Black Tigers Eye Crystals Extra Large
The colour of black tigers eye is produced by heating the brown and yellow coloured stone. Heat changes the chemical composition hence initiates a change in colour.
Heat treatments are widely used to enhance or change the colour of rocks and minerals. This practice has been going on for thousands of years and was first documented by Ancient Greek philosopher Theophrastus.
Unlike the red variety of tigers eye which is also heated, the black stone retains its chatoyant properties and is often enhanced.
Chatoyance is an optical phenomenon seen in certain minerals. It's caused as light reflects off the fibrous structure, inclusions or cavities within the stone.
When a chatoyant stone reflects light a narrow band of reflected light can be seen. In tigers eye with gentle movement colour and markings can appear to be moving. The quality of the chatoyance can vary from one stone to the next. It's largely dependant on the direction of the crocidolite fibres within tigers eye. Crocidolite is a type of asbestos.
The presence of asbestos in tigers eye often causes alarm. It's important to understand the nature of the crocidolite within this stone. This article explains it in further detail.
Tigers eye is completely safe to handle, there's no risk from the asbestos.
No two of these large black tigers eye crystals are the same. Size can vary from piece to piece. We also have medium sized black tigers eye crystals as part of our collection.
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