FMF - Friends of Minerals Forum, discussion and message board

[DarkanWarior]

I've got this specimen from Etsy, usually I'm well aware of fake crystals and can identify many of them but with quartz is always the same tabu.

While the "titanium layer" came out to be a paint I'm having trouble with the crystal form itself. I tried scratch it to see whats the structure of the quartz if its just a glass/plastic or not. What is interesting is the formation of crystal that appears to be natural, I analyzed it so far by testing it many ways and these are the results:
- It appears very cold nearly icy-cold when touching the scratched part (its still cold even when touching painted parts)
- it could cut the glass and make lines without being damaged
- It appears heat resistant (it doesn't melt on high temperature - tested on kitchen's burner)
- doesn't appear to have inside bubbles
- the formation seem very natural compared to regular lab made crystals and doesn't have mold outside.

The only thing I havent tested is the UV/fluorescence light but not sure if that would help. And other issue is how to get rid of the paint completly without damaging the crystal any ideas?

Any experts or crystal specialist who will help me solving this problem?

[Matt_Zukowski]

The form looks like it could be quartz, but i cant be sure from 3 fuzzy pictures. You also said it scratches glass. This plus the form makes me think it is quartz.

Go to the website mindat and look at pictures of quartz and compare them to what you have.
https://www.mindat.org/min-3337.html
https://www.mindat.org/gm/3337

We have a section on this website describing some simple tests you can do to help identify minerals. It might be useful to you.
https://www.mineral-forum.com/message-board/viewtopic.php?t=1936

Finally, and i hope this is not too snarky, but if you are interested in minerals perhaps you might consider focusing on natural things - not things coated in paint or whatever. We here spend zero time on such manufactured "specimens." We also don't care about lapidary or cut gems. Poke around on this website and on mindat and you will see what i mean.

Good luck.

[Jesse Fisher]

Quartz (and sometimes other minerals) treated to an evaporated or diffused coating of titanium. Known commercially as "Aqua Aura", first appeared on the market in the mid 1990s as I recall.

[DarkanWarior]

What you mean by "fuzzy" I posted full quality pictures, each shows specific details.
I'm collecting crystals and stones for years and never had any issues but always wanted to have titanium quartz in my collection and I know that they can be made with natural minerals, first time encountering situation when crystal is painted, I looked through the links you sent and it seems its 70% real but I wont have complete view and proof until I get rid of this paint which is difficult, the acetone hardly works, If I could completly remove this paint I could investigate it better under scope and with other means.


I appreciate your feedback.

[Tobi]

[James Catmur]

Take the photos by placing the item on a sheet of white pattern free paper. That way that camera focuses on the item not the background