Are double terminated crystals natural or artificial?
Double terminated crystals have a point at each end. These crystals take the energy in at one point, transmute it, and emanate it at the other point. Like any crystal, double terminated crystals can be natural and artificial, and can be found in various sizes and colors. Let’s see exactly how these crystals are created by Mother Nature and how they are made by man. You will also find out several factors that you should pay attention to if you want to clearly distinguish a natural crystal from a synthetic one.
Natural double terminated crystals
In nature, double terminated crystals form in free-floating pockets, which remain after the liquid in them has slowly evaporated. This process creates crystals that have a termination on each end. If normal quartz formations grow inside igneous rocks, the double terminated crystals can be found in sedimentary rock that was laid down a long time ago by subterranean marine deposits. It should be noted that double terminated crystals can also be found in clusters, but this is very rare.
Artificial double terminated crystals
When it comes to man-made double terminated crystals, you should know that there are several ways in which these can be created in a laboratory.
- Flame Fusion - during this process, powdered chemicals are dropped through a high-temperature flame. The chemicals are melted and put into a rotating pedestal where the synthetic crystal is produced. This is the fastest, most common, and least expensive method to make synthetic crystals.
- Crystal Pulling - this process implies melting nutrients in a crucible. The synthetic crystal will grow from a crystal seed that has been dipped into the resulting melt. The crystal is slowly pulled away from this melt as it grows from the crystal seed.
- Flux Growth - flux is a solid material, which, when melted dissolves other materials, just like water dissolves sugar. But when these dissolved materials gradually cool, they turn into synthetic crystals. This is an expensive and lengthy process. Creating a crystal using this process can take up to a year, but the crystal created is very similar to a natural one.
How to tell which crystal is natural and which Man-made
If you wonder how you can tell the difference between a double terminated crystal is natural or artificial, you should know that in the United States, there are clear regulations regarding this. The Federal Trade Commission has requested that any artificial crystal should be described in a way that eliminates any confusion that it was not produced naturally.
But there are also a few tips and tricks that will help you set them apart:
- If the crystal looks unusually colorful, there are high chances it has been dyed
- A natural crystal should have a rough texture. If its sides are smooth, the crystal has been altered in a laboratory
- Almost all natural crystals have color differentiation or some type of inclusion
Some of the double terminated crystals you can find in the Village Rock Shop: