some of my best polished gems

Nice collection HTY!

Some great looking pieces there. Did you cut and polish these yourself?

The blueish Agate (bottom centre) is a real eye-catcher!

It makes me wonder if anyone ever cut and polished and pieces gold bearing Quartz into nice jewelery type items?
Cheers,
Shauno.

Wowzers, all these great gem posts are making me have a think about having a crack. Thanks Balx.

Sorry HTY, but those are not GEMS, thay are polished (tumbled?) STONES.
I get quite animated when visiting a Minerama type event where a trader is pushing polished chalcedony etc. as a "rare" gemstone.
My apology, am very new here, but I think its always important for correct context.
mike

NIce stones HTY , they look great when pollished

Nice collection HTY.
I went to the Newcastle lapidary club gem show last weekend.
I was amazed by the amount of beauriful gems and stones to be found in Oz.

Thanks for sharing your collection

boobook said:

Sorry HTY, but those are not GEMS, thay are polished (tumbled?) STONES.
I get quite animated when visiting a Minerama type event where a trader is pushing polished chalcedony etc. as a "rare" gemstone.
My apology, am very new here, but I think its always important for correct context.
mike

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Hi mike, no need to correct - they are HTY's gems and he is very proud of his cabs. Nice job HTY

On another note Agates have been used in jewelry since Biblical Babylonian times. They were prized gems in antiquity.

Awesome stuff HTY some fantastic colours. Another thing to add to the list agate fossicking

Cheers

C&L

boobook said:

Sorry HTY, but those are not GEMS, thay are polished (tumbled?) STONES.
I get quite animated when visiting a Minerama type event where a trader is pushing polished chalcedony etc. as a "rare" gemstone.
My apology, am very new here, but I think its always important for correct context.
mike

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"Firstly", Hty...a very impressive collection of "Gemstones" and one to be proud of......and "Secondly"....Mike,.. my apology to you as well. Seems like an apparently well versed gentleman in lapidary terms like yourself, would actually know what a "Gemstone" was.

A "Gemstone" is a precious or semi precious stone that can be used in Jewelry when cut and polished. I can understand why you get quite animated when visiting Minerama events as it must be quite frustrating when everybody is selling "Gemstones", and you are the only one there who doesn't know what they are.

I, like yourself, think it is important to keep "correct context", and to do so you must at least have an idea of what the "correct context" is. Polished chalcedony, aka, Agate, can be very rare, and some command large sums of money at "Gemstone" venues.......Have a good day,

Cheers Wal.

Thanks HTY for the post. I"m always amazed just looking at all the fantastic gold, sapphires, zircons, and all the other beautiful gems which I am yet to learn about. As I am new to all of this I am really appreciative when someone posts a really great photo and explain what it is. This is how we learn and one sure thing is, we never ever stop learning.
Wal thanks for that explanation too. I've heard of people paying top dollar for rare stones and gems. Your knowledge fuels my desire to learn more and more.

Beautiful stones HTY, Agates have to be one of my favourites. Great collection.

Syndyne said:

Nice collection HTY!

Some great looking pieces there. Did you cut and polish these yourself?

The blueish Agate (bottom centre) is a real eye-catcher!

It makes me wonder if anyone ever cut and polished and pieces gold bearing Quartz into nice jewelery type items?
Cheers,
Shauno.

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yes m8 cut them and poolished them my self allso i have cut gold bareing quartz open its quite good looking ill post some images when i can for you

Heatho said:

Beautiful stones HTY, Agates have to be one of my favourites. Great collection.

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same m8 i like the pattens inside

Hunting the yellow said:

yes m8 cut them and poolished them my self allso i have cut gold bareing quartz open its quite good looking ill post some images when i can for you

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Thanks kindly HTY. Looking forward to seeing that at some point.

Really nice work on these pieces.
Cheers.

Thanks for your correction Wal.
I agree that "polished Chalcedony" can be very rare. As in being dug out of the ground?
Otherwise there are tons of it waiting to be picked up.
Nope, sorry but at most tailgaters its around 5 bucks a piece, try flogging it to a manufacturing jeweller and see what his offer price is.
My reaction, is that to call this mineral a "gemstone" is an insult to those who toil very hard to mine/cut/polish then battle to sell such as opal and sapphire at reasonable prices, both of which are "true" gemstones
What is shown is a nicely presented collection of very well tumbled/polished stones. No more, no less.
Mike

Hi boobook,

I would argue chalcedony has a longer history of use as a gemstone, and is generally understood by everyone to be a gemstone. You can differenciate between prcious and semi-precious, etc, but they are indeed all gemstones. Have you considered that it might just be YOUR criterion, and not reflect common usage?

What is your criterion for something being a gemstone? Do you consider opal to be a gemstone? How about pearls? Amber? The International Gem Society does, and gives what seems a fairly generally-accepted definition of a gem as "a mineral that has been chosen for its beauty and durability, then cut and polished for use as human adornment" http://www.gemsociety.org/article/what-is-a-gem/

This seems consistent with the above being gemstones.

M

boobook said:

Thanks for your correction Wal.
I agree that "polished Chalcedony" can be very rare. As in being dug out of the ground?
Otherwise there are tons of it waiting to be picked up.
Nope, sorry but at most tailgaters its around 5 bucks a piece, try flogging it to a manufacturing jeweller and see what his offer price is.
My reaction, is that to call this mineral a "gemstone" is an insult to those who toil very hard to mine/cut/polish then battle to sell such as opal and sapphire at reasonable prices, both of which are "true" gemstones
What is shown is a nicely presented collection of very well tumbled/polished stones. No more, no less.
Mike

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dose it really matter if I call them gemstones or polished stones hum NO I don't think so

boobook said:

Thanks for your correction Wal.
I agree that "polished Chalcedony" can be very rare. As in being dug out of the ground?
Otherwise there are tons of it waiting to be picked up.
Nope, sorry but at most tailgaters its around 5 bucks a piece, try flogging it to a manufacturing jeweller and see what his offer price is.
My reaction, is that to call this mineral a "gemstone" is an insult to those who toil very hard to mine/cut/polish then battle to sell such as opal and sapphire at reasonable prices, both of which are "true" gemstones
What is shown is a nicely presented collection of very well tumbled/polished stones. No more, no less.
Mike

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G'day Mike,.... Nobody is arguing the price difference of "Gemstones." We are just clarifying what a "Gemstone" is, and keeping things in "Context". Agate is cheaper than Garnet, which is cheaper than Zircon, which is cheaper than blue Topaz, which is cheaper than Sapphire, which is cheaper than Ruby, which is cheaper than Emerald, which is cheaper than Opal, which is cheaper than Diamond.....etc, etc, etc....yadi, yadi, yadi.

Like i say, to keep things "In Context", we are not going down the track of which "Gemstone" requires the greatest amount of "Toil" to extract or commands the "Highest" price. The issue here is " What is a Gemstone "....and Agate, whether you like it or not "IS" a Gemstone.

To add to that, I "Personally" toil very hard at prospecting for Sapphires, Rubies, Opals, and also have a wonderful Agate collection of which I am very proud. By no means do i regard my Agate collection as an insult to myself.....sorry if that offends your viewpoint.

Cheers Wal

HTY, some really beautiful gems there, great patterns! And i must say, i love the overall art work, very creative.
I think the above definition mfdes supplied is fairly on the money, but does it really matter what he calls his gems? I don't think it does or should.
I think this is all probably getting a bit off topic now though, perhaps agree to disagree, and we can all refocus on why we are here in the first place? HTYs cracker treasures.

love your gems mate good job polishing them dose not matter what work that goes into finding gems it is the fun of the hunt and enjoying the end result no matter what you find if it makes you happy that is all that matters