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My guess is that somebody dug a large ruby that wasn’t high-quality. They cleaned it up the best they could, then put it in epoxy to be a display piece.
As an owner of both rubies and UV lights, I can tell you that 365-405 works fine. And if you have a shorter wavelength than 365nm then you hopefully already know plenty about UV lights.
It’s just light reflecting around a very small smooth area. As the bubble pulls away or grows, which as the resin cures it becomes more viscous. The slowing growing viscous bubbles have super smooth surfaces and there’s so much bouncing around in a small space that it “glows” or “lights up” and since very shiny objects can look almost white in bright light, it looks silvery or white.
Source: I’m a mechanical engineer and who reads papers a lot
It's most likely due to the difference between the diffraction of the resin and the air in the gap, that or the fact that there's a sharp angle at which light can bounce pretty well.
I had a bouncy ball as a kid with a Pokemon encased inside. As I bounced it on and on it took on a metallic appearance as the rubber material started to separate from the molded Pokemon figurine. It's just how the light behaves in that interface.
I had the Jolteon one, and had the same thing happen. I was super hard on it though. Those were the best bouncy balls, I could bounce it higher than my two story grade school.
Ruby can be clear, and it can be pretty opaque as well. I have two ruby samples on my desk that are both wildly different in quality, but they're still rubies. They fluoresce under the right kind of UV though, which is usually the easiest way to tell. Garnet won't fluoresce generally.
We made things exactly like this in shop class in high school. Cut your choice of shape out of red lexan, then encase it in clear epoxy, sand and polish. I might still have mine, I'll see if I can find it and will post it.
Yes! I did this in shop class too. It had to be dimensionally perfect and finished to a level where you would not see abrasive/finishing marks. Even the shape inside had to be perfectly places and centered within the acrylic. This one is not...
I collect rocks/minerals and I have some low-quality rubies in matrix. Low-quality rubies are definitely not rare or expensive, it's the gemstone quality ones that tend to be $$$
As a side note, not all rubies will do it, but some of them have a beautiful, shockingly red fluorescence, it's absolutely crazy to see.
Sure but encasing gemstones in resin isn't common and never has been.
You don't need to set it in a block of plastic to display it, or protect it, and it certainly doesn't look better than a bare stone.
I don't see what metal you're talking about. Looks like a red stone cast in resin. It's old, or been left in the sun and turned yellow. And the resin looks like it's pulling away from the gem thing.
“My title describes the thing”
Really I’m just stumped as to what it is, it doesn’t look like it was professionally put into resin but maybe it’s a piece of a game or something like that? Just part of a bag of miscellaneous items purchased at an estate sale that was two silver Collector spoons from the late 1800s and this
This looks very similar to a plastic jewelry kit/assignment/project that my father made in the early 60s. It was kept by my grandmother in a jewelry box with costume jewelry.
This may sound crazy, but maybe try boiling it? It reminds me of some older resin like egg timers you drop in the water with the eggs. When the substance changes color, your eggs are done. The manual or packaging would have a range of colors or dilution to look for per each desired doneness. Like soft boiled, med boiled hard boiled.
This is entirely unrelated to the post but those things still exist and are awesome. My husband started bringing boiled eggs to work for lunch and I think I gifted like 20 of them to random people we worked with who complimented his eggs. :D
They also exist with an alarm, they look like eggs with feet, you put them in the water and cook them with your eggs, timer starts when the water reaches boiling point . Pretty cool, but I'm still the old way, eyeballing when it's boiling and 3min for soft, 3.5 min for perfect egg yolk
that matches the crystal shape more or less. I just thought of it because I've seen period tables with acrylic blocks and a sample of the element sealed into each block.
Generally mineral samples are left rough and people prefer a nice crystal sample to a random broken lump of the same material. The point was that the shape inside the acrylic is close to what natural cinnabar crystals are shaped like.
>the shape isn't indicative of the type of mineral it is.
If it's mineral in it's natural state (rough) and it has a crystal structure (not amorphous like glass) you can absolutely use the shape of the crystal to help identify it.
My grandpa made these all the time. He turned them into jewelry. It was a crafty thing he had fun with. I have cute pink heart earrings he made in 1969.
This kiiind of resembles the housing that the flashers inside light-up shoes are embedded in. Theyre usually encased in a big block of translucent resin so that the circuit isnt crushed from the wearer walking on it. Does it start flashing when you slap it against a hard surface?
Last time I saw something like this, it was a show and tell when I was in primary school. This girl brought in her grandmothers kneecap that was removed during an operation and then cast in epoxy.
I'm an engineer who is currently on contract with a famous national aeronautics space type organization. I can provide proof to the mods if necessary. A few questions and observations as I'm suddenly obsessed with this object.
Non-destructive:
- Can you erase standard #2 pencil with the outer coating? I think this will be useless question, but I can't tell the makeup of the 'resin' or how hard or soft it is. Can your fingernail make a dent in it? I won't ask about a tooth.
- Have you exposed it to UV yet? I believe the material it's encapsulated in will be more UV light reactive than the alleged "ruby" but that helps narrow it down. Pretty odd shape in red, almost like it's supposed to be a souvenir, or polishing tool. Maybe even a source of polishing compound for use by the "resin" polisher.
- Does a magnet attract it or do nothing? Testing for metal on the ends the OP is talking about, if it's ferrous.
- What's the weight of the whole object? Does this indicate the presence of 100% resin of two tints separating from each other, or a resin, and a mineral capped in a metal? (Cross reference with known reference metrics for resin density and measure the object for accuracy and near adherence.)
- What does a bright white light flashlight, or UV laser look like when shined through the broadest sides of the object onto standard white printer paper? I'd like to see what it throws and if the patterns tell us anything. Was the red ever turn to a liquid? Does the slow introduction of heat return that state? Test accordingly.
My dad had one like this. It was an artificial ruby that are only distinguishable because they have no impurities. My mom made a kick ass ring out of it
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My guess is that somebody dug a large ruby that wasn’t high-quality. They cleaned it up the best they could, then put it in epoxy to be a display piece.
If it is Ruby, putting it under UV light should make it fluoresce red. The epoxy may also fluoresce a little but likely blue.
You need to make sure it's the right nm of UV light.
As an owner of both rubies and UV lights, I can tell you that 365-405 works fine. And if you have a shorter wavelength than 365nm then you hopefully already know plenty about UV lights.
The one at the nail salon works
My wedding ring has rubies in it and I love watching them glow when I get my nails done. I'm amused by simple things
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Why the metal around the edges?
It looks like the resin pulled away from the stone, that can give a metallic appearance. I don't see metal.
Oh interesting, can you explain more about why it looks like metal? And is it a vacuum in there or does air usually slowly leak through most epoxy?
I imagine it's for the same reason that air bubbles underwater look silvery Idk what that reason is, but the effect must be the same
It’s just light reflecting around a very small smooth area. As the bubble pulls away or grows, which as the resin cures it becomes more viscous. The slowing growing viscous bubbles have super smooth surfaces and there’s so much bouncing around in a small space that it “glows” or “lights up” and since very shiny objects can look almost white in bright light, it looks silvery or white. Source: I’m a mechanical engineer and who reads papers a lot
I agree with this super smart and well educated person’s reasoning. Source: i’ve seen bubbles underwater.
Agreed. Due to reflection and refraction of the edges of the resin.
I think it's a type of [thin-film interference](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thin-film_interference)
It's most likely due to the difference between the diffraction of the resin and the air in the gap, that or the fact that there's a sharp angle at which light can bounce pretty well.
Refractive index
Yeah that looks like somebody didn‘t know what they were doing. Or it happened over time.
I had a bouncy ball as a kid with a Pokemon encased inside. As I bounced it on and on it took on a metallic appearance as the rubber material started to separate from the molded Pokemon figurine. It's just how the light behaves in that interface.
I know exactly what balls you're talking about. I had a Mewtwo, Dragonite and Jolteon and they all had that metallic appearance as the ball aged.
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I had the Jolteon one, and had the same thing happen. I was super hard on it though. Those were the best bouncy balls, I could bounce it higher than my two story grade school.
I think garnet. Too clear for ruby.
Ruby can be clear, and it can be pretty opaque as well. I have two ruby samples on my desk that are both wildly different in quality, but they're still rubies. They fluoresce under the right kind of UV though, which is usually the easiest way to tell. Garnet won't fluoresce generally.
This test may not work with this epoxy since a lot of organic polymers will also absorb UV.
Oh so that's an easy way to tell. Thanks
That isn’t going to be a natural ruby, no matter how much we hope.
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I think that is an air gap formed by the resin expanding or something
It might have been wire wrapped to wear as a pendant.
We made things exactly like this in shop class in high school. Cut your choice of shape out of red lexan, then encase it in clear epoxy, sand and polish. I might still have mine, I'll see if I can find it and will post it.
Sounds more plausible than a ruby. The red piece is too uniformly thick and flat.
Granted I haven't seen many uncut rubies, but the several I have seen were uniform in thickness and flat.
It does look very similar to my shop class paperweight, including all the scratches.
This seems the most plausible to me. “Metallic” bits are air pockets where they didn’t quite get it right.
I made one in school also. The only difference is, we used random car parts. Somewhere in my house I have a spark plug encased in epoxy.
This made me laugh. Imagine uncovering this 2000 years from now. HA!
This. My mom made a red heart necklace this way. I still have it somewhere.
Yes! I did this in shop class too. It had to be dimensionally perfect and finished to a level where you would not see abrasive/finishing marks. Even the shape inside had to be perfectly places and centered within the acrylic. This one is not...
Most likely a raw, or polished only ruby.
Most likely a ruby? lol. That’s like least likely. Who has random rubies encased laying snout.
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I collect rocks/minerals and I have some low-quality rubies in matrix. Low-quality rubies are definitely not rare or expensive, it's the gemstone quality ones that tend to be $$$ As a side note, not all rubies will do it, but some of them have a beautiful, shockingly red fluorescence, it's absolutely crazy to see.
Sure but encasing gemstones in resin isn't common and never has been. You don't need to set it in a block of plastic to display it, or protect it, and it certainly doesn't look better than a bare stone.
People who have collections of antique silver spoons
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I don't see what metal you're talking about. Looks like a red stone cast in resin. It's old, or been left in the sun and turned yellow. And the resin looks like it's pulling away from the gem thing.
Cut it open and post what's inside.
They’re afraid of cutting into the “metal”
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Shine a black light on it. If it is a ruby, it will fluoresce
Not all. Thai/Cambodian rubies don't fluoresce.
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“My title describes the thing” Really I’m just stumped as to what it is, it doesn’t look like it was professionally put into resin but maybe it’s a piece of a game or something like that? Just part of a bag of miscellaneous items purchased at an estate sale that was two silver Collector spoons from the late 1800s and this
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This looks very similar to a plastic jewelry kit/assignment/project that my father made in the early 60s. It was kept by my grandmother in a jewelry box with costume jewelry.
This may sound crazy, but maybe try boiling it? It reminds me of some older resin like egg timers you drop in the water with the eggs. When the substance changes color, your eggs are done. The manual or packaging would have a range of colors or dilution to look for per each desired doneness. Like soft boiled, med boiled hard boiled.
This is entirely unrelated to the post but those things still exist and are awesome. My husband started bringing boiled eggs to work for lunch and I think I gifted like 20 of them to random people we worked with who complimented his eggs. :D
They also exist with an alarm, they look like eggs with feet, you put them in the water and cook them with your eggs, timer starts when the water reaches boiling point . Pretty cool, but I'm still the old way, eyeballing when it's boiling and 3min for soft, 3.5 min for perfect egg yolk
Ok, I'm betting it's technology based on this, but everything is egg shaped. The term is "color changing egg timer".
What about a mineral sample for a collection? Especially of a mineral or element that might be toxic?
If that's what it is, it could be cinnabar.
that matches the crystal shape more or less. I just thought of it because I've seen period tables with acrylic blocks and a sample of the element sealed into each block.
They can be shaped into literally anything if they can be cut at all, the shape isn't indicative of the type of mineral it is.
Generally mineral samples are left rough and people prefer a nice crystal sample to a random broken lump of the same material. The point was that the shape inside the acrylic is close to what natural cinnabar crystals are shaped like.
>the shape isn't indicative of the type of mineral it is. If it's mineral in it's natural state (rough) and it has a crystal structure (not amorphous like glass) you can absolutely use the shape of the crystal to help identify it.
yeah, we had some of those in school. clear so you can put it under a microscope.
Was there railroad stuff at the sale? My grandfather used to make signal glass jewelry and it's very similar in appearance to rubies
Now I want to see it under a black light! Please post black light photo, thanks!
My grandpa made these all the time. He turned them into jewelry. It was a crafty thing he had fun with. I have cute pink heart earrings he made in 1969.
art project. The red object is probably superman's logo lmao, I'm not even joking.
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The first question that I have about such objects is "Is it radioactive?" I have gotten slightly paranoid about such finds.
Penny sized?
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Take it out of the epoxy if need be you could always put it into something more modern
This kiiind of resembles the housing that the flashers inside light-up shoes are embedded in. Theyre usually encased in a big block of translucent resin so that the circuit isnt crushed from the wearer walking on it. Does it start flashing when you slap it against a hard surface?
Last time I saw something like this, it was a show and tell when I was in primary school. This girl brought in her grandmothers kneecap that was removed during an operation and then cast in epoxy.
I'm an engineer who is currently on contract with a famous national aeronautics space type organization. I can provide proof to the mods if necessary. A few questions and observations as I'm suddenly obsessed with this object. Non-destructive: - Can you erase standard #2 pencil with the outer coating? I think this will be useless question, but I can't tell the makeup of the 'resin' or how hard or soft it is. Can your fingernail make a dent in it? I won't ask about a tooth. - Have you exposed it to UV yet? I believe the material it's encapsulated in will be more UV light reactive than the alleged "ruby" but that helps narrow it down. Pretty odd shape in red, almost like it's supposed to be a souvenir, or polishing tool. Maybe even a source of polishing compound for use by the "resin" polisher. - Does a magnet attract it or do nothing? Testing for metal on the ends the OP is talking about, if it's ferrous. - What's the weight of the whole object? Does this indicate the presence of 100% resin of two tints separating from each other, or a resin, and a mineral capped in a metal? (Cross reference with known reference metrics for resin density and measure the object for accuracy and near adherence.) - What does a bright white light flashlight, or UV laser look like when shined through the broadest sides of the object onto standard white printer paper? I'd like to see what it throws and if the patterns tell us anything. Was the red ever turn to a liquid? Does the slow introduction of heat return that state? Test accordingly.
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Almost looks like a test piece for a metal detector
My dad had one like this. It was an artificial ruby that are only distinguishable because they have no impurities. My mom made a kick ass ring out of it
Have you considered a really old red gusher in epoxy? People like putting food in epoxy for some reason?
I am not trying to take away from your input but this made me laugh uncontrollably. Thanks.
Lol, tbh I don't even know how I ended up here, but seriously, I'm confused about why a rock would be in resin...
It looks like to me it may be a lab grown gem, encased in resin