[Jewelry making - Article 00000] - Re: [Orchid] White Turquoise

[Kenneth Ferrell]

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    I would agree that for the most part there is no such thing, But I
    also have two smaller cabs of the Original dry creek white turquoise
    that do have miniscule spots of blue green tinge in a few small
    areas. I also have several cabs and a few pieces of rough material
    that are very near white , or at best a very pale near colorless 
    blue that I collected at the Cerillos Turquoise mines nearly 25
    years ago. so very much of the mined Turquoise is so absent of color
    that Eastman co makes special polyester resins with a blue or blue
    green dye to  "Enhance" the material so as to make it sellable and
    cutable as well. 

    Getting back to the Dry Creek White Turquoise, it actually came from
    the old played out Burnham mine in Northern Nevada; Burnham produced
    some of the most beautiful Turquoise mined in the US. as did the
    Landers property and Fox. 

    I used to buy from a dealer in Rio Rancho New Mexico whose name was
    Eddie Mauzie, who had tests run by a laboratory that verified that
    the material was in fact a copper phosphate compound which would
    seem to qualify it as a Turquoise. 

    Now there are two new contenders one called White Buffalo which is
    quite different in both color and hardness of the Dry Creek/ Burnham
    material it has a more vitreous luster and seems slightly harder
    more in the range of 5+ MOH and the newer White Horse which is the
    material that does show nice spiderweb patterns. It is actually
    Magnasite and still selling as a White Turquoise hardness will be
    between 4 and 5 MOH 

    My experiences are not that of an expert, I started cutting
    Turquoise in 1975 and was helping stabilize every thing from
    Howellite treated in a vacuum chamber with Tydee bowl to getting
    some of the last Landers red web that came out of the hole. 

    If some one had access to an accurate way of accessing the true
    physical properties of the material I would put up a piece of the
    Dry Creek just to see whether it was in fact Turquoise, although it
    would be a moot point, that material to is now extinct  I have dealt
    with some of the largest Turquoise dealers in the southwest, one
    thing I learned many years ago, what they aren't sure of is what
    they will swear to. 

    That doesn't necessarily make them dishonest, but it doesn=92t imbue
    their credibility either. 

    The late Bozo Quinn was sitting in a bar one evening in Tucson and a
    bit on the tipsy side when he heard of some gentlemen from the mid
    east that were hitting Gallup and Flagstaff with some killer prices
    on so so Persian Turquoise. if I remember right it was around .30
    per carat, as the night and the drinks laid on Mr. Quinn, headed for
    Flagstaff with a close to 100 lbs. of great material from Globe,
    which he was normally selling for .20 to .35  for the best natural "
    in those days Natural meant it wasn't dyed howellite" or stabilized.
    Waxed and wiped with India Ink was a different story different. He
    also had some of the prettiest green material I've ever seen, he
    said it was Sadie Green Turquoise, and was selling every thing at
    .20 a carat. Still feeling no severe pain. 

    Long story short but the twenty cent a carat Sadie Green Turquoise
    turned out to be a Very rare material called Faustite, I found this
    out when it cost me a perfect score at the California State Fair in
    1980 - 5 points for miss labeling. I'd labeled the ring as Gold with
    Turquoise. 

Oh Well live and hope we learn
 Ken Ferrell
Jete, deplace, et demode-

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