EricTheCat
Sr. Member
To quote from Monty Python "and now for something completely different".
I had some time last week and decided to finally find out how hard it is to extract garnets from a mica schist. This is from material I collected from an old mine in South Dakota a few years ago.
It turns out it wasn't that hard to do with a long nose pliers and a vice-grips to crush larger chunks.
These are not gem quality. They are too small to cut and do anything usual with them. I just think they look cool in little containers and since I have a lot of this material I am out nothing but time.
So far I have completely crushed one specimen. I estimate I have about 20 times that material but who knows when I will take the time to extract more.
If anyone decides to do the same with this kind of material definitely wear safety glasses and a mask like you would for most lapidary.
Quarter for scale:
Here is an example of the source material.
Happy hunting.
I had some time last week and decided to finally find out how hard it is to extract garnets from a mica schist. This is from material I collected from an old mine in South Dakota a few years ago.
It turns out it wasn't that hard to do with a long nose pliers and a vice-grips to crush larger chunks.
These are not gem quality. They are too small to cut and do anything usual with them. I just think they look cool in little containers and since I have a lot of this material I am out nothing but time.
So far I have completely crushed one specimen. I estimate I have about 20 times that material but who knows when I will take the time to extract more.
If anyone decides to do the same with this kind of material definitely wear safety glasses and a mask like you would for most lapidary.
Quarter for scale:
Here is an example of the source material.
Happy hunting.
