Fluorite (cleavage octahedrons)

specimen number:
2292335

location:
China and Southern Illinois Fluorspar District, Illinois, USA

description:
A set of attractive colorful fluorite cleavage octahedrons. The green ones come from China, all of the others come from Illinois. Size provided is the size of the box in the picture.

The practice of producing fluorite cleavage octahedrons dates back to the mining booms of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, particularly in major fluorite districts like the Illinois-Kentucky fluorspar district and parts of Germany. Miners, and often their children, discovered that fluorite's perfect cleavage allowed the mineral to be easily split along four distinct structural planes. Using simple tools like a pocket knife or a small blade and a light hammer tap, they cleaved large, blocky cubic crystals into symmetrical, eight-sided double pyramids. These hand-cleaved octahedrons, often referred to as "miners' diamonds," were sold as inexpensive novelties and souvenirs to tourists and early mineral collectors, turning a common mining byproduct into a classic geological curiosity.

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