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Beads!!!!! => Show and Tell -Finished Beads => Topic started by: Jhon P on July 30, 2017, 01:48:23 PM

Title: Turkish purple jade
Post by: Jhon P on July 30, 2017, 01:48:23 PM
I guess this is considered a bead?
I just finished this for my wife, she likes purple.
Title: Re: Turkish purple jade
Post by: lithicbeads on July 30, 2017, 05:58:29 PM
 Bead -pendant and a nice one.
Title: Re: Turkish purple jade
Post by: edgarscale on July 30, 2017, 06:20:36 PM
please correct me..... but is this a purple jade from turkey?
Title: Re: Turkish purple jade
Post by: hummingbirdstones on July 30, 2017, 08:02:04 PM
Oh, that's a beauty, Jhon.  Lucky wife!   :icon_sunny:
Title: Re: Turkish purple jade
Post by: Jhon P on July 30, 2017, 08:26:51 PM
Yes, from the country of Turkey
Title: Re: Turkish purple jade
Post by: irockhound on July 30, 2017, 09:16:40 PM
Great cab Jhon.  I was given some huge chunks of the Purple Jade from an old jeweler friend of mine that was retiring.  I was told later the Turkish material wasn't really a jade but I wasn't sure.  My friend was a professional jeweler and would have known.  I haven't cut any of it and after seeing the post I looked up the material and it looks like it is a jade.  He had some polished slabs he kept in his sales display and these are identical to the cab you have here and the posts I see on the web.  Purple is always the winner, no wonder it's a royal color.  You must have a field day with all those Sphere trimmings.
Title: Re: Turkish purple jade
Post by: Orrum on July 31, 2017, 03:55:28 AM
Grest job Jhon! Did you drill it before cabbing?
Title: Re: Turkish purple jade
Post by: Jhon P on July 31, 2017, 07:11:21 AM
Yes I drilled before cabbing, easier to keep the drill straight on s flat surface,

My understanding is that the purple jade is around 50% jadeite.
Title: Re: Turkish purple jade
Post by: Itsandbits on July 31, 2017, 08:06:20 AM
I was intrigued so I looked it up and found this nice article on the material
https://www.gemsociety.org/article/what-is-turkish-purple-jade-and-how-can-it-be-used-in-jewelry/
Title: Re: Turkish purple jade
Post by: edgarscale on July 31, 2017, 11:34:44 AM
i have a necklace of turkey jade.  every bead is the colors of the rainbow.  that's why is seemed unbelievable to have such vibrant colors from a country i thought had no jade.  i bought the item because of the multi colors and because it was jade.  this is one of the items i bought off ebay about 10 years ago when i first started rockhounding.  when things were  relatively cheaper......when i was uneducated.   i'm still learning :icon_thumleft:
Title: Re: Turkish purple jade
Post by: Jhon P on July 31, 2017, 12:40:35 PM
I bought a couple of pounds of rough a couple of years ago. The price keeps going up, I wish that I had bought more. Your necklace would cost more today
Title: Re: Turkish purple jade
Post by: southerly on August 01, 2017, 05:32:56 AM
Nice finish Jhon, I find this stuff frustrating to polish.

Irockhound the Turkish jade is a mixture of jadeite (16-60% depending on who you believe), albite feldspar, quartz and a few other things. Both jadeite and nephrite commonly have other minerals in the mix, the question is at what percentage do they stop being jade. I think technically the Turkish material does not qualify as jade, there is an academic article giving the chemical composition, I will try and track it down.

David
Title: Re: Turkish purple jade
Post by: Jhon P on August 01, 2017, 07:06:03 AM
Yes it can be a little hard to polish. I let the polish get a little dry and let the stone get pretty warm.
There is a fine line between getting it pretty warm, almost hot and too hot.
Title: Re: Turkish purple jade
Post by: Redrummd on August 01, 2017, 09:29:30 AM
Mineralogical Magazine; December 1997; v. 61; no. 6; p. 835-843
Jadeite-K-feldspar rocks and jadeitites from Northwest Turkey
Aral I. Okay
ITU, Maden Fakultesi, Istanbul, Turkey
Blueschist-facies rocks with jadeite-K-feldspar-lawsonite paragenesis occur as exotic blocks in Miocene debris flows in the blueschist belt of northwest Turkey. The jadeite-K-feldspar rocks have a very fine grain size and although recrystallized locally retain a relict porphyritic volcanic texture. The former nepheline microphenocrysts, recognized from their characteristic shapes, are pseudomorphed by jadeite and K-feldspar, while the relict magmatic aegirine has rims of jadeite. The matrix of the rock consists of very fine-grained aggregates of jadeite, K-feldspar and lawsonite. In some blocks, jadeite makes up >60% of the mode. Jadeite, K-feldspar and lawsonite in the blocks are essentially pure end-member in composition. P-T estimates for these rocks are 8+ or -2 kbar and 300+ or -50 degrees C. The preserved volcanic texture, relict aegirine and the bulk rock composition indicate that these rocks represent metamorphosed phonolites. The paragenesis in these rocks shows that jadeite-K-feldspar is a stable mineral pair in blueschist-facies P-T conditions.
This record provided courtesy of AGI/GeoRef.
Title: Re: Turkish purple jade
Post by: gemfeller on August 01, 2017, 10:25:45 AM
It's a rock composed mainly of quartz, jadeite in varying quantities, cinnabar and aegerine.  Here's a GIA analysis from Gems & Gemology that discusses it:

https://www.gia.edu/gems-gemology/FA13-LN-purple-jadeite
Title: Re: Turkish purple jade
Post by: finegemdesigns on August 02, 2017, 09:56:27 AM
I have also heard between 40%-60% jadeite. Also I have tested the SG (specific gravity) as 2.90.
Jadeite is typically in the 3.30-3.40 range.
Title: Re: Turkish purple jade
Post by: jerrysg on August 02, 2017, 04:04:07 PM
It's a rock composed mainly of quartz, jadeite in varying quantities, cinnabar and aegerine.  Here's a GIA analysis from Gems & Gemology that discusses it:

https://www.gia.edu/gems-gemology/FA13-LN-purple-jadeite

With cinnabar (mercury sulfide) present, (even though it is in very small quantities based on the photomicrograph) should we be concerned about mercury when working this stone?  None of the papers that I have looked at give concentrations of the various components.

One of the people working in the cab lab I supervised yesterday was working some small cabs of this material. Our air movement is not the best but the club is working to correct this.

Jerry
Title: Re: Turkish purple jade
Post by: finegemdesigns on August 06, 2017, 04:55:37 PM
Note re:jerrysg: This (as is the case with most every other stone with these types of minerals) is usually only an issue when cutting or polishing. And this is usually only a concern if tiny particles become airborne and are inhaled. In the vast majority of cases finished stones are considered INERT with regards to their minerals and are usually safe to wear. When cutting these rocks though it is recommended that the cutter use water and wear a mask if working a rock like myrickite that contains cinnabar. This is the first I've heard of the Turkish purple jade having cinnabar so I'm guessing it is a very minute percentage.
Title: Re: Turkish purple jade
Post by: lithicbeads on August 06, 2017, 09:19:59 PM
 In the US we have lots of mercury in all bodies of water that is then bio accumulated by organisms making the apex predators , fish  which we eat , quite mercury laden with some being worse than other species and the fat and skin of fish  the most concentrated sources of mercury. Coal has enough mercury to have spread it throughout the continent because we burn it. The amounts in those stones  using normal precautions seem to be much less risky. We have a beautiful green calcedony in one spot here in Washington that assays up to 1 % mercury and I would not touch  a stone with those levels.
Title: Re: Turkish purple jade
Post by: finegemdesigns on October 13, 2018, 12:13:21 PM
It's a rock composed mainly of quartz, jadeite in varying quantities, cinnabar and aegerine.  Here's a GIA analysis from Gems & Gemology that discusses it:

https://www.gia.edu/gems-gemology/FA13-LN-purple-jadeite

Thanks for the link. I had a dispute over the SG of this material on FB and my measurements were confirmed by your GIA page.

I tested 3 pieces:
2.90 SG
3.02 SG
2.88 SG

GIA was 2.99 SG

The other person was making the claim of 3.44 SG.
Title: Re: Turkish purple jade
Post by: gemfeller on October 13, 2018, 12:42:37 PM
As you know, a rock contains more than one mineral, often in different proportions. So depending on the specimen chosen for testing, varying S.G. results can be expected.  GIA confirms this material is a rock, not a single mineral which would yield uniform test results.       
Title: Re: Turkish purple jade
Post by: southerly on October 16, 2018, 02:14:41 AM
This is a link to a published analysis http://www.minersoc.org/pages/Archive-MM/Volume_61/61-409-835.pdf it says the rock is a mix of jadeite up to 60%, k-feldspar and lawsonite.

i have found it miserable to cut and polish as it undercuts and orange peels big time.