[meteorite-list] first attempt to etch

[Michael Murray]

Some ramblings from a newbie

Tonight, I attempted to etch my small suspect iron.  I used ferric  
chloride.  I polished a spot to a mirror finish and then cleaned it  
with alcohol, then applied the etchant.  I left it on a few minutes  
then cleaned it off and reapplied it.  did this 3 times.  I brought  
it in to the mscope and looked at what I had done.  No pattern.  The  
surface looked dimply.  I cleaned it more, then buffed it with cotton  
wheel.  Nothing of a pattern.  I had a piece of terrestrial iron so I  
applied etchant to it to see what it did.  Here is what I found out  
from that.

The iron shows a granular appearance.  It is not the same as the  
little suspect stone.  Its hard to explain but the suspect stone  
almost looks like bright silver/platinum.  No granular appearance at  
all.  And here is the real weird thing.   It appears  when turned  
just right in the light to have very small very bright round things  
that reflect the light with an amplification of the light.  They are  
scattered all over the surface and the brightest white I have seen.   
In the right light and tilted away just so, it looks kinda like the  
night sky.

It was fun to try the etching process. I either have something other  
than a meteorite, or possibly (dare I say) an ataxite.   Next I will  
try a nickel test on it.

Rockbiter