Duncan Miller

Tourmaline can be temperamental. Rough tourmaline occurs in two distinct shapes – globular nodules and elongated pencil-like crystals elongated in the direction of the c-axis. The globular nodules sometimes spall concentrically, like onions, and the pencils sometime fracture transversely. This behaviour is difficult, if not impossible to predict, although fine cracks in the ‘skin’ of tourmaline pencils is not a good sign. The cracked skin must be removed by preforming or th...


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