Cut beads are not seen in the marketplace. K2 shapes and polishes well in a rock tumbler to produce tumbled stones. This is because the azurite exists as a stain rather than as discrete mineral grains. Although azurite has a Mohs hardness of 3.5 to 4, the blue dots have the same cutting and polishing properties as the surrounding white granite. Due to its high feldspar content, it can be easily cut with a lapidary saw and shapes quickly on a diamond wheel. K2 granite cuts, tumbles, and polishes beautifully. This cabochon is about 20 x 30 millimeters in size. These indicate that the stain formed after the granite solidified from its parent melt. Within each stain you can see the texture of the granite and grains of black biotite. K2 cabochon: An oval cabochon cut from K2 Granite with several bright blue azurite stains.
The azurite is a secondary material that clearly formed after all of the other minerals in the granite had solidified from the parent melt. Some specimens show strong alignment of the biotite grains and could be called "granite gneiss."Įxamination of the azurite spheres with a good hand lens or microscope reveals that the azurite is present along mineral grain boundaries, within tiny fractures, and as a "dye" penetrating the feldspar grains. The white granite is very fine-grained and composed of quartz, sodium plagioclase, muscovite, and biotite. If you examine the rock with a magnifying glass, you will see cleavage faces of feldspar minerals and black flakes of biotite. Upon closer examination, however, you will see that they are actually spherical in shape.Īlthough K2 Jasper is the most commonly used name for marketing this material, it is definitely not jasper. On a broken surface or on the surface of a slab, the blue orbs look like drops of bright blue ink that splashed onto the rock. The azurite orbs range from a few millimeters up to about two centimeters in diameter. It is a bright white granite that contains sharply contrasting orbs of bright blue azurite. It is like an eye magnet for anyone who sees it for the first time. "K2 Granite," also known as "K2 Jasper" and "raindrop azurite," is an extremely interesting rock and lapidary material from the Skardu area of northern Pakistan.
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