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Got these garnets at a private property today 
. Had to ring the owner in advance and ask permission to fossick there, it's not a fossicking area. A few likely cutter, biggest probably about 10 carats.
Much more common than the garnet is what I first took for little bits of obsidian.
Apart from the colour, they look identical to the garnets with the exact same highly reflective, vitrious lustre and the same, sharp-edged shape that gives the impression of having been broken out of a larger mass.
They behave the same way in the sieve as the very heavy garnets, heading straight to the bottom with the garnets when the sieve is swirled in water.
And they are found wherever the garnets are - the more garnets you find in a single small spot, the more of the black stuff there is as well.
Almandine garnet is iron aluminium silicate - is it possible for it to be so high in iron that it appears black? Some bits even have a slightly metallic silvery sheen (while still being glassy-looking).
. Had to ring the owner in advance and ask permission to fossick there, it's not a fossicking area. A few likely cutter, biggest probably about 10 carats.
Much more common than the garnet is what I first took for little bits of obsidian.
Apart from the colour, they look identical to the garnets with the exact same highly reflective, vitrious lustre and the same, sharp-edged shape that gives the impression of having been broken out of a larger mass.
They behave the same way in the sieve as the very heavy garnets, heading straight to the bottom with the garnets when the sieve is swirled in water.
And they are found wherever the garnets are - the more garnets you find in a single small spot, the more of the black stuff there is as well.
Almandine garnet is iron aluminium silicate - is it possible for it to be so high in iron that it appears black? Some bits even have a slightly metallic silvery sheen (while still being glassy-looking).
