[meteorite-list] Heat-treating tektites

From: mark ford <markf_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu Apr 22 10:32:56 2004
Message-ID: <6CE3EEEFE92F4B4085B0E086B2941B311A33F5_at_s-southern01.s-southern.com>

Norm,

I have seen this type of 'carnival' style glass being made, what they do
is heat the glass up (such as a vase or wine glass) to dull red, and dip
it into a fine powdered metallic salt, (such as cobalt or stannus
chloride, or even uranium salts) depending on the colour(s) required
they also dip the hot glass into several different compounds so that
different colours are obtained. Sometimes the glass is then re-baked in
a kiln to re melt the surface which creates even more patterens, cleaver
stuff.

I guess if you could heat a tektite (without it cracking or shattering!)
then dipped it into the chosen powder you'd get similar results.=20

Why Anyone would want to do this is a complete mystery!!! Although I
could see the appeal of a green moldavite wine glass !

Cheers

Mark Ford


-----Original Message-----
From: Norman Lehrman [mailto:nlehrman_at_nvbell.net]=20
Sent: 29 March 2004 21:55
To: Meteorite Mailing List
Subject: Re: [meteorite-list] Heat-treating tektites

Rob & list,

The last post clarifies the question a bit. A few
years ago I received a large shipment of Lei gong mo.=20
Included with these were a couple of dozen specimens
with strong carnival-glass-like patinas, a full
rainbow of submetallic colors. I have seen weaker
examples of this sort of patina on old bottles that
have been through fires. My guess was that the
tektites may have been through a warehouse fire or
some such thing. Clearly there is some process that
will cause tektites to develop carnival-glass type
films, and I don't think it is a natural process or we
would see this more often. While not exactly a change
in the glass color, this can yield a profound change
in appearance. I would be interested to hear if
anyone knows anything about the manufacture of
carnival glass.

Cheers,

Norm Lehrman
(http://tektitesource.com)


--- "Matson, Robert" <ROBERT.D.MATSON_at_saic.com> wrote:
> Thanks, everyone, for their inputs on the effects of
> heating tektites.
> My reason for posing the question was that a friend
> told me about a
> mineral dealer (in Ventura County, CA, I believe)
> who was selling
> heat-treated tektites in a variety of unusual
> colors. I told my
> friend that it sounded suspicious to me, but that I
> wasn't a tektite
> expert and would ask "The List". Consensus here
> seems to be that
> the process of heating up a tektite to white hot and
> then letting
> it cool back down produces no major color
> alterations. However,
> I need to get back to the friend to find out if
> these unusual
> colors were transparent or opaque. If the latter, I
> suppose it's
> possible that someone could simply "paint" a tektite
> (though I
> question the motives for doing so). But I can't
> think of a process
> where you would get, say, a red or blue transparent
> tektite using
> a moldavite as your starting point.
>=20
> Thanks,
> Rob
>=20
> ______________________________________________
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> Meteorite-list_at_meteoritecentral.com
>
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Received on Tue 30 Mar 2004 02:57:02 AM PST