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Tom Mazanec
Joined: 11 Feb 2016
Posts: 139
Location: Twinsburg, Ohio
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 Posted: Apr 30, 2016 10:12 Post subject: Why a "delicate subject"? |
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| Why is this described as a delicate subject? Is it controversial? Subject to double entendres? Are the specimens fragile? I don't get it. |
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alfredo
Site Admin
Joined: 30 Jan 2008
Posts: 1012
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| Posted: Apr 30, 2016 18:42 Post subject: Re: Why a "delicate subject"? |
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| What does the "this" in your question refer to? Which delicate subject? |
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Tom Mazanec
Joined: 11 Feb 2016
Posts: 139
Location: Twinsburg, Ohio
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| Posted: May 01, 2016 08:40 Post subject: Re: Why a "delicate subject"? |
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| alfredo wrote: | | What does the "this" in your question refer to? Which delicate subject? |
From the main page:
No new posts Conserving, Preparing and Cleaning Minerals
This Forum brings together questions and results on the delicate subject of preparation, conservation and cleaning of the minerals. Moderators Jordi Fabre, chris, Antonio Alcaide |
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Roy Starkey
Joined: 01 Feb 2014
Posts: 68
Location: Bromsgrove
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| Posted: May 01, 2016 08:55 Post subject: Re: Why a "delicate subject"? |
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| Tom Mazanec wrote: | | alfredo wrote: | | What does the "this" in your question refer to? Which delicate subject? |
From the main page:
No new posts Conserving, Preparing and Cleaning Minerals
This Forum brings together questions and results on the delicate subject of preparation, conservation and cleaning of the minerals. Moderators Jordi Fabre, chris, Antonio Alcaide |
Hi Tom
I too was puzzled by your post because there was no previous post to comment on.
Anyway, for what it is worth, here's my contribution. "Conserving, preparing and cleaning minerals" is a "delicate subject" because of the "ethics", or perhaps "lack of ethics" surrounding this area of collecting and curation.
At its simplest level most people would probably consider leaching calcite from a specimen to expose included (and concealed) crystals of another mineral to be "OK", BUT so long as the specimen is clearly labelled that it has been acid leached. Somewhat further up the scale might be dissolving quartz with hydrofluoric acid to expose included gold (many of the Eagle's Nest Mine specimens are created this way). This is a hazardous activity and not to be done without appropriate training and laboratory facilities.
Next we might consider the use of bead blasting / shot blasting to remove undesirable material, waxing or oiling of specimens to conceal or disguise damage.
Then there is the thorny subject of "repair" / "stabilisation" where resins or other materials may be used to impregnate the matrix of a specimen which is prone to falling apart / disintegration. This may extend to actually creating "new parts" to a crystal to repair a chip, missing element etc.
Finally, might be considered "fakes" where crystals are glued onto matrix to create a "matrix specimen", and there are plenty of these around - ranging from the sort of tourist junk you might see for sale in e.g. Morocco, and other places, to "pedigree old time" specimens where the dealer of the day thought he could get a better price by fixing e.g. a phosgenite crystal to a piece of matrix from Bage Mine (for example), no matter that the phosgenite might have come from Monteponi!
There is a whole range of other potential issues, but I'm sure that there will be other postings to address these.
Hope that helps - the old adage of "caveat emptor" applies in all cases.
Regards
Roy |
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