Post subject: Re: W. Wm Hanneman Instrument Donations to our GO Members
Posted: Fri Feb 22, 2019 10:00 pm
Established Member
Joined: Sat Feb 24, 2018 5:40 pm Posts: 39
I’ve been doing tons of reading about the usefulness of a magnet in gem Ident lately, it’s been a great pleasure learning about all the different techniques that really aren’t touched on in Gemmological courses.
Post subject: Re: W. Wm Hanneman Instrument Donations to our GO Members
Posted: Sat Feb 23, 2019 4:11 pm
Gold Member
Joined: Mon May 26, 2014 9:42 pm Posts: 1033
Barbra Voltaire wrote:
This is a "toughness" scale, not hardness. Serpentine can be quite elaborately carved without breaking.
*sigh* yes ... what is the opposite of tough? I can pretty easily smash serpentine - and it breaks pretty easily, as shown by my carved serpentine horse... that is broken. Not so much jade. I saw a jade axe head for sale in Tucson- supposed to be pre-Columbian. Here is a pic:
Post subject: Re: W. Wm Hanneman Instrument Donations to our GO Members
Posted: Sat Feb 23, 2019 7:18 pm
Site Admin
Joined: Sun Oct 16, 2005 12:22 pm Posts: 21602 Location: San Francisco
Quote:
what is the opposite of tough?
weak, fragile Perhaps Dr. Hanneman was referring to the more tenacious and sectile members of the serpentine group like lamellated antigorite esp. bowenite.
Post subject: Re: W. Wm Hanneman Instrument Donations to our GO Members
Posted: Fri Mar 01, 2019 12:10 pm
Valued Contributor
Joined: Sun Sep 04, 2016 8:07 am Posts: 134
I received Dr Hanneman's conoscope from Barbra, now to practice until it becomes second nature. Dr Hanneman thank you for your kind and generous donation of tools to GO members.
Post subject: Re: W. Wm Hanneman Instrument Donations to our GO Members
Posted: Sat Mar 09, 2019 2:44 pm
Gold Member
Joined: Tue Jul 02, 2013 9:00 am Posts: 1322 Location: Wylie Texas but in Alaska for a while
Barbara I am not sure of the correct way to do this, so I sent you PMs but I think that you also asked for a reason of how it would help.
For the past 6 weeks I have been moving a hoarder. The rooms were literally floor to ceiling.
BUT he was also an avid collector and dealer.
We moved over 200 5 gallon buckets and 100 boxes of everything from rough to slabs, to loose stones.
Amoung the stuff we found
a fist size gold nugget
a fist size silver nugget
a small bag of 50 small uncut diamonds
over 50 pounds of jade
several hundred pounds of quarts from points to 30 pound clusters
But he also had a lot of facet rough. Some had fallen from a workbench that collapsed.
I have a 5 gallon bucket of various rough that I need to sort and try to identify.
I have no gem id tools. I even recently lost my good loop. (my daughter left it at an auction when we were looking at some jewelry)
so any and all tools that are available would be appreciated.
Oh yea, I also moved a facetron facet machine
14 inch slab saw
2 Genie cabbing machines
and a custom facet machine made by (I forget who it was but he developed a variation of a barion cut that was popular...) We also saved the original diagrams and letters where he was collaborating with someone in Germany.
We filled a 4 car garage to the ceiling. and right now the overflow is in my daughters 2 car garage.
Over the next few months we are going to build more storage, so we can sort the stuff out.
I hope to scan and them post the documents on the cut.... but that will probably take a year to get around to.
I also have to go back to Alaska in a few months to finish the rehab on my daughters house so we can sell it.....
I will be glad when this all settles down......
But this weekend I have to empty a 30 foot long storage unit for a friend of his, which has a lot of display and other equipment.... not sure where that is going......,
and I have to disassemble a 24 x 30 shed at the old house and move it... .I was hoping to keep it clean and set up the shop there...... But it may be used for the stuff from the storage unit. I know that there are 6 jewelry display cases.....
Post subject: Re: W. Wm Hanneman Instrument Donations to our GO Members
Posted: Sun Mar 10, 2019 4:58 pm
Active Member
Joined: Thu Jun 14, 2012 7:58 pm Posts: 75
I have found that one of the easiest, fastest and cheapest ways to separate unidentified rough is a direct read specific gravity scale. The directions are in Dr. Hanneman's "Affordable Gemology" and several folks have posted the instructions online. It's a good down and dirty way to figure out what that yellow tumbled clear thing is. Often the SGs are so dramatically different that it becomes obvious what it is. You can build it where it has a larger capacity basket. Or, build the holder and use digital scales. Just do a search for Specific Gravity scales.
If he has a 5 gallon bucket of stuff, unless he can find someone in his immediate neighborhood with a Raman or make good friends with a gemologist (who'd be happy to help if you tossed them a few good rocks) it would be easier. If he thinks that some rocks might be something good, then sending it to one of you guys who has a Raman would be the way to go, rather than paying postage on a lot of rocks that might be citrine or clear quartz.
I'll look around for a table that lists the stones by SG, not RI. I have several print outs, but have had them so long I don't know where I got them.
I've gone thru lots of lapidarist's and faceter's rocks, and this is almost always what I do first if I don't have an identifiable crystal. Just my opinion.
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