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Author Topic: Just how do you go about "cracking" a crystal, anyway?  (Read 4064 times)

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Offline jbkuma

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Re: Just how do you go about "cracking" a crystal, anyway?
« Reply #15 on: November 06, 2017, 02:05:38 PM »
It's just heavily cracked and just as clear.  The smoked appearance is just a limitation of photography, that's why I tried getting with and without flash.

Offline Ridire Fíréan

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Re: Just how do you go about "cracking" a crystal, anyway?
« Reply #16 on: November 06, 2017, 02:23:25 PM »
HA!  Excellent @jbkuma  !  I thought maybe you'd gone a little Cave-Jedi on it and heated it with some burning coals to add a carbon scored effect or something.

I don't quite feel like absorbing the health risk, but I'm sure you could find some chemicals to alter the color of the crystal.  I don't know how they do it exactly, but I know the Aqua Aura Quartz crystals are fused with gold vapor to produce their blue color.

I still want to find someone who works with glass to make me some Glow-In-The-Dark crystals!  That'd be spectacular in a Crystal Chamber!!!

Offline SirRawThunderMan

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Re: Just how do you go about "cracking" a crystal, anyway?
« Reply #17 on: November 06, 2017, 03:03:10 PM »
Hey @SirRawThunderMan  !  One more question for you... Did your crystal crack in half or did you break it intentionally?  I just saw the caliper photos of the crystal in one piece in your flickr album and I'm wondering how it became two pieces.

Yeah, I cut it in half. I was going to save one half, so I could have a before/after comparison in the same picture, but then I got distracted and put both halves in the oven :cheesy:

As for glow in the dark crystals, I've definitely seen that before here. I think someone did a radioactive-themed saber a while back with a glow in the dark crystal as a pseudo-uranium rod, and it looked pretty cool. sadly, I think that one went down with photobucket  :sad:

one thing I have wondered about is making a crystal the glows under a UV light, and then adding a UV accent LED. I think it'd be an interesting thing, but given how little I get to reveal the CC  on the sabers I've built so far, I kinda think it'd be a bit of a waste of effort.
Better late than never.

Offline jbkuma

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Re: Just how do you go about "cracking" a crystal, anyway?
« Reply #18 on: November 06, 2017, 03:10:33 PM »
one thing I have wondered about is making a crystal the glows under a UV light, and then adding a UV accent LED. I think it'd be an interesting thing, but given how little I get to reveal the CC  on the sabers I've built so far, I kinda think it'd be a bit of a waste of effort.
This can almost certainly be done with resin casting if you aren't concerned with having an actual crystal.

Offline Ridire Fíréan

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Re: Just how do you go about "cracking" a crystal, anyway?
« Reply #19 on: November 06, 2017, 04:07:35 PM »
Hey Guys!  Check this out...

Green glow in the dark necklace Git for her Glow Necklace

... not sure I want anything that glows in the dark and comes from the Ukraine though! :cheesy:

But I do like the idea!

You could even have a crystal with a full grown midi-chlorian encapsulated inside it...

Glow in the dark necklace / Glowing Necklace / Crystal Point

Hahaha!

Off to look up my glow-powder bookmarks.

Offline Ridire Fíréan

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Re: Just how do you go about "cracking" a crystal, anyway?
« Reply #20 on: November 06, 2017, 04:29:35 PM »
O.K.  Just one more, this one is done by a gal from Canada, Papillon9 on Etsy...

Luminous DANDELION seeds pendant GLOW in the DARK

... and it gives me a idea that I could use small chopped strands of fiberglass along with the glow powder or glow nuggets inbedded in resin to make a fractured/fibrous growing cystal.
« Last Edit: November 06, 2017, 04:37:17 PM by Ridire Fíréan »

Offline SirRawThunderMan

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Re: Just how do you go about "cracking" a crystal, anyway?
« Reply #21 on: November 06, 2017, 04:44:51 PM »
one thing I have wondered about is making a crystal the glows under a UV light, and then adding a UV accent LED. I think it'd be an interesting thing, but given how little I get to reveal the CC  on the sabers I've built so far, I kinda think it'd be a bit of a waste of effort.
This can almost certainly be done with resin casting if you aren't concerned with having an actual crystal.

Oh, I agree, it would be a simple thing to do, I'm just not sure if it would be worth actually doing. I mean, I can't really imagine a scenario where I would want to show off a crystal chamber in the dark. Maybe if you're designing a saber for someone cosplaying as an alien Jedi who can see the UV spectrum? I dunno. It's an interesting idea, I just can't see much in the way of applications for it.
Better late than never.

Offline profezzorn

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Re: Just how do you go about "cracking" a crystal, anyway?
« Reply #22 on: November 08, 2017, 03:42:24 PM »
I wonder if you could inject color or fluorescent material into a cracked crystal with a pressure cooker?

Offline SirRawThunderMan

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Re: Just how do you go about "cracking" a crystal, anyway?
« Reply #23 on: November 09, 2017, 05:24:04 AM »
I'm not sure what you mean. I'm familiar with stabilizing wood with resin and a vacuum chamber, and I think that might be an interesting thing to try with a cracked crystal (for someone who has a vacuum chamber, which I don't.)

But how on earth would you go using a pressure cooker to inject colour into a crystal?
Better late than never.

Offline profezzorn

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Re: Just how do you go about "cracking" a crystal, anyway?
« Reply #24 on: November 09, 2017, 10:32:08 AM »
My idea was to get some Fluorescein, dissolve it in some water and stuck it in a pressure cooker with some cracked marbles. Take it outside and cook it for a while and see what happens. :)
A vacuum chamber might be better though.
 

Offline SirRawThunderMan

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Re: Just how do you go about "cracking" a crystal, anyway?
« Reply #25 on: November 09, 2017, 12:00:16 PM »
Huh. Well, I had no idea you could use a pressure cooker to do something like that.
Better late than never.

 

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