The Best Mineral
Kyanite
You Should Buy Kyanite Because ...
Kyanite is a great investment because it can be used to manufacture a wide range of products.
- Because it can handle a high degree of heat it is used to create molds for casting metals and in manufacturing kilns and other high temperature furnaces.
- Kyanite is also in products used in the automotive and railroad industries where heat resistance is important. Mullite, a form of calcined kyanite, is used to make brake shoes and clutch facings.
- Kyanite can be used to manufacture high refractory-strength porcelain - a porcelain that holds its strength at very high temperatures. A familiar use of this type of porcelain is the white porcelain insulator on a spark plug.
- Kyanite is also used in some of the more common forms of porcelain, such as those used to make dentures, sinks and bathroom fixtures.
Kyanite Specs
- Color is blue usually but also can be white, gray or green. Color is often not consistent throughout the crystal and can be blotchy or in streaks.
- Luster is vitreous to almost pearly.
- Transparency crystals are transparent to translucent.
- Crystal System is Triclinic; bar 1
- Crystal Habits include flat, pinacoid dominated, prismatic crystals often embedded in metamorphic rocks and quartz veins.
- Cleavage is good in one direction parallel to the flat pinacoid face.
- Fracture is splintery.
- Hardness is approximately 4.5 when scratched parallel to the long axis of the crystal and approximately 6.5 when scratched perpendicular to or across the long axis.
- Specific Gravity is approximately 3.58+ (above average)
- Streak is white.
- Associated Minerals are biotite, staurolite, garnets, quartz, andalusite andsillimanite.
This page was created by Mrs. Smart
Mrs. Smart was born in May, making her birthstone the emerald.
Emeralds are associated with patience, understanding, and foresight. There is no other gem with the same intense green color. This coloring is caused by small amounts of chromium and enhanced by traces of iron. Emeralds almost always contain inclusions and other flaws; however they are considered to give the stone character and not thought of as negative characteristics.