Quartz

How do you differentiate between a real and fake quartz? I bought a string of mixed colour chipped quartz from my nearby bead shop. It has purple, green, light blue and light yellow brown chipped quartx stones when i washed them using sea salt + waterin a basin, some of the quartz had their colour washed off except the green one. I think I was cheated.

Hi wisteria, I am not an expert, still would recommend to go to a rock/crystal museum, fairs, shops and get a feeling for the crystals. Compare them from place to place. Pretty soon you'll have a good idea how quartz feels. Clear, rose, green, blue, smoky quartz.

Wisteria, another good idea is to do some reading, particularly regarding the different names some minerals are given. Some are labeled one thing when they are really something else. For example, Smoky Topaz is another name for Quartz. Or what might be called Swiss Jade is really just dyed jasper. Get to know these names so you don't get fooled into buying one stone thinking it is something else.

There´s blue quartz? That´s a new one for me, I´ve never seen or heard about it. For blue stones I usually think of lapis, chrysocolla or aquamarine.

There is no natural blue quartz. Any quartz that is a true blue has been dyed or treated in some other fashion.

All the best,
Ruby7

Hi quartz fellows, I've never heard of blue quartz myself, added it to the list just because it felt right

Now I made a search and ola! here it is:

http://www.mindat.org/min-26723.html
http://www.wrightsrockshop.com/gallery/bluequartz/bluequartz_gallery.htm

I did a bit of research bookwise and here's what I found in "Encyclopedia of Minerals." Quartz comes naturally in a wide variety, they being:

BLUE QUARTZ: Pale blue, grayish blue to lavender blue. Translucent. Somewhat chatoyant.

Rock Crystal: colorless, transparent.

Amethyst: various shades of purple or violet.

Citrine: pale yellow, yellow, yellow-brown, reddish brown. Transparent to translucent. Often erroneously called "topaz."

Smoky quartz: pale smoky brown to almost black. Transparent to nearly opaque. Also called cairngorm or morion.

Rose quartz: pale pink to deep rose red, occasionally with purplish tinge. Sometimes exhibits distinct asterism.

Milky quartz: Milky white to grayish white. Translucent to nearly opaque. Luster often greasy.

QUARTZ VARIETIES WITH INCLUSIONS:
Rutilated quartz: Contains distinct acicular rutile crystals in sprays or random orientation.

Aventurine: Spangled with glistening scales of micaceious minerals such as mica or hematite.

Tiger-eye: finely fibrous, chatoyant. Formed by complete or partial replacement of asbestos, especially crocidolite. Yellow, yellow-brown, brown, reddish brown, bluish; also grayish green, green.

Ferruginous quartz: contains inclusions of goethite or hematite. Brown to red.

A VARIETY OF OTHER MINERALS ARE FOUND AS INCLUSIONS IN QUARTZ CRYSTALS INCLUDING:
Tourmaline

Chalcedony: Composed of microscopic fibers. white, grayish, blue, brown, black

Agate: banded chalcedony with successive layers differing in colors

Onyx: banded agate with layers parallel to straight lines

Moss Agate: gray, bluish, or milky transparent to translucent chalcedony

Sard: uniformly colored light brown to dark brown translucent chalcedony

Carnelian: blood red, flesh red to reddish brown chalcedony

Chrysoprase: Apple green translucent subvariety of chalcedony.

Plasma: Microgranular or microfibrous variety of quartz colored various shades of green

Prase: Leek green translucent variety of quartz

Heliotrope: Greenish variety of chalcedony or plasma containing red spots of iron oxide

Bloodstone: Greenish variety of chalcedony or plasma containing red spots of iron oxide

What about red quartz? Does it come only dyed?

Feticeira, the only quartzes I know of that come close to red are Rose Quartz and Carnelian, and those are more likely to be called Rose Quartz and Carnelian, so I would be wary of someone trying to sell Red Quartz.

Bluemanticore said:

Feticeira, the only quartzes I know of that come close to red are Rose Quartz and Carnelian, and those are more likely to be called Rose Quartz and Carnelian, so I would be wary of someone trying to sell Red Quartz.

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I agree. I think I have seen some synthetic red quartz on E-Bay but natural red quartz does not exist except in the types that Bluemanticore mentions. Both of those stones are translucent to opaque and I believe the synthetic red quartz is transparent.

Ruby7