These pieces were all found during one day at the beach. I have read about campfire glass but these pieces do not have black specs in them like most campfire glass does. The colors are gorgeous and the crazy ridges and bumps give the glass an awesome look. Just curious if anyone knows what kind of glass it is and if it has a 'proper' identification.
Hi, I recently went to visit my boyfriend on his marine base in NC and I was wondering if I actually found sea glass or just some nice pebbles. :-) I know most of what I found isn't but I'm curious about a couple pieces. I'll add a photo of everything I found (notice the tiny shark tooth) and then a couple of the pieces I think may actually be glass. Can someone fill me in?
What are some ways to easily identify sea glass from beach stones/pebbles/agates? Is there some kind of "test" that can be done that determines if it is actually pretty, round sea glass or just a beach pebble?
----------------
That's a good question, Elizabeth. All of us at one time or another have found a pebble that we wondered about.
There are no hard and fast rules that Lin or I know of. Some factors that help though are:
Hold it up to a strong light (sun perhaps but be careful you don't damage your eyes). Sea glass will usually have obvious light coming through with no darker spots or cloudiness except for the frosted surface. Other materials will generally be opaque (non transparent) or only allow some cloudy light through. This is true of many quartzes. This does not apply to some materials that are not sea glass, like gemstones; agates, amber, some quartzes for instance.
On the other hand, there is opaque sea glass such as the glass insulators used in the past. Milk glass is another glass that is not transparent.
Agates - have a "soapy" feel, while sea glass does not. An agate generally has "dimples" and almost never has a "frosted" surface.
Lin and I are going to have to think about this one.
We would love to have other readers give suggestions also so that we could eventually come up with some kind of a check list.
I live at the beach, in NC & just began collecting. I have some obvious pieces of sea glass but have also found many translucent pebbles which are smooth, rounded and are either white or gray.
The texture is the same as sea glass. Most are without visual obstruction when looking through them but some have a webbing appearance within the stone/glass.
Others are thin & flat, with pits large enough to make them look like they will shatter into small pieces.
I know that's a lot of information. I hope my descriptions were understandable.
Thanks in advance for your help.
------------
That's an interesting question, Marty. Perhaps we can get an educated answer from one of our experienced beach combers.
I would suggest, though, for anyone submitting a question about appearance of a found object to try to include a photo. Although identification is possible without a photo, the chances of getting an opinion without one are pretty slim.
As you point out, it's hard to go to the beach and JUST pick up sea glass.
We keep telling ourselves no more pebbles. But that doesn't work too well. We still come home with pockets of beach pebbles...sometimes more pebbles than sea glass!
I have seriously considered doing a page on beach pebbles. I sure have a lot of photos, but since I don't know what most of the rocks are, I have kind of held back.
I'll probably be putting a question to you viewers through the blog one of these days as to who would be interested in having a section on beach pebbles on this site.
Then we can see what the consensus is.
Also, anyone knowledgeable about this topic could certainly write up some articles for the section.
You know, one of the beach pebbles we have come to recognize and delight in here in Washington State are agates. That might be what you have there. However, I have no idea if there are agates in North Carolina or not!
Thanks again for submitting this question and hopefully we'll get some responses.
