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I keep seeing people call any shiny black rock obsidian at the gem show
I mean, maybe it's just me but I've been hitting the Tucson gem show for like 15 years now, and this year it felt like every other person was pointing at a piece of black slag glass or even anthracite coal and calling it obsidian. It matters because obsidian is a volcanic glass with a specific conchoidal fracture, not just any dark shiny thing. I watched a vendor sell a chunk of black industrial glass to a tourist for 40 bucks as 'rare obsidian' last month. I know because I've collected actual obsidian from Glass Butte in Oregon, and you can feel the difference in the way it breaks. How do you politely correct someone without sounding like a know-it-all?
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troy9964d ago
Man, that drives me nuts. I just say what I know, plain and simple. Like, I'll point at the real obsidian and say "See that clean break? That's the conchoidal fracture you want." Makes it about the rock, not the person being wrong. Usually they get it. If the vendor gets mad, I just walk away. Not my problem.
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