moonstone?

[transcendental]

Took a trip to the beach to collect pebbles to make beads. Foraged around a bunch of granite boulders along the shore, so picked up a bunch of quartz and feldspar. Got home and started washing and sorting to begin polishing and drilling and noticed a good portion of the feldspar and some of what I had assumed was white quartz had a pearlescent shine. So now I'm wondering if they are moonstone. Not very gemy but still a nice surprise if they are considering all I was looking for was quartz and just happened to like the orange of the feldspar so starred picking that up too. Second opinions welcome
imgur: the simple image sharer

 

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[Eu_citzen]

Moonstone often has a blue-ish shine. If it was white, it may just have been reflections of some sort.
Inspect them closely when wet with a strong light. Tilt and look closely, some are tricky to see.

 

[DDancer]

Microcline feldspar often displays the pearlescent affect you describing when the crystal structure is fine and semi translucent. From your pictures my opinion is that is what you have. It may polish up nicely. White feldspars and even amazonite I've collected have a radiant appearance and often can be cut to form aster cabochon's if the structure is cut right. However that type of cut is more common with crystalline feldspar.

 

[transcendental]

Thanks guys
It's definitely not that sought after blue shine but is pearlescent not just shiny. I found a bunch of beads and cabochons with this stone called peach moonstone which fits what I found nicely but I couldn't find much information on the stuff, microcline feldspar looks like it might be the technical name for peach moonstone.... not positive but seems right, please correct me if I'm wrong.
Either way it's an unexpected find and hopefully they'll polish up nicely. Some are opaque others are translucent, others the pearlescence is on the sides of the stone not the face. Now that I know this stuff is there I really can't wait to go back to the beach lol

 

[DDancer]

orthoclase, from which moonstone is derived, is also kin to microcline feldspar. The difference is how its formed and its crystal/chemical structure.

Wiki has a nice piece on it : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microcline

Also on moonstone : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moonstone_(gemstone)

 

[huntsman53]

The center stone in pic #4 and the top stone in pic #5 sure look like stream tumbled Moonstone to me.


Frank

 

[transcendental]

The center stone in pic #4 and the top stone in pic #5 sure look like stream tumbled Moonstone to me.


Frank

Ocean tumbled lol

Those wiki links were the best info I could find too but still no detailed info for moonstone without the blue still being considered moonstone.

 

[huntsman53]

Ocean tumbled lol

Those wiki links were the best info I could find too but still no detailed info for moonstone without the blue still being considered moonstone.

While I really did not catch where you got the stones, in this case it matters not as even the Ocean currents and waves tumble stones.

https://www.google.com/search?q=moo...oAQ&biw=1350&bih=512#q=raw+moonstone&tbm=isch


Frank

 

[Eu_citzen]

Moonstone gemstone information

That link is pretty good.

 

[transcendental]

Thanks

 

[hisync]

Re:Moonstone?

hi guys, i just want to ask if this egg shape gem is really a moonstone?

Moonstone: Stone of Security | Kamayo Jewelry