Joined: Sun Feb 24, 2013 9:27 am Posts: 11 Location: Eastern edge of the Blue Ridge Mnts. Virginia
I know that identifying gems by a picture is impossible. What I would like to know is what would be the easiest way to make sure this stone is worth paying to have it identified. I am not a rock hound or a gem collector. I took a friend and her grandson to one of those road side sluice mines in Virginia last year during vacation and found this rock. When the mine owner was identifying our rocks for us he seemed to dismiss it and move on to other rocks quite quickly. One of the employees thought it was probably Corundum. Research online hasn't helped me to much. It is an imperfect dodecahedron and quite heavy for its size.
Joined: Sun Feb 24, 2013 9:27 am Posts: 11 Location: Eastern edge of the Blue Ridge Mnts. Virginia
Why? I knew where the stones came from (I bought a bucket salted with potential rubies) and the color of the stone. The stones came from an area that was being mined for Aluminum and Corundum for use in abrasives. It may not be Pyrope, but the other alternative based on locations and stone color would be Almandine, but then it could be natural to the area, though if that amount of garnet is on that particular farm I would think that they would be mining it for abrasives or the aluminum. The dodecahedron shape does point it toward Almandine, but either Almandine or Pyrope, if it is not to fractured it may cut into a nice conversation piece.
Joined: Sun Feb 24, 2013 9:27 am Posts: 11 Location: Eastern edge of the Blue Ridge Mnts. Virginia
Barbra Voltaire wrote:
Guy Griffin wrote:
Thanks! That information led me to Pyrope...
why?
We were told that the particular mine was salted with stones from Brazil. They got the stones from an area that mined for abrasives. The color of the stone fits close to either Pyrope or Almandine, along with the Rhombic Dodecahedron shape. I have not found all of the answers, like do Rubies and Garnet both appear with Corundum? Using Garnet as my key word, it was easy to search out the different possibilities. The bucket that we bought was supposedly salted with potential Rubies. Well, no Rubies were found as far as I can tell, but we did find a lot of wine red garnet. The on-site gemologist suggested some of the stones we found might be rubies, but after checking the color most were way to deep wine red to be rubies. We could have them tested, but polishing the stones and wondering if they really are Rubies is more fun than knowing they aren't. Thanks again!
Definitely looks like opaque almandine garnet. By the way, I think the 4-5 sided faces are called "kites."
You can pick up much-less-included examples of these crystals for very cheap at any gem and mineral show. I think they make for very fun and interesting paperweights.
Joined: Sun Feb 24, 2013 9:27 am Posts: 11 Location: Eastern edge of the Blue Ridge Mnts. Virginia
Barbra Voltaire wrote:
I think a hardness test may be in order.
That is exactly where my mind went yesterday when I saw the pictures that Tim put up. I will find someone local that can help me with that and hopefully post the results. I did check to see if I could mark a face with a normal bench grinder, the mineral included with the crystal is soft like aluminum and melted on the facet, but I did nothing to the crystal. I don't have any diamond blades at the moment, but was wondering if I should smooth a face before trying to test the hardness?
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