it broke!!!! :'(

I have a lovely fluorite tabbie which i keep in a bag in a box:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v179/sagewriter/spiritual/fluoritetabbie.jpg


I took it out today, and it has broken into two pieces I'm distraught!! Could I just superglue them together, or is that wrong? I can't bare to see it like this, it was such a perfect size for my hand, ack, i want to cry!!

i could always keep the bigger piece here (at my uni home) and take the smaller bit back home (my room at home doesn't have many crystals as the majority are with me at university). but i don't know

I am so sorry it has broken, it is gorgeous.

Superglue is very brittle and everytime I have tried it the pieces have fallen apart again when I go back to them. I'm afraid I can't tell you what would work though because I haven't found it...

I hope someone else can help you to find a glue which will work

~lady

The best kind of glue for this would be Araldite, as it dries clear, is pretty strong and it's easy to remove if you don't like the effect. To remove it all you have to do is warm it (a very low oven works), pull the pieces apart and clean the item up.

I agreee with Tabbycat that an apoxy resin type glue such as araldite would work best....

Good luck with it.

Love Sulis xx

In Shamanic realities, we see cristal as living god/spirit
when one break it's cause he want to send you a message, positive or negative
first thing to do is ask to him what's the message is, listen your intuition for the answers, first answers is usually the good one.

a good thing to do is to burry one of the part in the earth and keep the other to work with it, that do a "Structural" link with the earth and the remaining crystal is magical.

have fun
Omeada

While superglue can be fairly brittle (especially if used incorrectly), I think that florite is likely to be even more brittle. Superglue has the advantage that it desolves in acetone, so it is commonly used in things like gluing dinosaur bones together (I used ot know people who worked with dino bones professionally). While dino bones are a great deal more rough and porous than florite, so YMMV, I think I would try superglue first.

The trick with any glue is to make sure that the glue cures properly, and that you start with a clean surface that fits exavtly together. If this is not the case, then epoxy might be better because it can fill in a little better. However, it is much harder to remove, so choose your epoxy wisely.

The biggest problem people usually have sith superglue is not having an *exact* fit. Pockets of liquid superglue that don't bind with anything never harden. Superglue is *only* strong when it is a very thin film which bonds the two pieces together in an exact join.

Anyway, assuming that you have a perfectly clean break, I would start by cleaning it with soap and water, then letting it air dry. Then I would apply the superglue (a fairly small amount), set the pieces together, hold them until the glue sets, clean up any stuff that was squeezed out the cracks, and then set it somewhere safe for at least 24 hours to cure (8 hours is typically recommended, but I figure why not give some extra time).

The next issue is what caused the sudden break in the first place. It is possible that internal strain within the crystal itself caused it to slowly develop a fracture, especially when subject to repeated thermal cyclings (heating and cooling).

The picture you send is one I am guessing was taken after it broke? One can see the clear fracture line in the picture. While superglue might work for that, if there are secondary fractures, you may see it break again near (but not exactly at) the place where it broke now.

Hi, Sagewriter - I love fluorite too but have found it to be brittle. The first time was when a friend took a gorgeous piece home to put some reiki into it and to her horror found it had snapped in her bag. There have been other pieces since - but it doesn't stop me buying it. It seems to me that it actually has visible lines where it is most likely to split apart: I can normally tell where it's going to go. Unfortunately my pieces haven't been an exact match once they've split for some reason and reading this thread I understand why superglue hasn't been the answer. Thanks to those who've pointed out that something like araldite would be better. I shall give it a go.

I've decided not to repair it. I will take the broken piece back home with me.


however, my mum bought me a fluorite necklace for my birthday. i think it was already to pieces glued together, as it came apart! I bought the araldite, and it seems to have stuck!

yay!


thanks everyone for the help