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Cleaning Skelatal Quartz?

Posted by Erica Adamczyk  
Cleaning Skelatal Quartz?
May 12, 2008 01:55PM
Hi all,

On my never-ending obsesive search for minerals, I found an amazing,slightly smoky, skelatal quartz piece in a thick mud seam. The mud is trapped in the openings between the skelatal faces and these faces appear to continue throughout the piece. The Xstal itself measures around 7"X 4". Its quite delacate, so I'm afraid to ultrasonic it (it wouldn't even fit in the ultrasonic if i tried!) so Ive been trying to shoot water through the openings in the faces with a syringe to see if that will loosen the internal mud. it kind works, but not all that great. If anyone else has any other suggestions on how to clean I would much appreciate! Thanks!

Erica
Johnny
Re: Cleaning Skelatal Quartz?
May 12, 2008 03:25PM
I have the same problem. Maybe coke product may able to clean the mub. good luck
Re: Cleaning Skelatal Quartz?
May 12, 2008 04:41PM
Erica,

This has also plagued me, likely from the same locale. One thing is that if you try acid, like Fe-out, you will likley discolor the clay, for better or worse. Bob once took my best from Kingston and cleaned with a mini-highpressure gun while in N.H., so nice of him. This worked well. Also to consider is if those voids in the crystal have been overgrown by SiO2, making the clay actual inclusions. If so, as I know you can imagine, they are then trapped and quite valuable academically.

Cheers rock-head!
Ian
Re: Cleaning Skelatal Quartz?
May 12, 2008 05:18PM
Hi Ian smiling smiley,

I ended up buying one of those pressure guns for like 50 bucks on Ebay, so if you had luck with it on your xstals, I'll try it on mine. I'm just a little weary of breaking/cracking the delacate faces, as the gun is pretty powerfull even on the lightest pressure setting. But I guess its worth a try, especially if it worked on yours. I'd rather not use acid and discolor the clay, as I'm not a fan of the way the clay looks once its in iron out. Quite possible that some are clay inclusions and I'll have to take a better look. I sent you a pic through your personal email.

Talking about inclusions also found a realy neat water clear xstal in the same clay seam with rather large "water pocket" inclusion (for lack of better term)with an actual water bubble floating around in it. its just like what you'de see in herkimer, minus the antraxolite. I'm hoping the water doesn't dry up. Its soooo cool! haha, yeah, I'm obsessed smiling smiley
avatar Re: Cleaning Skelatal Quartz?
May 12, 2008 06:34PM
gb    
The great thing about the water pressure guns is that if you're worried about the strength, just hold it further away from your specimen. Move it closer until you can start to see it shifting the dirt, but not the crystals!

Jolyon
Re: Cleaning Skelatal Quartz?
May 12, 2008 06:58PM
us    
Another trick is to let the crystal sit in warm water for a couple of days
before spraying them with the gun. Don't rush, just use the gentilspray.
Some times I need to soak them again, then repeat,

Wayne
Re: Cleaning Skelatal Quartz?
May 13, 2008 01:58PM
What about ultrasonic? Do you think its a safe bet, or no?
Re: Cleaning Skelatal Quartz?
May 13, 2008 06:50PM
Hello all!

Ericka,I face the same problem with a specimen of mine.You better don't use water pistols.In the best case you will see no effect!The cavities form a labyrinth, so the stream cannot reach at the inner surfaces.

Take a sample of the mud and send it for identification (diagnosis).When you know what kind of minerals it consists of, report it here and the users may suggest a solution so that the particles of the mud are dissolved and will most likely leave the micro cavities of the specimen.A water stream cannot reach there and drive the particles out.

However,I decided to leave my own specimen as it is.I thought this serves me as the cavities that are included are more easily visible.

Good luck!
-Kostas.
Amir AKhavan
Re: Cleaning Skelatal Quartz?
June 08, 2008 04:21PM
Hi,

One way might be to just let the mud dry and see if it shrinks and cracks.
Then it is much easier to remove it from the crevices with water.
Then let dry again and repeat etc.
If it shrinks, the mud is made of clay minerals.
If not, maybe the mud contains some calcite, then the removal is simple with diluted acid. Even if not all of it dissolves, the mud will become crumbly and more easy to remove.

Do not immediately immerse the crystal in acid though, because you do not know what happens inside the crystal and once the acid is in there it takes a long time till it is completely removed again.
Instead, first apply the acid externally only and check what happens.
This takes a lot of patience.

However, I would not remove all of the mud.
It depends on the crystal, but removing all mud may ruin the specimen.
The crystal might look very boring or its skeletal structure might not be that obvious anymore.
No one in his right mind would completely clean skeleton quartz from Poretta Terme, for example.
The mud makes for a stark contrast with the very shiny crystal faces and this looks very aesthetic.

It's a matter of taste, of course.
Just be aware that once the mud is removed, it cannot be put back into the crystal.

Amir
Re: Cleaning Skelatal Quartz?
June 24, 2008 08:23PM
Hi all,

Thanks for all the suggestions! A combo of the water gun and Iron out seemed to do the trick. Here is a pic of the piece cleaned up. Its resting on my hand for scale.

Erica
Attachments:
open | download - skltqrtz.jpg (71.9 KB)
Re: Cleaning Skelatal Quartz?
June 24, 2008 08:43PM
One more..
Attachments:
open | download - skltqrtz2.jpg (74.9 KB)
Amir Akhavan
Re: Cleaning Skelatal Quartz?
June 24, 2008 09:03PM
Hi Erica,

good job! And a big one!
Where did you find it?
I don't want GPS coordinates, plus/minus 50 km is fine for me ;-)
Just to have an idea.

Cheers
Amir
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