Post subject: Re: "fused raw ore powder" tourmalines?
Posted: Fri Oct 23, 2020 3:06 pm
Gold Member
Joined: Tue Apr 05, 2016 7:58 pm Posts: 1424 Location: San Marcos, CA
Some years back maybe 4 or 5, glass blowers in the upper northeast U.S. were stating that they were mixing tourmaline powder into borosilicate ceramic glass to claim that the imitation tourmaline crystals they were producing were made of natural tourmaline. Simply put just sales fluffing to make sales. Still just glass.
Post subject: Re: "fused raw ore powder" tourmalines?
Posted: Sun Oct 25, 2020 5:31 pm
Gold Member
Joined: Mon Apr 16, 2007 12:05 am Posts: 1499
Stephen Challener wrote:
Tourmaline is chemically complicated and a poor candidate for synthetic production. Very small crystals have been grown for research but that's it. So anyone selling "synthetic tourmaline" is fraudulently misrepresenting their product, though it does happen. Nobody is melting tourmaline powder to make glass. Even if they did it would not likely result in a beautiful product--glass composition has to be tuned carefully to get beautiful colors and high clarity.
This is so much truth.
I've ground up green tourmaline into powder and melted it, just to see what would happen. The results were in no way beautiful. The most kind words I can think is "opaque yellowish-white mess."
Post subject: Re: "fused raw ore powder" tourmalines?
Posted: Mon Oct 26, 2020 5:51 am
Established Member
Joined: Sat Oct 26, 2013 2:15 pm Posts: 19
Brian wrote:
I've ground up green tourmaline into powder and melted it, just to see what would happen. The results were in no way beautiful. The most kind words I can think is "opaque yellowish-white mess."
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