3-1/2 Lb. Rough Aquamarine W/White Hyalite Floating inclusions

[trashortreasure]

Estate find, at 3-1/2 pounds, 7-1/2 long. Im new to this site forum, and know nowhere else to seek info. Unknown if this is a large piece of glass, or a lg. rough piece of crystal aquamarine ? My local small city jewerly stores knows ziltch of what this may be, but is in AWE when they saw what I had. And were useing a diamond tester, as I found out diamond testers do not conduct on aquamarines nor glass.

Thier responses were that this is a large piece of glass, and they may be right ? But with little researching, I did find this site www.gemron.com/ProductInfo.aspx?productid=AQ752 if you cant open link, paste into browser.
that deals with gems etc. and one of thier sold items was a "Aquamarine Crystal With Floating White Hyalite Inclusions"
not that im saying this is what I have, but the white clusters that I see in the center of my item, surely looks like what this gem dealer had. Any input here will be appreciated, as yes I know I need to find an expert, and have he/she look at my item in person, but I dont have the funds to go that route yet.

My photo here is of the actual item im and have not done any photo editing or color enhancements. More pics. can be sent via email.

 

[trashortreasure]

Thanks folks, other than that do you have any input.. glass - trash - or possible what I posted above. Thanks folks, and yes I sure will head over there.

 

[trashortreasure]

Okay folks, I just registered over there, and heres my post, and was able to upload the the rest of the photos. Who knows, but I''ll see what response I can get, and I thank you very much

http://gemologyonline.com/Forum/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?p=61382#61382

 

[T L]

I am not a gemologist, but the cleavage looks more like glass than anything else. I remember seeing very similar cleavage on a piece of cleaved obsidian (volcanized glass rock).

 

[trashortreasure]

yes well I did register over at the site the member suggested so, and I got a response. A member said that if it was glass I would see bubbles inside, and I surely dont, with a loop nor with a naked eye. Yes the cleavage area and the flat surfaces areas, has been abused over the years. Had you seen the rest of the pics. that I posted on the other forum site.

 

[sonnyjane]

I agree with the previous poster...the cleavage looks like glass.

 

[partgypsy]

Looks like a chunk of glass.

 

[Proteus]

I''m pretty sure that''s just slag glass. Glass can have some odd inclusions in it, and I''ve actually seen glass with crud added into it for the purpose of making it look like a natural mineral. The conchoidal fractures and general shape really look like glass. A natural aquamarine crystal of that size would be worth a fortune...

Some individuals collect chunks of slag glass. I''ve met people with large quantities of it before. Some if it is quite interesting looking... so as an estate find, that''s probably what it is.

 

[Pandora II]

Wow! That is a serious chunk of something!

Okay, since you have such a whacking great big piece of it you could try a Mohs test (if it was small I wouldn''t be advising this at all).

Moh''s Scale measures the scratch resistance of different minerals - diamond as the hardest scores a 10, sapphire as next one down a 9 etc.

Aquamarine is a 7.5 - 8 on the scale. Glass is around 5.5. So, if you take a material that is around 6.5 - for example a steel file you should be able to tell.

Take the file and pull it across an area of the sample trying to scratch it - but not with so much pressure that it will break (the green stuff not the file

).

If it scratches - it''s almost certainly glass. If it doesn''t then there are other tests to see what it is.

My money is on glass I''m afraid.

 

[Richard M.]

It''s almost certainly glass.

To paraphrase Crocodile Dundee''s comment about knives, here''s a REAL aquamarine -- a 56 pound crystal. Pardon the quality of the image but it''s a photograph of an old magazine picture. It dates to the mid-1950s when the monster gem-grade aqua was impounded at a New York Bank in an ownership dispute.

I have no idea what eventually happened to it. Much of it was considered gem grade and cut stones from it are probably being worn in heirloom jewelry right now. Gemmy aqua crystals can be very large.

Richard M.

 

[The Joker]

If you don''t have a set of hardness picks to test the hardness, you could use a quartz crystal.

A quartz crystal (hardness of 7)will scratch glass (hardness of 6) but not Aquamarine (hardness of 7.5 to .

Joker....