Need help identifing. grandpa's hidden treasures

[precious4204]

At the bottom of Grandpa's fire agate , We came across a box marked tapes and Ect. Of course being curious we open it and our mouth hit the floor. There was a bunch of beautiful Rocks. A couple I knew, right off was a 6 lb. Machalite, a few good pieces of fire agate and lace agate.
I was wondering if anyone can help identify this one to start off with. To the naked eye it is a dark navy blue almost purple in color, had a glass look and feel.with a loupe in the sun it has dark blue edge and deep purple the deeper in you look.Appears to have like pin poke effect when held against the sun. Very mouth dropping stone, eager to find out what it could be. Thank you for the help

[unclemac]

if this is not a piece of glass....it is the color of a very big and very desirable tanzanite...

[Eu_citzen]

Or more likely Amethyst from Uruguay.

[precious4204]

I don't think it is glass but not 100%. You can tell where grandpa was grinding there is a little bit of shell or rock like substance in some areas still. very little bit that is what makes me think not glass. Along with some other things he had in the box. Gold, big piece of machalite (a smaller one as well he had polished to see), great pieces of fire agate, just don't think it would be glass.
doing more research into your suggestions thank you so much.

[TallPaul45]

I would say that if you found a 6lb chunk of malachite, your piece may be Azurite, as they are both copper sulphates and found together sometimes.
I don't have my books handy right now, but I think Azurite is a 2-2.5 on the mohs.
I don't know Tanzanite to be that dark a color.

[precious4204]

Done some more looking and don't think it is Amethyst, I did find some amethyst crystals in another collection grandpa had along with some different pics, just not seeing the amethyst. But thank you. Tanzanite is more close of a match but not quite, if the Mohs is 2 - 2.5 should I be able to cut with a knife? It is a fairly hard material. Working with a bunch of his fire agate but these new finds are really interesting. I will post more pics of the other things found in this box & hopefully get a better idea. Again thanks to everyone for their help, much appreciated.

This piece was in the box as well. Any ideas?

[precious4204]

Here is a few more things found in grandpa's hidden box
This one kinda looks like crystal but has a real pearl look under the sun. It also has thin little green tubular things running through it and a small growth on one side. heavy for the size. Any help

[precious4204]

I was working with what I had. I will try to get better pics up.

[Eu_citzen]

The first picture looked on my screen purple and blue - typical of Amethyst from Uruguay.
Depending on the light one of the colours stands out more.
Amethyst has a hardness of 7 - can't scratch it with a knife.

Azurite is very, very rare in that quality and size - very unlikely.
Cuts easily with a knife.

Amethyst from Uruguay:

[Eu_citzen]

PS. I believe Azurite and Malachite are both copper carbonates.

[TallPaul45]

Zoisite (Tanzanite variety is blue and Thulite is yellow/brown, greenish & pink) has a Mohs of 6 - 6.5. Azurite has a mohs of 2 - 2.5, and is found (sometimes) with Malachite (mohs 3.5 - 4)

Your second blue photo looks a little like slag glass.

Your photo of the quartz with green 'tubular things' may be epidote (mohs 6 - 7) or diopside (mohs 5 - 6) in quartz.

[precious4204]

Wizzard, I am not arguing either. I very much appreciate your help even taking pictures. I am new to this and with my digital camera it makes it very hard for me to see what exactly I am taking a pic of. Constructive criticism is the a way to learn right. LOL
The dark navy blue does have some blue on the edges and a deep purple the more light you can get in there. Like I said I am new to this so please toss anything at me.
I have taken a couple more pics in hope that it may help with more details. If it doesn't then I will have to borrow a camera for this.
again thanks for all the help.

[Bajahunter]

A step in the right direction photo wise. Try to fill the lens with just one rock on a solid color background. Natural outdoor light will give the truest colors.
Check to see if you can put your camera into center focus only mode instead of area focus that tries to get everything in the picture in focus.
Can you scratch any of these stones with a penny?

[TallPaul45]

You are correct Eu_citzen, copper carbonate (I swear, all these 'ates' and 'ites' get mixed up in my head)

I found my books and Azurite has a mohs of 3.5 - 4, not 2+ as I previously stated. My apologies.

[precious4204]

Wizzard, Thank you for understanding but most of all the help.
Thanks to everyone who took the time to give some kind of feed back.
I have found a piece in the same box that grandpa was working (made into a tear drop) it has the same dark blue color but also green. My husband and I have decided to just cut into it and see what inside really holds and since we are new to this anyhow, we are going to try to jump and work it (as grandpa would say). Kinda learn & google as we go LOL
Grandpa worked in a smelter and had stumbled upon several unknown spots in the morenci, globe & tuscon area.I remember him telling us that where he use to go get his fire agate, you are not allowed on anymore. Or how the ants will show you to a ruby/ garnet (can't remember exactly). What I do know is that grandpa found most of his stuff walking around, he didn't get into attending gem shows and stuff. He read lots of books and relied on Smithonia for his information & he still would tell you honestly if he didn't know to go read it in the library. LOL.
Again Thanks for the direction, at least I can do more reading on those and have an idea as we disect it.

[precious4204]

I will keep you posted Wizzard and thank you so much for sharing.
I did look at some of the tourmalated quartz and was wondering.... it looks identical to what I have but the black streaks I don't have. Mine are green. under a loupe (not sure magnification, it was grandpas) it looks like real thin dark green tubes. Is it the same?
Tried getting a better picture of it but the camera isn't cooperating. Can't really get the green. I don't have a light box, haven't stumbled upon that yet. LOL

[precious4204]

Thanks again Wizzard. I had to take another look at it just to make sure and yes, it is dark green thin tubes. Looks just like the black but only green. LOL You solved this one and I thank you so much.


I have another one I need to verify and not sure how this group thing works. Can I post to this or should I make a new topic?

[Eu_citzen]

Just a heads up Wizard:

Bi-colour (Rare)
Blue (Uncommon)
Red (Uncommon)

It should say in IMHO.
Prices are sky rocketing these days, and I've heard that Nigeria just forbid explosives during mining of tourmaline etc.
Prices are going up, again, if it is true.

[precious4204]

Thanks again to everyone for their help, it is deeply appreciated.
Wizzard; I have read some of your home made things to get you going and was really impressed. It got my imagination going.
Although grandpa did leave a lot of his saws n things, we have found enough to get started but plan on keeping some of your ideas close at hand. If you don't mind?
I have been using a drimmel (lol) with the fire agate because a saw kinda scares me (son lost a finger to a saw) so I will try it out on these. Figure small areas are better for goofs than a big one.
I am posting another that I thought was Machalite but now being told it is possibly Chrysocolla ( not sure of spelling). I have a chunck of both and it looks like MAchalite to me. They say it can't be because it is about 6 lbs. Told them grandpa was right when he said "we just don't realize what he gave us". They still say "no way".
I know I am not a pro, so looking to you all for help. Hope the pics are good

[Eu_citzen]

Malachite, not Chrysocolla which is blue in colour.
Good luck with the Fire agate, they are one of the toughest agates to work.
Be careful and use lots of water to cool it.

Don't worry about rock saws, they don't use "teeth" to saw like the common saws.
These things have tiny diamonds embedded in the metal which basically grinds ("saws") away a thin section of the rock.

The most common problem with them is that people use to much pressure - thus making the metal hot, the hot metal can then cover the diamonds and the saw goes from good to bad rather quickly.

If it should go there quickly a file, due to files being made from hardened steel they are good to remove the over lying metal that covers the diamonds.