Tiger Eye Palm Stone Grade A.

Tiger eye is quartz - SiO₂, Mohs 6.5–7 - with a structure unlike any other quartz in this range. It began as crocidolite, a fibrous blue mineral; over geological time silica replaced the fibres while keeping their alignment. The parallel fibres are what catch the light.

The moving band is chatoyancy - from the French for cat’s eye - an optical effect of that fibrous structure. Light reflects along the fibres, so a bright line travels across the stone as it turns. The gold-brown colour comes from iron oxides left behind by the original mineral.

The classic deposits lie in the Northern Cape of South Africa, where most of the world’s tiger eye has been mined since the nineteenth century.

Asked often

Is the colour natural?
The golden-brown is natural. Red tiger eye on the market is usually heat-treated, and the blue sold as hawk’s eye is the original fibre before quartz replaced it - this is the untreated gold.

Does it contain asbestos?
The original fibre was an asbestos mineral, but in tiger eye it has been replaced and sealed by quartz. Polished stones are stable and safe to handle.

Why does the band of light move?
Light reflects along the parallel fibres inside the stone, so the band travels as the angle changes. Turn it in the hand and it answers.

How do I care for it?
Wipe with a soft, slightly damp cloth and dry. At Mohs 6.5–7 it wears well and needs little care.

1. Held in the palm and turned slowly - the band of light travels across the stone.
2. Set on a desk where the light catches it.
3. Carried in a pocket or a bag; hard-wearing at Mohs 6.5–7.
4. Wipe with a soft, slightly damp cloth and dry.

Many traditions rinse or air their stones from time to time; that is a matter of preference, and the rest is yours.

A polished stone to keep and to turn in the light. Hard-wearing at Mohs 6.5–7; wipe it clean from time to time, and spare the polish hard knocks.

• Stone: Tiger eye · golden-brown quartz
• Composition: SiO₂ · quartz after crocidolite
• Crystal system: Trigonal · fibrous habit retained
• Hardness: Mohs 6.5–7
• Character: Chatoyant · banded gold to brown
• Treatment: None · untreated
• Form: Palm stone · shaped and polished
• Origin: South Africa
• Care: Wipe with a soft cloth

When the first pieces reached Europe in the nineteenth century, tiger eye was priced as a rare gem; the scale of the Northern Cape deposits later made it an everyday stone. The supply changed, not the stone - the same band of light, at the price of a palm stone.

Across many cultures, stones carrying a moving eye of light were worn as watchful tokens - named here as what people believed. What the eye watches for is, as ever, the holder’s to decide.