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Author Topic: Tips on weathering quartz crystals  (Read 941 times)

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Offline SirRawThunderMan

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Tips on weathering quartz crystals
« on: April 07, 2019, 03:21:59 AM »
I tend to buy quartz crystals from ebay, and they're usually polished, cut and shiny. The thing is, I like my saber crystals with a bit of a rough edge to them. I find they glow better when illuminated when they have flaws and inclusions and rough patches.

I've been trying to google for ideas on how to rough up quartz a bit, but most of my google searches just get results for new age "crystal healing" stuff, (about how to "spiritually heal" broken crystals) or guides on how to polish crystals and gemstones with rough edges, which is the opposite of what I'm looking for.

So, I was wondering what my fellow sabersmiths do.

I'm familiar enough with the tools used to shape quartz. I usually have to break out my dremmel's diamond wheel to cut them to fit in the first place, and I've used high grit wet and dry sandpapers to dull them a bit so they glow better. I've also used the "fried marble" technique (heat the crystal, then quench it in water) to get some interesting  cracks inside the crystal.

Any ideas?
Better late than never.

Offline jbkuma

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Re: Tips on weathering quartz crystals
« Reply #1 on: April 07, 2019, 05:06:27 AM »
Basically your "fried marble" and sanding are what I do. I've also thought about using a fluorescent lacquer, but I haven't tried that.

Offline SirRawThunderMan

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Re: Tips on weathering quartz crystals
« Reply #2 on: April 07, 2019, 05:40:51 AM »
The only problem with the "fried Marble" is that the cracks are always inside the crystal, not on the outside, which is what I'd like to do. I have tried to mix it up by localising the heat (ie blasting it with a blowtorch on one spot) and immediately dunking it in water, and my crystal exploded. So I'm writing that up as a fail.

I don't know. I think the easiest option might be to buy some raw quartz and cut it to shape myself, so I can choose what parts remain rough and which parts are smooth, but I was hoping the Saber world might have some trick I've missed.
Better late than never.

Offline UrbanAnubis

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Re: Tips on weathering quartz crystals
« Reply #3 on: May 06, 2019, 02:04:33 AM »
okay so here's what i can think of. i recently purchased a bunch of different types of quartz crystals to work with for when i rebuild my crystal chamber. i used to make them out of resin and glass and silicone molds of small double terminated crystals (this allowed me to have ultimate control over how they looked). but now i want to upgrade to the real thing. i spent all night one night polishing a small quartz with carbon inclusions in it from 220 grit sandpaper all the way up to 1500 grit. this gave it that real nice polished shine. my best guess as to what you could do would be to do something similar to this, but to leave parts of the edges at a lower grit giving it a bit cloudier finish. also applying some kind of ink, or varnish, or rub in darkening compound of some sort and just buffing off the areas you don't want to be "weathered". its hard to permanently change the exterior as you run into the above mentioned issues, as doing so usually involves the use of heat. this can cause the crystals to break. let me know what you think.

 

retrousse