Thursday, October 7, 2010
Tigers Eye vs. Fiber Optic Stones


In order to get the variety of tigers eye colors you see at your favorite 'bead heaven', they have gone through a fiber optic process and then dyed. That's right, the run of the mill fiber optic quartz cable wire for instance. If you find a yellow or orange tigers eye bead strand, most likely it's not a true tigers eye, but that of fiber optic. Regardless, they're still beautiful in all their fabulous colors. Since they are synthetic, they are less expensive.
For the rock tumblers out there. Below is an image of a rough cut tigers eye specimen. Tigers eye is a 7 on the Mohs hardness scale. A rough cut of this stone can be easily tumbled with other quartz, agates and jasper stones. Beginner tumbler? This is a good stone to start out with. It will reach it's silky shine easily.
I enjoyed learning about Tigers Eye. I took it fore granted when I'd twist and turn it. Nature is truly a beautiful, mysterious thing.
Sources: Wikipedia, crystal-cure.com, geology.com
Rough tiger’s eye. © iStockphoto / Robert Ellis.
Brown tiger’s eye beads. © iStockphoto / Sohfian Mohamed Kamari.
Hawk's Eye - jegem.com
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The Tigers Eye is gorgeous!
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