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Title: Help with material please. Post by: forestman on March 30, 2017, 04:23:19 pm Hoping someone can let me know what my new acquisition is made from.
Regards, Adrian. Title: Re: Help with material please. Post by: George on March 30, 2017, 05:14:43 pm Looks like fluorite...
Beautiful ! Title: Re: Help with material please. Post by: cshapiro on March 30, 2017, 08:21:22 pm It might also be banded amethyst - but without actually seeing the colors in the picture it's hard to tell. The picture seems maybe backlit where you can't see the colors. If it has green in it it's fluorite - otherwise my vote would be banded amethyst ;)
Title: Re: Help with material please. Post by: Wattana on March 30, 2017, 08:38:14 pm Very striking bottle Adrian!
The two options mentioned by George and Cathy seem the most likely. It is relatively easy to distinguish fluorite, as it is not as hard as other stones, being easily scratched by any of the quartz silica family such as amethyst, rock crystal, agate, etc. Tom Title: Re: Help with material please. Post by: rpfstoneman on March 30, 2017, 09:41:57 pm Adrian, my guess from the photos would be banded fluorite as well. Charll Title: Re: Help with material please. Post by: richy88 on March 30, 2017, 09:58:54 pm Fluorite.
Title: Re: Help with material please. Post by: forestman on March 31, 2017, 04:15:38 am Thanks for the suggestions, seems fluorite has the vote although it doesn't have any green showing. It was hard to photograph as front lighting didn't reveal that it is almost transparent. The deeper coloured band is purple and the other bands more pink which doesn't show clearly and a similar coloured one I've seen described as amethyst so that is an option.
Hard to age it, it did arrive with green gunk all over the interior which was hard to clean out. The only bit remaining is in a ring in the base which suggests it was hollowed with a tubular drill but the hollowing is uneven and hasn't been polished smooth. I would also think any lapidary with a little sense would have shaped the bottle so the banding was as horizontal as possible. Regards, Adrian. Title: Re: Help with material please. Post by: Wattana on March 31, 2017, 04:32:30 am Hi Adrian,
Fluorite is a rather fragile stone, so anyone attempting hollowing and polishing the inside of a bottle has my admiration! I imagine the failure rate to be quite high. Google 'Rainbow fluorite bowl' and select 'Images'. You will see that not all fluorite has green streaks in it. Tom Title: Re: Help with material please. Post by: forestman on March 31, 2017, 05:17:55 am Hi Tom,
I've had a bit of a go with my new toy, a step up from a Dremel, to try and clear the muck and it doesn't seem that fragile but I'll go carefully just in case. Regards, Adrian. Title: Re: Help with material please. Post by: Wattana on March 31, 2017, 05:30:53 am Good luck.
Rather you than me... 8) Tom Title: Re: Help with material please. Post by: Joey Silver / Si Zhouyi 義周司 on March 31, 2017, 05:38:31 am Dear Adrian,
A stunning mineral! Beautiful. Thank you for posting. Best, Joey Title: Re: Help with material please. Post by: forestman on March 31, 2017, 09:04:19 am Dear Joey,
Thank you, it is a very appealing material and I might have to go with fluorite having googled it and I'm tempted to buy a rainbow fluorite bowl having looked at pictures as recommended by Tom. Regards, Adrian. |