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Techniques for Collectorsstar quartz spheres

17th Feb 2013 22:46 UTCHenry Barwood

I have been slowly unpacking my old collection of asteriated quartz. Much of the collection was destroyed by vandalism of my parents house after my mother died 6 years ago, but about 60% of it is intact. I hope to convert some of the pieces into spheres that will display the asterism of the specimens. While at Tucson, I picked through bins of rose quartz from Brazil and Madagascar with little luck. I managed to find 7 pieces of rough from Brazil that will cut spheres to about 30 mm with minimal flaws. No such luck with Madagascar material. They had large "boulders" with nice color, but very, very internally flawed. Lots of cut spheres from the Madagascar material show nice stars, but they are full of veils, feathers, cracks, etc.

I would like to hear from any other star quartz collectors, sphere cutters who have suggestions/recommendations or anyone who would just like to compare notes. This will be my first foray back into lapidary in 40 years!

18th Feb 2013 03:15 UTCSteven Kuitems Expert

Hi Henry, my best advise is just be patient!! There is a lot of rose quartz massive material out there but keep your quality level on a high level, color and clean from flaws is still the best. By the way don't overlook USA material as there are some great pieces from Maine that turn up. On the other hand if you peruse some of the show dealers who sell finished spheres from Brazil and Madagascar you are certain to find a good one. I recently found a very nice one from Madagascar at the Franklin-Sterling Gem and Mineral show in Franklin,NJ. Out of the 100 that I examined half had decent stars and three were clean enough for my taste. Many years ago I had the same experience out in Tucson with an out door dealer who did not mind me searching about 400 large spheres from Madagascar and I found two that were almost 100% fracture free. Just keep your standard high.

Steve.

18th Feb 2013 04:20 UTCHenry Barwood

Hi Steve,

Years ago I found some rose quartz from the Scott mine in SD that was some of the nicest star material I've ever seen, comparable to the best from Madagascar. Unfortunately, larger flawless pieces appear rare from this deposit. I also collected material from the Hogg Mine near LaGrange, GA that would cut spheres up to about 30mm with no flaws, but almost nothing larger than that. My collection had examples of blue, white, rose, lavender, and smoky material with strong stars, both asterism and diasterism.from all over. Doesn't seem to be much interest in this sort of thing anymore.

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