I'm very interested in clear quartz with any kind of inclusions, however I'm wondering if there would be any treatments I should beware of when buying inclusion quartz?
For instance...
Any heating to make opaque inclusions more golden, more red, or even irridescent? For instance, I know tiger eye quartz is beeing heated to make the crocidolite fibers turn red. So I wonder if such kind of treatment could also work for minerals fully included in quartz (ie. rutile, hematite, goethite, lepidocrocite, crocidolite, ilmenite, dumortierite, covellite...), proceeding either in oxidizing or reducing atmosphere. I've seen quartz with inclusions that were just so golden or so bright red that I got suspicious about some kind of heat treament...
Any heating or irradiation to make transparent included crystals colored, or to intensify/change the color of included transparent crystals (just as is beeing done with many gems)? I guess irradiation of clear colorless or milky quartz would always (??) turn it smokey, so only heating should be considered a concern, right?
Any faked or artificial inclusions reported? I know there is chalcedony (agate) with artificial dendritic inclusions (same treatment is probably also possible for opal as it is porous material), but is there any report of quartz with imitated or artificial inclusions?
Any doublet quartz stones with man made inclusions in between?
Any wallet-threatening mislabelling frauds? For instance, I've heard of chrysocolla included quartz beeing sold for ajoite included quartz...which makes a big price difference!
Well, I might be a little too paranoid on that one, but if you've heard about any inclusions quartz treatments, please share.
Post subject: Re: any inclusion quartz treatments?
Posted: Fri Sep 17, 2010 9:50 pm
Gemology Online Veteran
Joined: Sun Dec 30, 2007 12:01 am Posts: 556 Location: Vancouver, Canada
Hello cascaillou,
I have to admit I was willing to dismiss your post as a "who would bother" question. After rereading however I realised you know more about this market than I do, and probably a lot of others too. It would seem to me that the only buyers in this market are likely to be quite knowledgeable and hardly likely to be fooled.
All of the treatments I've encountered were of the kind that makes the unsellable worth a buck, often that is exactly the price. Dyed agate to name a few.
I did wonder about my 'strawberry Quartz' until I saw a picture of a crystal with a much more vivid red Goethite than mine.
If you'll excuse the flippancy, a cutter on the USFG list made a quartz doublet with an inclusion...a Ferrari logo decal.
Post subject: Re: any inclusion quartz treatments?
Posted: Fri Sep 17, 2010 10:18 pm
Gold Member
Joined: Thu May 29, 2008 8:32 am Posts: 1730 Location: Suwanee, GA US
The "Inclusion" to have is one I just freeformed. I cut a piece of Diamond Hill Amethyst. As I got ready to preform, I noticed an inclusion and took it to the saw instead. I created a freeform Enhydro crystal with a mix of natural and cut facets. About half the faces are natural with natural "polish". And they are hard to fake because if you heated the material, they tend to break the crystal.
Post subject: Re: any inclusion quartz treatments?
Posted: Fri Sep 17, 2010 11:27 pm
Gold Member
Joined: Sun Jun 28, 2009 9:56 am Posts: 1284
Quote:
"who would bother"
only collectors actually.
I know this thread is quite specific, so let me explain my motivations:
As a long time mineral collector, I've learnt that choosing a specimen wisely isn't that simple, I think it requires much knowledge of the specie in the first place, and therefore knowledge of possible treatments is a real concern. And, considering that even poorly commercial stuff are beeing enhanced nowdays (irradiated fluorite for instance), I do wonder about inclusion quartz. That's why this thread.
Last edited by cascaillou on Fri Sep 17, 2010 11:35 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Post subject: Re: any inclusion quartz treatments?
Posted: Fri Sep 17, 2010 11:34 pm
Gemology Online Veteran
Joined: Sat Jul 11, 2009 10:29 am Posts: 928 Location: USA
There is some fake dendretic stuff yes, but it couldn't fool but a fool to be honest! Looks more like some dust bunnies off the shop floor then anything, lol.
I have also seen the composite stones with things in between the separate pieces.
I have seen the fused quartz/quartz glass with stuff in them as well, but even a simple 10x loupe gives them away pretty easily.
They are definitely attempting to do it, I just don't think they are even close from what I have seen. But I would NOT rule out the possibility as you never know when they will suddenly perfect it, lol!
Post subject: Re: any inclusion quartz treatments?
Posted: Fri Sep 17, 2010 11:42 pm
Gold Member
Joined: Sun Jun 28, 2009 9:56 am Posts: 1284
That's fun as I had thought that something could be done with fused quartz. Thanks for the info. Now, one of my main concerns is whether or not they are heating the rutile included quartz and the hematite/lepidocrocite included quartz to get better colors (meaning golden or bright red), any imput?
Post subject: Re: any inclusion quartz treatments?
Posted: Sat Sep 18, 2010 12:47 am
Gemology Online Veteran
Joined: Sat Jul 11, 2009 10:29 am Posts: 928 Location: USA
No clue on the heating part. Sorry. I haven't encountered much of it and the few samples I have, including an amethyst with lepido inclusions, have all not really shown anything indicative of heating.
Post subject: Re: any inclusion quartz treatments?
Posted: Mon Sep 20, 2010 6:32 pm
Gemology Online Übergoddess
Joined: Tue Nov 06, 2007 3:16 am Posts: 3170
howdee, cascaillou!!
there's some quartz (agate) with faux inclusions called 'fischer stone.' don't know much about it though. here's an article on it though from rare rocks and gems.com: http://www.rarerocksandgems.com/article ... _stone.htm
here's a nice post from the forum on inclusions in quartz: (in my faves--would love to find something like the dendritic quartz that mr. ron/theimage1 posted on the 5th page--it's triangular shaped--looks like a fan--just beautiful!! ) viewtopic.php?f=21&t=1075
Post subject: Re: any inclusion quartz treatments?
Posted: Tue Sep 21, 2010 12:50 pm
Gold Member
Joined: Sun Jun 28, 2009 9:56 am Posts: 1284
thanks a lot for the 'fischer stone' info gingerkid, nice to see what it looks like
sure some dendritic quartz are gorgeous. One of the most incredible picture of inclusion quartz I've seen was a tiny quartz crystal featuring a large cloud of bright red cinnabar flakes surrounded by a myriad of shiny metallic droplets of liquid native mercury trapped inside the quartz. I'm dreaming of finding such a quartz for sale ever since then.
ps: concerning rough inclusion quartz crystals, let's mention that many of these have had their faces polished to make the inclusions more visible. Polished quartz crystals will not show growth striaes on the crystal prism faces anymore. The polished faces will tend to be a little curved and the edges are usually 'soft' (I mean not sharp anymore). In the nature, crystals faces tend to have small imperfections, which you won't see in a polished crystal which will have very smooth surface. Also, it happens that the angles of a heavily polished or re-cut crystal are wrong (while quartz natural crystal shape show constant characteristic angles).
Post subject: Re: any inclusion quartz treatments?
Posted: Mon Jul 29, 2013 7:13 am
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Joined: Sun Jun 28, 2009 9:56 am Posts: 1284
interesting update to this topic: http://www.gia.edu/doi/10_5741-GEMS_25_3_165 This is about so called 'rutilated' topaz with rutile-like inclusions which are actually topaz with etched dislocation channels colored by epigenetically derived limonitic compounds that is to say by a mix of lepidocrocite and goethite mainly. Thus the inclusions are brownish yellow. Now the document states that such inclusions are heated (400°C) so to convert the limonite into dark red-brown hematite, so to modify the color of inclusions.
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