Fire,

Really great find! Smokies aren't at all common in the Uwharries. I was told by someone years ago that the source for the smoky color in Uwharrie quartz could possibly be titanium (titanic acid)? That the unusal grey smoke color was from strong trace amounts of titanium. Don't know if that's true or not but sounds possible. Most smoky color in quartz comes from radioactivity affecting the atomic structure of the quartz which in granitic areas there are plenty of decayed radioactive materials that can cause it but the Uwharries aren't granitic so the coloring agent must be something else. There use to be a rock shop on Bragg Blvd. in Fayetteville many years ago. My father and I went over there and indeed, there was a rock shop in a little strip mall. It was a rough part of town and we were surprised to see a rock shop. Anyway, the owners were an older couple and had mostly jewelry, beads, cheaper stuff for sale but on the back wall, had a case of local material that wasn't for sale. In this case were several Shingle Trap specimens. The one that stood out was a single very nice 4" long fat smoky crystal that had numerous small anatase scattered about it. The owner said that it was dug at Shingle Trap in the 60's and was the only smoky one in the pocket. Anyway...they had this little room in the back that said "under 18 not permitted" and I was around 13 at the time. Curiousity got the better of me and I peeped in and was quickly told to move on. While we were there, people were coming in and going directly to the owners cash register (which was in a bullet proof enclosure) and slipping $100 bills under the slot and they were handing them small bags. My father and I soon realized that something was wrong here and we got the heck out. Anyway, I heard years later that the place was shut down....and I can understand why, lol! But I will never forget that Shingle Trap smoky! Back when I was able to walk to the Tower Road mine I found a few smokies there also, one of fair size that I traded to Laurie and I think Kenny has it now. Off Queen Road about mid ways there use to be a cut-over that had smokies as float in the road bed. I think that I still have a few. They look similar to your piece. The land owners however are very controling of that area but it can be accessed from public lands off Tower with a long walk. Similar smokies were found over in the reservation off 109 not far behind the Eldorado store many years ago. Gene Smith (deceased) use to have several long slender medium smokies in his collection from there. There were also a few found south of Troy near the Little River on a farm. Went there once with Archie Craven but I didn't find anything much although he had some nice ones. I've heard stories that when the landfill was built off 24/27 west of Troy that a large plate of smoky tinted quartz crystals was found but I can't verify that one personally. Anyway....really cool specimen Fire you sure know how to find crystals....keep up the good work and lots of luck!

Mike

I don't know anything about titanium  causing smoky coloration in quartz, but I do know that I have found anatase in 2 other locations besides Shingletrap in Montgomery county. It's definitely around, so who knows.

Awesome! thanks again for sharing!

Mark,

I don't know myself if titanium can cause a smoky coloration or not but was told that by a couple of very knowledgable old-timers that in the case of Montgomery County quartz that it was trace amounts of titanium under just the right condition, maybe even just a minor bit of background radiation, heat, who knows caused the odd grey smoke in quartz from there? I know that many of the smokies from the Uwharries will look different in daylight than say just sitting in a room under a light. The one I found at the Tower Road site was more like wispy streaks of brown smoky tint mixed throughout the clear crystal but some others that I've seen throughout the county were of a pale brown slightly gray color through the whole body of the crystal. If you find any evidence to support the titanium color effect in quartz, let me know if there is any truth to it. You know, some of Archie's famed amethyst crystals had smoky tints and wisp of smoky not unlike other NC amethyst localities. I've always felt like the source of those crystals was from somewhere between Tower Road and Lovejoy Road centered around the Queen Road cut-over which runs about a mile between the two roads. It was on this road that I know decent smokies were found and less than a 1/2 mile away from the intersection of Queen and Lovejoy I found amethyst. I found smoky at the Tower Mine as well and saw both amethyst and smoky quartz from there in Cagles collection. So I feel that there is a belt of throught there were conditions are right to produce coloration in quartz as I have seen it east, west and off Queen Road. But let me tell you this, that whole area is heavily posted and the locals don't play around when it comes to their land. I had a gun pulled on me off Queen road some years ago and I had permission to be there! I happened to get lost and accidentally ended up on some adjacent land that was leased by a different club and some "Fudd" dressed in camo was up in a deer stand (it wasn't deer season) and as I came around the bend, heard the "click-click" looked up and he had the darn thing pointed at me. After telling him what had happened he pointed me in the right direction and on I went. I thought the fool was gonna shot me! Believe me, that crowd up there don't play. But.....there is allot of access from Tower that is public land but its intermixed with private so its real easy to end up on private and not even know it!

One of my recent finds

Wow!  Nice!

Yeah Joe, I halfway managed to save my nails thanks to gloves! Haha
Here are a few more pics. first three are that same crystal. I love how clear it is!