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[Grayco]

I went to a fellows house today to buy some plexiglass.  While I was there I told him I'm a rock hound.  He sold me a small box of rocks.  A few cut thundereggs a few chipped up crystals and a few interesting other stones.  But then I found a 2" long 1-1/4" square red tiger's eye.
I had never heard of it before.  Here's a few pictures.

[Orrum]

Probably heat treated.

[Grayco]

Does Tiger's Eye ever occur red "naturally"?

Is there any problems that occur when Tiger's Eye is heat treated (or any other rock for that matter)?

[southerly]

No problem with it being heat treated. Legend has it that is does occur naturally, most is created by heating golden tiger eye. The most problematic is the blue tigger eye (hawkes eye) as the asbestos fibres are less silicated.

Nice chunk, it was a popular lapidary material once upon a time, now out of fashion, but still cuts lovely cabs.

David

[Orrum]

Natural heat treatment by lightning strike maybe? I read somewhere that the original beautiful color Tanzania was found by a shepherd on n a hillside after lightning strikes to the area. who knows God made em n all right?

[vitzitziltecpatl]

Have read somewhere natural red might be possible if near the surface during a wildfire. Searching for variegated tiger eye should yield images of rough with red mixed with gold and blue.

The more uniform red is a good clue the piece was subjected to uniform heating, as in your oven at home. Saw times and temps somewhere once for do-it-yourself red.

[lithicbeads]

In the American west natural coal fires cook rocks on a regular basis. Cooking golden tigereye red was a standard thing 40 years ago but you need an oven that goes to 800 degrees F.

[gemfeller]

In the American west natural coal fires cook rocks on a regular basis. Cooking golden tigereye red was a standard thing 40 years ago but you need an oven that goes to 800 degrees F.

Not disputing you, perhaps you're referring to commercial processes. But I did it successfully years ago in a standard kitchen oven at far less than 800 degrees.  Don't recall the actual heat settings but I buried the slabs in sand to avoid sudden temperature shock and brought the temps up and down slowly with a several-hour-long heat soak. I let the oven cool overnight before opening the door. 

I recall seeing large pieces of unheated variegated tiger's-eye that combined yellow, green and red but the red was more a light strawberry color, not the even dark-toned reddish-brown in the images shown here.   

[finegemdesigns]

In the American west natural coal fires cook rocks on a regular basis. Cooking golden tigereye red was a standard thing 40 years ago but you need an oven that goes to 800 degrees F.

Not disputing you, perhaps you're referring to commercial processes. But I did it successfully years ago in a standard kitchen oven at far less than 800 degrees.  Don't recall the actual heat settings but I buried the slabs in sand to avoid sudden temperature shock and brought the temps up and down slowly with a several-hour-long heat soak. I let the oven cool overnight before opening the door. 

I recall seeing large pieces of unheated variegated tiger's-eye that combined yellow, green and red but the red was more a light strawberry color, not the even dark-toned reddish-brown in the images shown here.

I think I read somewhere that you can do it at 500°F.
Also the red color is considered to be stable and there are types showing up now on eBay with hematite. The hematite areas are surprisingly strong also which I didn't expect.

[olgguy]

That's a nice chunk. I had some a few years ago with the Hematite lines. The cab is 73 x 15.9 x 5.3 mm.

[finegemdesigns]

Nice. The material is hard enough you can do sharp points.

[Grayco]

That's a nice chunk. I had some a few years ago with the Hematite lines. The cab is 73 x 15.9 x 5.3 mm.

That really looks like my piece.  The black in mine is really dark.  There is about 1/8" crust on the top and bottom.  What does it look like on the top of the grain?

[Grayco]

Nice. The material is hard enough you can do sharp points.

That's a nice cab.  I'm looking forward to doing something with this piece.  I' not sure what it will be yet but it is a usable size.

[vitzitziltecpatl]

I've never tried heat treating tiger eye. Here's a link to another board where some folks tried different methods - with varying degrees of success.

http://andy321.proboards.com/thread/47540?page=1

Here's a link to where I probably saw the "home baked" method described.

http://minerals-n-more.com/tiger_eye_info.html

If anyone on this board tries it, please post your results.

[ToTheSummit]

I have some tiger eye here, some with the hematite in it.  I also have a small kiln given to me by my uncle (who is a potter).  I've long thought about heat treating some stones just to see what happens.  Maybe tiger eye is a good place to start.

Heres an example of the yellow tiger eye with hematite that I have (I also have blue and wonder how that would react to heat?)