Super Iron Out Crystals

Micro-quartz cluster

Most crystal-digging people know Super Iron Out as a great solution for taking iron oxide staining off of crystals.  I typically use SIO as my first cleaning bath for most of my crystals and jump into the acids later if the stains are stubborn.  This winter I was cleaning a small micro-quartz cluster in the (cold) garage and was amazed to find my cluster gained another crystal during cleaning.

Micro-quartz cluster
Micro-quartz cluster without the SIO crystal

I must have saturated the small amout of cleaning bath and when the temperature lowered the SIO crystal began to form!  The next day it turned from clear to super brittle white; and was falling all over, so I put it back in solution and cleaned more crystals with it!

Super Iron out Crystal
Super Iron out is typically used to clean crystals, but this time I grew a cool crystal!
tn_SIO_Crystal05_Lg
Another angle showing the really interesting growth patterns. I have a UV LED lamp shining on it to give some contrast.

2 Comments

  1. Any thoughts on what mineral it is? I created something similar when I left a couple rusted drill bits in some used solution. Forgot about them for a couple days and found the solution turned black. But when I pulled out the bits they were held together by these new crystals.

  2. Don’t know the chemical crystal that is made with SIO, but I’ve seen some great crystals on the internet and in person!

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