Black Beach Glass

by Paula Lojak
(Girard, PA)

How do you tell if its beach glass or a stone? I've found some that I think is glass but not sure.

-------------

Hi Paula,

That's a coincidence, as I found my first piece of "black" beach glass last week. It was among the pebbles on the beach and the same color. When I bent over to pick up some other small pieces of sea glass, my eye told me that it just "looked like" sea glass, so I picked it up and threw it in my baggie.

When I got home, I held it up the light and, guess what?

It was a DEEP RUBY RED! Wow! I guess even my recalcitrant eyes are getting trained to recognize hard-to-find sea glass. I always wondered if I was seeing black beach glass without knowing it. And I really wondered how in the world others found "black" beach glass when it is the same color as the rocks on the beach.

Well, I guess your eye eventually tells you something "looks like" sea glass.

Of course, "black" sea glass is rarely black. It is very dark brown or green or another very dark color.

The only way you can tell it is glass sometimes is to hold it up to a very bright light and see if there is a glow through around the edges.

David (editor)