After harvesting all sorts of rocks and cleaning accordingly with either vinegar, lemon juice, muriatic acid, iron out, etc I let them sit in distilled water but I've had a consistent problem after drying them in which a chalky white efflorescence/calcite always seems to come about, sometimes making them look worse than when I first got them. It's been frustrating that it happens before I can clear coat to give them a wet look :( they look awesome after the cleaning but I just need my clean rocks to dry without the cloudy white mineralization taking over. Please advise on how to prevent this. Thank you so much for your time!
Awesome video. I'm still in the process of cleaning the pieces I have when I was up there a couple weeks after you. Even though I have been collecting minerals since I was a kid, I am still very new to the world of minerals. I have been having a little trouble identifying what I got from Wilberforce. I'm pretty sure I have some tremolite, but thanks to this video I'm now pretty sure the majority of the rest is actinolite. Is the small gem you showed near the start titanite? I have a bunch of those on some of my pieces. Like your video mine are very small as well. There is one that isn't fully uncovered yet but has about 1.5 cm exposed. I'm hoping to get up there again in the next month or so.
Yes sometimes finding the minerals is the easy part.. the cleaning and preparation can take weeks! I wouldn't worry about being new, we all were at some point. There's a lot of helpful people around, and also buy Michael's books, tons of great information in there. The link is on his videos. Identifying minerals can be a huge challenge for sure. Tomorrow I hope to have another video up on Specific Gravity and how to use it to identify what you have. Yes the small glowing gem was Titanite, but that one is pretty rare. There are a lot of small minerals that look exactly alike, so without spending money on having them tested you can use Specific Gravity to check, it's very accurate. What you found sounds really nice, hopefully see some photos of them someday. We're heading up there again this weekend chasing gem Titanite, and may stop back again for more Tremolite.
Yeah I have already bought Michaels first book and I'm hoping to get the second soon. It has been a good read. I watched your other video and I will have to grab some of the Super Iron Out to finish off the cleaning process for some of my small pieces. Once everything's done I will take some pictures of the finished pieces. I'm not sure where exactly you are headed this weekend, but I figure I should let you know that the mining grounds at bear lake have been sold by the Bancroft Chamber of Commerce. As of May this year all mining is banned there since it's private property now.
Good Stuff. Ya Super Iron out works wonders for iron staining. Just rinse and soak afterwards for at least as long as they were in the solutions. I forgot to add that part, might have to fix the video. We've never been to Bear Lake as I heard it was pretty picked over. Sad this is now closed to the public though, thanks for the tip. We're exploring around Wilberforce this trip, gem Titanite is pretty rare so we're hoping to find some larger pieces. I'm hoping to spend a few hours collecting Tremolite as well, a few smaller pieces I have are facet quality, would be nice to have some larget ones too.
Great video thx for posting... I love Titinite crystals I have found a few from Titinite Hill and only recently studied them under light to notice the amazing fire in them. Just love that area for rock hounding.take care Cathy from Whitby Ontario!
Titanite is one of our favourites as well, so much fire in some of them. I can see why they say they have more fire then diamond. Still on the hunt for gem quality in Ontario but I think we all might looking for a very long time! haha
Hi there! I do have some calcite built up on one of my fluorite specimens and was wondering if by your experience, would putting in that acid etch fluorite?
Hello, I haven't done any specific work with Fluorite in acid, but I remember throwing in a small tester piece with one of my batches. From what I remember it didn't etch it as far as I could see but the piece was very small. the best way to be sure is to use a test piece if you have one and see how that goes. I have some purple Fluorite from Shickler I'll and try out, been meaning to just haven't had time. I'll let you know how it goes.
Joshua Chong . Yes it will etch fluorite, especially the transparent variety!! It will dull the surface.. Schicker fluorite is of massive and granular variety, no real crystal form so there really is no point to removing the calcite?
Good question, yes there are many that Muriatic Acid will destroy. Gemstones no I can't think of any, but research first if attempting. Calcites, Phosphates, Limestone, etc. will all be affected by acids. Always be sure to test on non specimen quality material first.
@@RoughMarket is it possible to apply the acid to just specific parts. Like using an eye dropper to target specific spots if you want to leave alittle calcite for visual effect
You really don't have to dilute HCL, I know it says so on instructions, but HCL is already diluted. of you wanted it weaker use something else, like citric acid or even weaker than that acetic acid, vineger
It really depends on the application and the mineral. I have another batch going for several months in vinegar and can take 6-8 months to fully dissolve the Calcite. HCL is not diluted by dilution standards out of the container.
@@RoughMarket ok, which is why I suggested other things to use in it's place. I totally agree that it depends on the application. Citric acid is stronger than Acetic, but weaker than HCL, and HCL is way weaker than HFL And are totally used for different things because of their strengths HCL will dissolve things that citric or acetic would take a very long time to do, but acetic is totally safe to use using no gloves and little safety precautions. Where the other two need precautions
@@RoughMarket hcl takes minutes, citric takes hours acetic takes days These are when you check your stones for etching and what's happening and adjust accordingly and or refresh solutions
@@robertbradford3461 All good choices for use with differing minerals as to not etch or destroy them. Apatite is especially sensitive and can easily be ruined if not careful.
@@RoughMarket well with stones like that, that are subject to damage from even weaker acids or from leaching of the said acid, should probably use a dremel instead and do the work, ya?
