quite clear, but it has a lot of white "clouds". :)
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I’m not sure what gemstones these might be. Rocks are what I know best, but not gems. They’re pretty though.
I’ll do a bit of digging, and see if I can find anything that might help.
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Yeah its definitely not amethyst. Let me see if I can remember the names of a few of the trickier stones ^^
Apatite looks like that but is carribean blue. There may be a purple one?
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Did a small amount of digging. I think that the clear ones are probably clear quartz, as it can form with small bits inside of them. And I think none of these are fluorite. Fluorite is a green and purple gem, with the two colours mixing together.
Have you tried a scratch test? I’m not sure if it works for these stones, but it can be used to identify several minerals and rocks. You scratch the rock on a bit of scratch tile, and bands of colour appear, some of which can’t be seen normally. This is one way to test gold and fools gold. They leave different marks, allowing for identification despite the two looking almost exactly alike to someone.
I can’t really help much, but I’ll keep looking for something.
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Thank you both! :D
A scratch test is a great tip, I didn't know about it before! However, I am a little afraid to damage the stones. :yikes:
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The purpleish one might be calcite. Orange one sunstone, maybe?
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Sunstone isn't clear though. Im thinking it might be quartz with some other element making the veins--but there are other stones to do have the vein or spiderweb like pattern. The orange may be iron?
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IDing stones can be hard, is there a local crystal shop or stall? It's hard IDing from a picture alone.
The scratch test is a great idea and it won't harm your stones :)
I used to work for a large supplier precious and semi precious stones for the jewellery industry, in rough, polished and cut form ^.^
Far left is definitely Moonstone/white labradorite .... I have a bit of a stash of the stuff ;) I can see a blueish flash in the stone.
The next one would appear to be Quartz, but I'm unsure on what the very pale golden yellow stone and the very soft pink stone might be. I feel I know them both, but the names escape me :blush:
Fluorite is a soft stone, so it is hard to keep a nice polish to it, so it does appear to have a more dull finish. It comes in a lot of colours from almost clear to green to lilac and dark purple.
The others are more tricky, I'm tempted to say chevron Amethyst for the purple due to the pattern within the stone. I've sold Amethyst that looked almost jet black right the way through to almost clear, such variety!
Bare in mind there are different qualities of stone from AAA grade downwards and often ID sites don't show all the variants.
Love pkw xxx
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orange stone might be sun stone, or citrine?
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Sorry for my slow replies, but thank you all! All replies have been very helpful, I'm using every suggestion to look them up (and new suggestions are still welome of course). :D