Category Mineral Mohs scale hardness 5.5 - 6 Specific gravity 2.64 – 2.71 | Colour golden to red-brown Luster Silky | |
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Formula
(repeating unit) Silica (silicon dioxide, SiO2) | ||
Tiger's eye (also called tiger eye) is a chatoyant gemstone that is usually a metamorphic rock with a golden to red-brown colour and a silky lustre. As members of the quartz group, Tiger's eye and the related blue-coloured mineral Hawk's eye gain their silky, lustrous appearance from the parallel intergrowth of quartz crystals and altered amphibole fibres that have mostly turned into limonite.
Contents
Cut, treatment and imitation
Gems are usually given a cabochon cut to best display their chatoyance. Red stones are developed by gentle heat treatment. Dark stones are artificially lightened to improve color using a nitric acid treatment.
Honey-colored stones have been used to imitate the more valued cat's eye chrysoberyl (cymophane), but the overall effect is unconvincing. Artificial fibre optic glass is a common imitation of tiger's eye, and is produced in a wide range of colours. Tiger's eye comes primarily from South Africa and east Asia.
Tiger iron
Tiger iron is an altered rock composed chiefly of tiger's eye, red jasper and black hematite. The undulating, contrasting bands of colour and lustre make for an attractive motif, and it is mainly used for jewellery-making and ornamentation. Tiger iron is a popular ornamental material used in a variety of applications, from beads to knife hilts.
Tiger iron is mined primarily in South Africa and Western Australia. Tiger's eye is composed chiefly of silicon dioxide (SiO2) and is coloured mainly by iron oxide. The specific gravity ranges from 2.64 to 2.71. It is formed by the alteration of crocidolite.
Other forms of tiger's eye
Serpentine deposits in which are occasionally found chatoyant bands of chrysotile fibres have been found in the US states of Arizona and California. These have been cut and sold as "Arizona tiger-eye" and "California tiger's eye" gemstones. The trade name of pietersite is used for a fractured or brecciated chalcedony containing amphibole fibers and promoted as tiger's eye from Namibia and China.
Cultural associations
In some parts of the world, the stone is believed to ward off the evil eye.