Amber Glass or Rock?

[sonnyjam]

I bought these at a sale for $2. I'm not sure what they are exactly. I thought they might have been amber, so i tried the salt water test to see if they floated and they did not. It does not burn and it has no static electricity when rubbed. Its definitely not plastic. Thanks.

 

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[dscott67]

thats a good find there you have ! i'm curious to know what it is,some good pics too!

 

[jadeblackhawk]

Looks like some sort of obsidian...

 

[ipsilateral]

I'm leaning toward slag. It could be obsudian, but the color and bubbles make me think of industrial slag, possibly from a smelter.

 

[KEYSHUNTER]

two bucks,what state...smelting looks right on

 

[zendog64]

That would be slag, which is the byproduct from iron furnaces. The color of the slag is determined by the various impurities....(for instance, greenish slag comes from copper). It can come in lots of different colors, ranging from blue and purple and green to brown and even sometimes yellow.

I know this because about 10 years ago, I found a "mother lode" of these beautiful glassy purple rocks, and I thought I had stumbled across the world's biggest naturally-occurring deposit of gemstones. Imagine my embarrasment when I took a boxful of various specimens to a local geologist who assured me that I was not going to be able to quit my day job!

A few days later I went back to the site, and realized that the huge stone pyramid about a hundred yards away from the slag pile was not an ancient Mayan ruin at all, but a 19th century iron furnace.

Yes, slag is worthless, but some of it is really beautiful. I've heard that, with the right tools, you can actually carve it and make jewelry with it...which is what I've been attempting to do with my collection (so if anyone has any experience carving slag, let me know!)

 

[NOLA_Ken]

We used to find slag like that along the railroad tracks when I was a kid, they used it to ballast the tracks. Some of it is really nice looking, and I think my mom and grandma probably still have chunks of it on their kitchen window sills. I found a chunk one time the size of a bowling ball and just the most beautiful cobalt blue.

For two bucks at least you got some nice sun catchers.

 

[Diggin-N-Dumps]

Thats Fo sho Slag..I saw a bunch when I went to Arkansas...But for 2 bucks..thats not that bad..they were selling some pieces pretty high