Crystal cleaning ?

Whats the best solution to soak my new little friend in ? It is super clear and apart from the small chip on the terminated end .
The black muck is almost iron and is actually showing some rust , it actually feels like the burnt on muck that gets stuck in the angle grinder shroud .

Nice crystal AF, oxallic acid is what a lot of crystal hunters use. Though you could probably try hydrochloric as well, same as ironstone on nuggets HCL should dissolve the iron on that crystal.

Sorry for my ignorance, what type of crystal is it?

If it's quartz based such as citrine you can scrape all the iron cap of with a stanley knife, because of moh's scale of hardness you can't scratch quartz with a stainless steel blade. I had amethyst crystals from Kuridala that had a similar ironstone coating and I cleaned it off with a stanely knife then soaked in HCL.

Here's a good article on quartz cleaning https://www.mindat.org/article.php/403/Cleaning+Quartz

I will be trying to soak it first :Y: , it is more than likely just a clear quarts crystal and it is hard as one pry of preasure in the wrong direction shattered a smaller one . When clean it will be clear as glass .
It has never seen the light of day until now and has probably never soaked in water either , will it change in color with exposure to the sun ?

aussiefarmer said:

I will be trying to soak it first :Y: , it is more than likely just a clear quarts crystal and it is hard as one pry of preasure in the wrong direction shattered a smaller one . When clean it will be clear as glass .
It has never seen the light of day until now and has probably never soaked in water either , will it change in color with exposure to the sun ?

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if its plain milky quartz/dizzy quartz crystal it won't change however if it has certain minerals inside it may. also watch out for any crystals containing gas bubbles inside they are prone to pop/crack under the heat of the sun they expand. they won't hurt you when they break but you may hear something like cracking your knuckles and see two half's of your crystal on the table.

Coloured quartz is usually caused by trace impurities which grow within the crystal and replace the Silicon atoms, irradiation, or are inclusions of other minerals or fluids that occurs when the crystals are growing.

eg.
Quartz (SiO2) + Iron (Fe) = Amethyst
Quartz (SiO2) + Aluminium (Al) = Smoky Quartz

High temperatures can cause coloured quartz to change or lose its colour.

Because your crystal is clear and already grown though it should be fine in the sun.

Was there any more crystals where you found it? Quartz Crystals often grow in pockets!

Dron said:

Sorry for my ignorance, what type of crystal is it?

If it's quartz based such as citrine you can scrape all the iron cap of with a stanley knife, because of moh's scale of hardness you can't scratch quartz with a stainless steel blade. I had amethyst crystals from Kuridala that had a similar ironstone coating and I cleaned it off with a stanely knife then soaked in HCL.

Here's a good article on quartz cleaning https://www.mindat.org/article.php/403/Cleaning+Quartz

Click to expand...

you can break them if there is a flaw in the crystal or hairline fracture in the crystal and the ironstone you scrap off just happens to be on that sweet spot of fracture line

the above picture appears to be common milky quartz/clear rock crystal.

Proceed with caution if you're going to scrape them - but in my experience, quartz crystals are not really all that fragile, they're pretty hard. Quartz is just coming into the hardness range where gems cut from it are good for general jewellery setting. If you regularly see a certain type of stone set in finger rings with no special precautions taken to guard the stone - ie, amethyst, which is a variety of quartz - then it's a good bet they are reasonably hard. I think Hunting the yellow probably has it - there were probably some hairline fractures in the crystal that broke so it was likely already susceptible. Do be careful scraping around sharp crystal face edges and the point as these can chip more easily.

It's fairly common for quartz crystals to have a skin on the outside while being perfectly crystal clear inside.

Footnote: one of those tiny little stanly knives you can buy from the newsagent for cutting paper is probably the least likely thing to leave chips. When I started faceting I chipped every stone that I tried to use a pocket knife to scrape away the excess epoxy that was stopping me from putting the girdle right down on the polishing lap. On the odd occasion it happens now I use the tiny, flexible stanly knife blade and it has not caused a chip in any stone yet.

But be careful.

As Heatho said Oxalic acid does a great job on iron stained quartz.
Here is a good link on cleaning minerals:
http://www.johnbetts-fineminerals.com/jhbnyc/articles/minclean.htm