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whitmers
05-25-2013, 05:04 PM
What type of crystal are people finding to be the best for crystal chambers?

Quartz is strong and resilient and common
Calcite has some neat optical properties but is a lot more fragile
the acrylic sold in the store are light and pretty durable

Any others that people have used?

Silver Serpent
05-25-2013, 06:08 PM
Quartz is one of the more commonly used crystals in a crystal chamber. You can use most anything you like, so long as it fits. Keep in mind that you usually want impurities in the crystal. If it is perfectly clear, then the light doesn't scatter in the crystal and it doesn't illuminate well.

I'm pretty sure I've seen one or two sabers using corundum in a crystal chamber (ruby or sapphire).

Onli-Won Kanomi
05-25-2013, 06:18 PM
Yes there other options like purple Amethyst, royal-blue Alexandrite or Iolite, London or Swiss-blue Topaz, sky-blue Aquamarine, blue-green Fluorite, green Tourmaline or Amethyst, lime Peridot, lemon-yellow, amber or honey-orange Citrine, fire-orange Fire Opal, padparadscha-orange Sapphire, red Garnet or Ruby. Personally I like briolettes between 15-25mm but you have to look carefully to get undrilled ones or sometimes use double-pointed ones so you can hide the drilled end in the crystal mount. Also it is better if you can find gems with inclusions for our purposes - a lot of synthetic gems are IF or VVS which can still be used with side or other lighting but included natural stones often 'glow' better if typically end-lit and highly included stones are of course cheaper. Recently I even saw someone use a rough industrial diamond.

whitmers
05-25-2013, 06:32 PM
I just have to make sure its clear since the chamber will be inside a r.g.b capable chamber.

So many minerals that have possibilities, its one of those quartz will be the most solid, but something different would be neat. I'll keep hunting.

Sunrider
05-26-2013, 01:21 PM
I just have to make sure its clear since the chamber will be inside a r.g.b capable chamber.

So many minerals that have possibilities, its one of those quartz will be the most solid, but something different would be neat. I'll keep hunting.

Check out healingcrystals.com

Xene
06-23-2013, 07:44 PM
Quartz is also probably the cheapest ;D you can (if you find a bit big enough) also use aquamariene, labrodite, garnet, and plenty more ;D