Inorganic Gemstones

Home » Feldspar

White Orthoclase

White Orthoclase with Schorl

Orthoclase, an alkali feldspar, happens in a variety of colours, the most typical being colourless. Adularia, a colourless, transparent variety from Adular-Bergstock in Switzerland, includes a bluish white “schiller” or sheen, called adularescence.

Orthoclase feldspar happens in intrusive igneous rocks and is among the main constituents of granitic pegmatites. It's also present in metamorphic rocks for example schist and gneiss. Clear, colourless orthoclase happens in Madagascar. Yellow and colourless cuttable material, cat’s-eyes, plus some star stones occur within the gem gravels of Sri Lanka and Burma.

Feldspars are the most typical rock-forming minerals in the Earth’s surface. They're dicvided into two groups: the alkali feldspars and also the plagioclase feldspars. Orthoclase derives its name in the Greek for “break straight”, a reference towards the stone’s perfect cleavage at near 90 degrees.


Properties
Chemical Composition: 

Potassium aluminium silicate

Crystal System / Forms: 

Monoclinic

Hardness: 
6
Specific Gravity: 

2.56

Lustre: 
Vitreous
Refractive Index / Birefringence: 

1.51-1.54 / 0.005

Cuts & Uses: 

Brilliant, Mixed.

Did you know?

Jewellery is one of the most bought products online. An estimated $1 billion USD of diamonds are bought annually via the Internet. Over 40 million people use the Internet to trade!

In Germany, the garland of ambers is hung around the necks of the infants, so that their teeth might come out without much trouble.

In Turkey, people fix a piece of amber in the hubble-bubble, dogged by an age old belief that the presence of the jewel would destroy all the germs and no disease would spread, even after many have dragged their puffs from it.

In Greece, people think if wine is poured into the cups made of amethyst, one does not get drunk after drinking that.

In Rome, a talisman having coral pieces is considered very auspicious to quell the bad spells of evil look. The Romans were in the habit of hanging chains made of ancient coral pieces from the cradle of the infants to protect them from evil effects.

In China, people wear rings studded with tiny conch or oyster shells as they believe it cures all aches such as stomach ache, worms and like.

In India, pendants made of silver and studded with pearls are hung from the necks of the children to save them from any bad effects.

Greeks still believe, if women wear blue sapphires then no sense of immorality would pollute their mind nor can any fear of the supernatural can trouble them.

The Pope Innocent III had circulated an order asking all the priests wear blue sapphire, so that morality can be strengthened.

It is said about turquoise, that when the stone changes its color into yellow, it actually signals bad times to the person who wears it.

It is believed that a turquoise gifted to a friend or a lover turns his or her life into one of happiness and good luck.

Poll