Cleaning.

I have built my self a work area but I never seem to have enough room.

When you dig the quartz crystals they are full of clay, dirt and different types of mineral and iron stains.

The larger and heavy crystals, I place on pallets on the ground.so that they dont break my screens. The cluster on the bottom left is full of wet sticky clay, it will sit in the sun for a few days to dry and shrink the clay. Then, I will squirt it off with the water hose. I may have to repeat this process a couple of times to get all the clay out from inbetween all the points and crevices . On the right, it is now ready to go into the oxyalic acid to get off the iron stains.

Below is what freshly dug crystal points usually look like. It doesnt take as many days in the sun to get them ready for acid

Here are small points, You need to be carefull that you dont squirt them all over the place. The small points bottom left have all the dirt and clay removed from them. It is time for them to go into the oxylic acid. The acid comes in a powder form. One pound makes 2 and a half gallons of solution. I place small crystal points in a crock pot outside. cover them with the solution, bring the solution almost to a boil, turn the heat off and let them sit for a day or 2. When the crystals are clean, rinse them off with the water hose being sure to get any reside out of the cracks and crevices.

Always wear gloves when using the oxyalic acid, it will burn your hands especially if you get it on a crystal cut. Do not get it in your eyes. You can use the acid more than once, 3 or 4 batches maybe, depending on how much stain the crystals had on them.

Always neturalize the acid with baking soda before disposing of it. The points in picture below on right are now clean.

Now it is time for my Helper and i to take a break and work in the crystal garden.below on right is one from my personal collection.

It is a huge Arkansas, natural smoky cluster that is shaped like an Eagle

The Neighbor kids love to come help and they love to wash the crystals off. MY Favorite little next door helper. They always get crystals to take home.

Here I am, setting up and getting ready to sell in Tucson . Snow in Sedona, My truck is empty, Heading home to go digging