Shout out to anyone familiar with rough gemstones

[traser579]

I have recently aquired a vast collection of rough gemstones and if anyone is willing to help me go through and identify some of these, they would be greatly appreciated, and possibly gifted with some rough rock.

 

[chroman]

Do you have a way to take a SG reading of them, or are we just visually sorting? Do you know much about where the came from (former faceter’s collection, random ebay seller, etc?)

 

[traser579]

I have a few scales for SG, a polariscope, a refractometer, and a dichroscope. Unfortunately there will be no information on location.

 

[chroman]

Sounds like you’re reasonable well stocked for identifing species!

Just thinking out loud, snce I’m not sure what you have to sort - are there any larger pieces that we can rule out as lab material? Something that looks like a boule, split boule, or a thin flat slab?

Then, I might make a pass to separate things that have strong visual clues - big and purple, start a amethyst pile. Big and pink? Rose quartz pile. Big and orangey - citrine pile. Looks like a tourmaline crystal and is pleochromatic - goes in another pile. These arn’t definative ids, but will help make the mysteries stand out better.

If you have a vast lot to sort, taking measurements will take a while, and trying to make a multiple choice option from the data will be harder than a binary sieve.

 

[Bron357]

Yes, I’d sort them into colour piles. Obviously colour and transparency can be a hint but If you can find the specified gravity you should be most helpful.
Garnet you can usually sort with a neo magnet (it’s strongly magnetic) any of the quartz family will usually be larger size crystals with a 6 sided prism with 6 pyramid termination.
Tourmaline crystals are usually longer and like a column shape with a more blunt end.
Emerald or Beryl is also more blocky shaped.
Obviously there are heaps of possibilities as many gems come in more than one colour.
Have fun investigating them.

 

[chroman]

Peridot has a fairly limited color range and might be another color to sort on (again, not definative by a long shot..)

Another thought - do you have any small baggies on hand? We got a box of way too many (1000? It was a small box..) tiny jewelry bags at a craft store. I think we’ve thrown out most of the box and they’re still everywhere..

Something like that will be handy both for once you’ve ID’d a stone, or just to keep track of the data for a mystery stone. It would suck to have things nicely arranged and then have to “put it away”, loose the order, and have to start over.

 

[traser579]

Peridot has a fairly limited color range and might be another color to sort on (again, not definative by a long shot..)

Another thought - do you have any small baggies on hand? We got a box of way too many (1000? It was a small box..) tiny jewelry bags at a craft store. I think we’ve thrown out most of the box and they’re still everywhere..

Something like that will be handy both for once you’ve ID’d a stone, or just to keep track of the data for a mystery stone. It would suck to have things nicely arranged and then have to “put it away”, loose the order, and have to start over.

I sure do and little note cards
to write on ok sorry for the late reply I will post pictures now

 

[traser579]

 

[traser579]

 

[traser579]

We can start with any one y'all would like

 

[elliefire99]

We can start with any one y'all would like

Sorry. I don't know enough to be helpful on this front. But godspeed!

 

[traser579]

I really want to know what these are

 

[Arcadian]

I can't do stone identification on rough stones (well on most pictures to be honest!!)

No idea about the blue ones, they could be the same or totally different.

Spinel
Sapphire
tourmaline
topaz
aquamarine
kyanite

might be any of those or none of those. those are the blue stones I can think of at the moment.

I think the bright green ones are peridot though

 

[chroman]

Hmm - I’m better as id’ing things that are less on the “speciman” side than most of these.

I doubt the blue material is topaz - natural blue topaz isn’t that pleniful afaik. Could also be lapis I guess.

Whats the sg on the bright green stuff? I agree that looks like it has peridot potential.

Theres a reddish-purple stone in the bin next to the bright green that also looks interesting.

 

[traser579]

Green Specimen-SG: 2.64-2.57
Weight 1.85ct

 

[traser579]

 

[chroman]

So we’ve got a red, a green, and a blue

The SG on the green one is really too low for peridot (unless is less peridot and more matrix). It is close to beryl otoh.

Have you tried the SG of the blue or red?

 

[traser579]

ok sorry for late reply,
Blue SG 3.3-3.6
red SG 3.35
now these sg readings aren't perfect but kinda an average of several readings

 

[chroman]

The blue SG is in the neighborhood of kyanite, I wonder if that could be it.