I’m in York PA and i am just learn how to do most of this stuff. I inherited my stepfathers gems tools and passion for setting stones after his passing 4 year ago to cancer.
I had been rockhounding, and with my location i had ammassed quiet a collection just weeding flower beds. However when i started to try to identify some stones i found that my Clear quartz… wasn’t.
I have now discovered i live on a good deal of beryl. However a specific gravity test on a 19ct stone with little pink and blue fire, I am getting results Hamburgite. I know i have soil components for it but has anyone else heard of it being found in south central Pennsylvania? I never trust myself if im the first…
SG results tend to vary a bit due to various errors, so you should have a range of possibilities rather than one. IDK about pink and blue fire. I’m not aware of hamburgite having fire. Perhaps you mean dispersive fire? You might se if you can find someone to do a RI on your stone, which would involve polishing a face on it…-royjohn
I will see if i can get a good picture of the optically effects. I have been a very active little detective but i keep getting weird things i don’t expect.
So thanks for your insight.
Sorry I realized that I didn’t know what happens when you responded from email so i figured id respond here too.
Im fairly sure this is feldspar i have crystal clear feldspar and sphalerite the sphalerite is easily identified now that i know the feel of it i can easily tell it from glass just by temperature and sound. The feldspar is harder to be sure about because it actually seems like it is HARDER THAN QUARTZ!!! It has also been impossible to get any one to take me seriously and no one has been willing to look at it closely even when i offered to mail a sample.
Every one here assumes they know everything about the complex geology of the town despite the fact that the maps Clearly say that the surveys were not able to get information on much more than the e surface and the layers are an estimate baised ilon similar areas in ohio and Apalachicola.
I on the other hand am running every test i can and being told “thats impossible” “your delusional” “theres no way”
“I grew up a block from there i would know” “your just an amiture”
“Yeah lol im sure it is”
(Testingfor diamond) "FAKE ITS FAKE " i know it is not diamond byt your the closest GIA certified gemologist…
“WE onlt deal in cut stones i can’t tell you what this is… you need a geologist not a gemologist.”
Then they gave ne a phone number to a 85 year old local geologist who agreed to look at my stones and then never showed up.
So …
For over a year because I wasn’t getting answers i decided to take the classes here.
But i cant exactly afford the Testing equipment yet. my scale was crap.
My tools are hand me down from my dead stepfather who got them 2nd hand.
I am disabled and autistic but im a spacial thinker i have a high iq and a passion for natural science, so I think in patterns and abstractions this is a special interest and i still cant be sure.
Honestly i just need to identify some of this so im comfortable selling it to raise money for a non profit im trying to start. But i cant sell till i set up the non-profit and i cant do that unless i sell enough to get a lawyer… in the meantime I’m basically doing all the non-profit outreach and making progress with helping the people i want to help now i have 10,000+ people want me to come to India to thank me and I don’t even know where to start lol
I am sorry it has been so hard for you to get this identified. You do need a geologist not a gemologist. Have u iu just been finding these stones kn the surface or have they been deeper down in thr soil? You may have a situations similar to the Ellensburg Blue Agate where they only are found in a small somewhat concentrated area. Maybe if you send some more photos from different angles and different lighting the community here might be able to help.
Lol thanks im finding them both on the surface and deeper i know i have sphalerite thatbi have been able to confirm its concentrated at a old closed cement factory 2 blocks away and a band of it angles up in my homes direction. Along with azurite and malachite that frequently comes up in my back yard. (That one i was told was paint or chalk lol and why i dont bother with the rockhounds on reddit anymore) our sidewalks and streets sparkle after a rainstorm its honestly beautiful.
Feldspar or Quartz…yeah no pictures is going to make that determination any easier. I just don’t know if some of it may be something else.
