Specimen cleaning, Tips and techniques Options

[Denise]

We get alot of questions about the do's and dont's when specimen cleaning. So I thought a thread with some good tips and links would be handy here in the forums. Knowledge is power right?
After a good day of prospecting and digging in the dirt, we have these flats filled with muddy/clay specimens, some even with Iron deposits all over them. Now what?!


Picture of Anita with a flat of fresh Fluorite and Smokey Quartz finds.

We like to keep it as safe and simple as possible. We start off with a plastic black tub, filled with water (room tempature). Some minerals are sensative to quick tempature change, so be careful with the water temp! Place some of the specimens into the water. Gently hold one in your hand, and agitate it in the water to remove some of the dirt. You will be supprised how well just a little water works. Repeat several times till you can see If there are more minerals present on the specimen. Colorado is well known for combo specimens, so keep a close eye open! After examining for other minerals present, you can use an old tooth brush to remove more dirt in the crevices. I have even had tiny Fluorites, Goethites and Quartz crystals etc. pop up in those crevices after using the tooth brush and spray bottle!

Sometimes just the water helps to clean, but when you get those iron stains you might want to move on to straight vinegar. It is a very mild acid, and can remove some mild iron stains. Leave sit in the vinegar for several days as needed, and gently agitate the vinegar every once in a while to help remove the stain. If the vinegar fails to remove all the stain, you might want to try "SuperIronout" stain remover. This product is used for removing iron stains in sinks, tubs, toilets etc., and is easy to find at your local hardware store or any where they sell plumbing chemicals like drain cleaners.

Always read all instructions and warnings for use, before attempting to clean any specimens!
It's best to use a small sample for testing first, before cleaning the better pieces.

For mineral cleaning with SuperIronOut (SIO), we mix up enough SIO powder in the water to completely saturate the mixture with as much SIO as the water will dissolve (or close to that). This is a strong mixture and depending on your stains to be remove, soak time will vary from a few hours to a few days or a week. The mixture does not always need to be this strong. Use in a well ventilated area, we put lids on our soak containers to keep down the fumes/smell. Use containers just big enough for your specimens to be cleaned.

Always use distilled water with this soak process as the SIO will leach any minerals out of the tap water and cause a crusting on your specimen.

After soaking you will need to rinse off the specimens. If you have a pressure wash gun (textile cleaning gun) you can use this with tap water. Very carefully rinse off the specimens with the pressure wash gun. Depending on the specimens and delicacy, you will want to adjust that gun's output and distance used from specimen while rinsing. If you do not have the textile pressure gun, go to the rinse soaking step.

Next you will need to rinse soak (distilled water again) for at least the same time as the SIO soak or longer. Some pieces with heavy staining (iron deposits) may need to have clean rinse water about half way through the soak period. After the soak period, some pieces may need a repeat of the whole process, some may just need sprayed off after one process for the desired effects.

Here are a few before and after pictures of a Smokey Quartz crystal we cleaned using SuperIronOut.


Picture of Smokey Quartz with only water cleaning.


Picture of Smokey Quartz after cleaned with SuperIronOut.

Rock Currier at Mindat.org did an excellent article on cleaning Quartz that goes into alot more details and methods if needed. Very good reading and an awesome write up!
http://www.mindat.org/article.php/403/Cleaning+Quartz

We hope this info will help you some when cleaning your mineral specimens.
Good luck with all your finds, and remember to stay safe out there!

[swizz]

It's coming along great!
The Stromatolite is finished, just lightly washed with the gun and toothbrush was all it needed. Same deal with the breccia, just a light cleaning sufficed. The piece of white quartz on the far upper right is boring.
I'm still soaking the bottom three in vinegar (separately). Once they're all done I'll try and recreate the picture for an 'after' shot. I ordered some SIO which should be here by Friday. I may try soaking the bottom-center one in that to see what happens.

[jim]

Swizz have you checked with home depot for the sio? You might even find it at wally world.

[swizz]

Swizz have you checked with home depot for the sio? You might even find it at wally world.

Unfortunately not a convenient option, I live in the middle of nowhere (actually on the top of nowhere). We have a local Ace Hardware and an Alco store. It wasn't a problem to have Ace order it for me. Plus.. I get to help out the local Mom & Pop business since they are privately owned and usually cut me a deal. [At the risk of sounding like a politico] I despise large corporations and try my best to avoid them like the plague. Even if I have to pay a little more for something at times or wait a little longer, I feel a lot better giving my hard earned money to the small business folk when it's an option (although the products I purchase are often produced by corporate America [or worse, outsourced to China by an American corporation], wherein lies my unavoidable hypocrisy regarding the matter).

[Denise]

Dont forget If your using Super Iron Out, to use distilled water NOT TAP WATER! The tap water can leave mineral deposits on the specimen.

[swizz]

I have two specimens soaking in SIO + distilled water now (separated and covered). The rest are finished.

[swizz]

Here are the before/after results:

BEFORE


AFTER


a. Stromatolite - cleaned up nicely using textile gun lightly, toothbrush, and distilled water soak.
b. Marine Breccia - no huge difference, same process as the Stromatolite.
c. turned out to be just a boring piece of white Quartz - vinegar soak, textile gun, toothbrush, distilled soak.
d. Pink or Rose Quartz is my guess - this got every treatment except SIO to come out this clean, the vinegar did wonders!
e. cleaning revealed that this is an encrusted piece of Stromatolite. Not sure what it's encrusted with but some of the crystals have a bright green hue (other side of specimen). - This got every treatment plus SIO X2 and distilled soaking X2.
f. I believe this to be a nice cluster of Smokey Quartz with a greenish material stained inside and out throughout part of it, possibly nickel? - this required vinegar soaking, textile gun, toothbrush, and distilled soak

Overall, I'm really happy with the results considering this was my first attempt at cleaning. Definitely couldn't have done it well without Denise's tutorial.
What else did I learn?
1. You only have to nip your finger or hand once or twice with the textile gun and your body will never let you do it again.
2. SIO really, really smells bad. When I first mixed it I thought "this doesn't smell so bad, what was Denise talking about?", then I pulled the lid after a day and almost chundered.

Great fun! I already have some more specimens lined up to clean.

[Denise]

Great job Chris!! I especially like how well the rose quartz came out! Sure is pretty!
Oooooooooo, you may have a nice specimen of Colorado Rutilated Quartz.(F) I havent been lucky enough to find any myself, but we were given a small broken piece to work. Really neat stuff, as it had this crusty green coating on the outside, but inside the crystal revealed green rutilated strands. Very thin and hard to detect so you may want to check it out closer with a 20x loop and some light.

Thanks for the before and after pics! You sure brought out the beauty in those specimens!

[swizz]

hmmmm, interesting regarding the possibility of Rutilated Quartz.... now I have to figure out what that means.
I'll have to break out the small Pentax and take some super-macro shots with backlighting and study it on the screen.

[Denise]

Rutilated Quartz link to Mindats database. They have a location listed for Colorado, but no pictures. Its beautiful stuff!

I'll have to break out the small Pentax and take some super-macro shots with backlighting and study it on the screen.

Oh yes, you will definately have to do that Chris! But you need to share the results with us.

[swizz]

Well... I'm not sure that it's Rutilated. The only decent windows into the piece are the prominent shard (which actually may have that going on inside) and the bottom (not pictured). The bottom is a nice sharp formation of interlocking shards and has no greenish color inclusions and no obvious Rutilation on that side. May never know unless I zip it in half on GB's saw. Dare I?
I'll take some pics before deciding to do anything harsh like that.

[Denise]

"I don't know how you could cut that and still live with yourself."

I wouldnt cut that beautiful crystal, but thats just me. Especially if you dont have another one.
Its sometime hard to decide to cut or not to cut isnt it?

[swizz]

yeah, I don't think that I can cut it... maybe if I had a box of 'em

[CP]

Nice job on the clean up Swizz, those turned out nicely.

Don't let Mrs.CP's no cuttin' influences sway ya.....
Here's how it can be cut and one can still live with themselves.

Very fine green hairs within a beautifully clear quartz. These are small cabs (under 5/8") so that's almost finer than frogs hair.

Only 2 cabs I've ever seen made from the Colorado rutilated Quartz crystals too. Wonder how many other cabs from this material might be out there?




Pardon my turritella tip.....

[swizz]

GB & I have been doing a little rockhounding up here.... specimen cleaning today.

[Coalbunny]

Nice job on the clean up Swizz, those turned out nicely.

Don't let Mrs.CP's no cuttin' influences sway ya.....
Here's how it can be cut and one can still live with themselves.

Very fine green hairs within a beautifully clear quartz. These are small cabs (under 5/8") so that's almost finer than frogs hair.

Only 2 cabs I've ever seen made from the Colorado rutilated Quartz crystals too. Wonder how many other cabs from this material might be out there?




Pardon my turritella tip.....

Looks like cough drops.