FMF - Friends of Minerals Forum, discussion and message board

[Forrestblyth]

I was enjoying my older collection of Dry Gill Campylite.

Under magnification and good light I have noticed they have accumulated a level of dust and this is disappointing as they had great lustre and vibrancy years ago.

I have given them a gentle air blast but am considering a short bath in DI water to remove detritus.

I wonder if they would benefit from a more intensive clean chemically and what would be the safest bet could be advised if even at all.

I do love the full range of coloured from the lemon yellows all the way up to the plumy browns.

Also on this viewing I did notice the small black crystalline inclusions on my solid yellow one. I need to look into this further. Any ideas ?

[Forrestblyth]

This specimen is my favourite and was definitely very much more vibrant.

I would hate to risk spoiling it as under the magnifying glass the barrel formed crystal structure looks superb. It is also one of my deeper coloured specimens so unique to Dry Gill.

I very much want to restore this one specimen

[Forrestblyth]

Results below of a very gentle clean with DI water equalized to mineral temperature, gently agitated with a small soft artist brush. All the accumulated dust was easily removed restoring the natural luster that I remembered.

I was very pleased with the results as I was terrified about damaging the fragile lemon yellow sprouting growth pattern. I must get my macro set up out now to record the area that tops of the barrel shaped crystal erupting into a n intensive growth stage. The pattern reminds me of a pineapple lol. The pattern probably has a scientific name but I don't know it.

Interestingly while cleaning and enjoying this portion of my collection I noticed that the more interesting specimens had that displayed the baryte Campylite combination had a notation that recorded as collected by the late Ken Savage in 1998! Interesting provenance!

[Forrestblyth]

During cleaning I also observed this unusual botryoidal shaped mineral that I had assumed was just Manganese oxide.

However I found this information on mindat

"Green et al. (2008): "Coronadite is rare in the Caldbeck Fells. It was reported by Hartley (1959) from Dry Gill Mine and is sometimes assumed to be fairly common there, but recent research has shown that almost all of the black manganese oxide that accompanies Dry Gill campylite is romanèchite."

Most interesting when taking a second look at your associated minerals during cleaning

[jose luis jara jara]

Goethite?