Quartz or Glass

[Bajahunter]

I found this point on a steep hillside outside of San Felipe, Baja California.
Is this quartz or glass? It has iridescence and what appears to be small bubbles.

 

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[Twitch]

I would say glass for exactly the two reasons you listed. Quartz will have inclusions, but not bubbles.

 

[ohio]

That is quartz. Cool point too.

Chuck

 

[bsit1361]

That is definetly quartz. Nice find

 

[Lone Star]

Man that's Quartz. It was a pretty clean crystal too. Its nice looking !!
Lone Star

 

[Bum Luck]

Glass has a mohs hardness of 5.5
A steel file has a hardness of 6.5
Quartz has a hardness of 7 to 7.5

 

[Bajahunter]

Thanks to all for all of your opinions.
When I have shown it to my friends here in San Felipe the ratio is about the same as expressed here. 80% think quartz and 20% think glass.
By the way there is a big outcropping of quartz about 5 miles away from where I found this point.
Bum Luck, you are right. The only way to know for sure is to scratch it. Not sure I want to do that though. Is it common to do a scratch test on an artifact?
Robert Kinson

 

[tmodel]

NO a scratch test on an artifact would be like scratch testing 1800 gold coin or the face of the stone in your high school ring!!!! an artifact is all face as is the gold coin a scratch would lower the value!! what you might do is go to the quartz out cropping and get some samples from there then compare them to your point.. Terry

 

[tmodel]

hay Baja!! just though of somethink i think might work! go back to the place were you found that nice point. and start finding and picking up complete heads, quarts flacks and broken heads and large peaces of quarts. compare them to that nice head of yours and see what peace of scrap looks like it.. scratch test the scrap that looks like the material of your nice point

 

[Twitch]

I'm way out of my area on this one, but has anyone ever found a piece of Quartz with bubbles in it? I've never found a quartz artifact, and never thought to look for bubbles in any of the raw quartz I've found. I put some quartz under the microscope tonight and see what I see. Thoughts are appreciated.

Thanks,
Joe

 

[1320]

I'm way out of my area on this one, but has anyone ever found a piece of Quartz with bubbles in it? I've never found a quartz artifact, and never thought to look for bubbles in any of the raw quartz I've found. I put some quartz under the microscope tonight and see what I see. Thoughts are appreciated.

Thanks,
Joe

Joe, I was leaning in your direction upon your first post then your last post got me thinking.....I've never seen glass with that many bubbles in it! My first look at the photo made me think of a soda bottle as I thought I could see "lines" in the piece. But that's way too many bubbles for a modern soda bottle made of glass I think.

 

[tmodel]

Twitch is talking about glass from when they blew bottles up out of a blob of hot glass on end of a blow pipe by lung power! early 1800 s or older and the had to be left [5 or 6] times as thick as modern glass bottles are.. glass bottles of to day are to thin to make a good looking point. i have never seen that many bobbles in glass or quartz, but i have not seen that much of eather one! no early 1800 glass or before that i know of! Terry

 

[Bajahunter]

I doubt if I will find anything else in the area. It was on a steep dry hillside. Not a home site.
I will go over to the quartz mtn. outcrop soon and look for similar quartz.
I will not do a scratch test on it.
I know the pictures don't show it well but it does have quite a bit of luminescence also.
Thanks again for every ones help.
Rob

 

[Tnmountains]

Just curious. When lightning hits sand does it create glass?

 

[jeff a]

Just curious. When lightning hits sand does it create glass?

yes it does. when i was stationed at ft irwin california we would find lightning strike glass in the desert but it had all kinds of inclusions in it, nothing like clear glass

 

[tmodel]

BaJa!! you might go and post this on bottle forum and get some answers on tinny bubbles in glass. i know i am late with this but my mind works now..