FMF - Friends of Minerals Forum, discussion and message board

[wade]

Chinese Rhodo King before and after being repaired and cleaned.

[Jordi Fabre]

Very interesting Wade, thanks to share.

[h.abbasi]

How they can clean the specimens?

[vicen]

No news about how it has been clean!
It would be really interesting to share about how the specimen became so beautiful

[Maxilos]

It keeps me amazed how some people can clean something dull into a spectaculair rhodo. I would almost say: This rhodo is a true piece of art! Both for the cleaning and the mineral itself! Magnificent and formidable.

Mark

[ian jones]

It has been somewhat more than cleaned, it has been extensively prepared.

But it is still a spectacular thing and it would certainly be interesting to know just how it got to its current state.

You can speculate on what might have been done, but I doubt that anyone will want to make their preparation techniques public knowledge.

[lluis]

Good evening

Well, not totally disclosed, of course, and not apllied to a rhodo, but was shown step by step how a tourmaline from China was prepared by same seller, if I my memory serves me well.
That is in last or maybe before last number of Mineralogical Record.

On the other side, one thing is to know technique and other is to be able to execute it
e.g: I could read a book on neurochyrurgy, with explanied technology to extirp a tumor from brain.
If anyone lets me do this, well, he will survive a very short time, I fear.
Or, as another case, I know technique about varnish fourniture with natural barnish, I tried it several times for the laughs of my uncle that was ebenist and knows technique....and had done this a lot of times. When he did, looked easy. When I did, always I get the sticky point and ruined the work at last step.

Other is what I think about such extensive preparation.
I suppose that the better way to describe it, would be "work of art" category for my taste. Not mineralogy.
But to each one his own, no?

With best wishes

Lluís

[Jesse Fisher]

To speculate on how the specimen was cleaned and prepared, one would need to know just what the original coating/overgrowth was. If it was a silicate such as fine grained quartz, feldspar or clays, I suspect an initial bath in dilute HF would have been done to loosen it. Rhodochrosite is less reactive to acids than calcite and a brief soak in a weak acid would likely have had little effect on it. After the coating was loosened, an air abrasive using a soft powder such as plastic could be used to remove it. After that, I am sure that any fractures and/or damage were filled with a non-yellowing epoxy colored to match the specimen. Restoration such as this seems to be standard practice for any specimen of value these days.

[ian jones]

So, not just a wash and brush-up then!

[Tobi]

A gorgeous specimen! ... And it looks "slightly" better AFTER cleaning ;-)