Original Message:   Re: crude "jade", ID help?

I agree on the jasper but the light butterscotch ones are fairly typical massive alluvial quartz, quartz that has taken iron in but has not been heat treated. They are different from a calcedony or jasper because they have a crystalline structure not a slightly harder micro crystalline structure.You can see small pits in one which is very typical. North America has some very hard serpentines , up to a 5 on the mohs scale , the same as feldspar, but I have never seen a serpentine product from the rest of the world nor seen an academic reference from any other locale of a serpentine that is atypically hard. I found the image very interesting because I hoped to find a vesuvianite or grossular bead in the mix.With a matt finish they can look similar , are very hard and are fairly widespread and were used as lithic drill bits yet I have never seen a bead of either rough. Copyright 2024 All rights reserved by Bead Collector Network and its users

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