Sweeping Out The Amethyst Chimney.

Having obtained sufficient blue chalcedony to work with for a while, I decided to move onward to my next mineral.

I found a rock shop in Arizona, several months before moving to Idaho. The store was having a clearance sale on pieces of broken amethyst chimney. I could not resist obtaining for a song a massive piece approximately 70 square inches containing a great many points that were mostly broken or included. I wanted it for chalcedony rather than gemstones:

A lovely looking piece of amethyst cathedral.

Before deciding to process this piece I decided to put into place the extreme precautions that most crystalline forms of quartz, including amethyst, deserve to have. I wore both vision protection (corrective safety glasses with side shields) and breathing protection (respirator cartridge mask) to protect both my eyes and my lungs from sharp particles of what amount to God’s own brand of colored glass!

Author in lapidary protective gear!

I first determined that the easiest way to break off pieces of the chimney was from behind using the ball side of an 8 ounce ball-peen hammer, because the substrate is common rock and as such is considerably more fragile than the quartz layers.

Amethyst chimney chipped on paper towel

I placed the chimney piece on paper towel prior to breaking. Over the years, I had found paper towel to be my method of choice for cleaning up after broken glass in the kitchen, and so I thought it would be useful here as well.

After breaking, I retrieved the useful points and put them elsewhere. I then balled up the paper towel sheet around the great many tiny and dangerous sharp fragments, disposing the lot in the trash can. I then wiped down my counter with wet paper towel (DON’T use a sponge or the sponge will carry any remaining fragments to your next work!), laid down a new dry sheet of paper towel and placed my recovered points upon the new sheet as shown below:

Amethyst chimney fragments cleaned up on paper towel.

I only need a little bit of amethyst chalcedony today. I stored away the amethyst point that had fallen out so far. I also stored away all the chimney chunks except one, which I will focus on now:

Chunk of amethyst broken from chimney

Taking the chunk through several passes of my trim saw yielded some more amethyst points to store away (top), but also a layer of amethyst shaded rock crystal (bottom right) that I will use for my chalcedony or inlay projects. I will throw out the remaining substrate (bottom left).

Yield from one chunk of amethyst chimney.

Lessons Learned

1) Always be cautious when using a trim saw upon quartz, especially quartz crystal. I found this the hard way when the tiniest splinter of crystal broke off during sawing and embedded itself into the end of my right hand’s index finger. The cut was very shallow but painful, causing bleeding all out of proportion to the cut due to the splinter’s sharpness. I had to halt operations and retreat to the bathroom for first aid before I could continue.

2) Comprehensive breathing protection is mandatory when cutting quartz or other crystalline materials. Having sharp crystalline fragments inside your lungs can cause a health condition called silicosis, a silent killer among lapidarists and other stone workers. To avoid this, I prefer a full respirator with particle filtering capable cartridges. BE SURE TO REPLACE YOUR CARTRIDGES PERIODICALLY IN ACCORDANCE WITH YOUR LOCAL GOVERNMENT STANDARDS.

3) Employ the best vision protection you can afford for all lapidary operations. I myself prefer to use corrective ANSI rated safety glasses with side shields as a compromise between correcting for near-sightedness versus fogging up when being worn with a respirator. However, I won’t endorse these as being fully protective. CONSULT YOUR LOCAL GOVERNMENT STANDARDS TO DETERMINE YOUR BEST LEVEL OF VISION PROTECTION.

Play safely!

Aulë