Crystals question

[setelf3of5]

Although not for my current saber I am of course am thinking ahead and working on several future sabers, one of which will have a crystal section. I have been looking for clear or translucent crystals, but the long slender, natural growth look like on many I have seen here...I can only find flat jewelry, or plastic cut too look like a squat diamond ring type crystals.
I have visited the local hobby lobby here, and they couldn't even come close. Any suggestions on places I might find some crystals that are similar to what I am looking for described above? Thank you all for your help it is greatly appreciated.

[amwolf]

Google will be your friend here - search for quartz crystals. You'll probably find a bunch of New Age Healing stuff (and then have to deal with their emails), but you'll find places selling either individual crystals or bulk. At least, that's what I did. I tried going to the local History Museum, which has a nice rock department in their gift shop, but the bin where the quartz should be is always empty... darned 5 year olds...

[setelf3of5]

I will give both a try, thanks all I seemed to find on my own was either not usable or nothing close...thanks again!

[snilam]

try like a mom pop shop that has like "hippy" type stuff like herbs and inscence (sp?), that's where I get mine they have all sorts of crystal. usually pretty cheap. I get mine for a buck each

[Sevinzol]

try looking for a rock/mineral/fossils kind of store. I'm lucky that we have a place in town like that. http://www.burniesrockshop.com/

[setelf3of5]

Thanks a lot guys, I will research every lead.

[Miraluka]

If you still haven't found anything, try Etsy. I just searched quartz crystal and got a handful of results costing between 3-10 USD. It'll be the first place I go shopping when I'm ready to build a crystal chamber.

[Jabbas_reluctant_slave]

You could look into chandelier crystals as well, you might not find anything that looks like natural growth but you'll definitely find clear or translucent and long and slender. The nice thing about the chandelier crystals is exact measurements will be provided.

[Whi-ja]

I ordered some smallish quartz crystals for about $1.50 apiece. They were still too large for what I had in mind, but they fracture very well. So I snapped the stem using a pair of vice grips and a screwdriver handle. I just held the crystal with the grips and whacked off the unwanted portion with the screwdriver handle. (A rubber mallet or similar would work - I was afraid a metal hammer would cause too much shattering, not enough cleaving due to force distribution properties.) It worked, and the broken edge was not flat like a cut, but it caught and scattered light in the chamber REALLY well. Here's a pic!Anakin Crys Chbr.jpg

[setelf3of5]

All very cool, when I build a crystal chamber I will keep all this in mind. Thank you everyone!