Ilmenite with Titanite

Ilmenite – FeTiO3
Elements: Iron, Titanium, Oxygen
Class: Oxides
Crystal System: Trigonal
Hardness: 5-6
Orthoclase
Talc (1)Diamond (10)
About as hard as a steel knife blade.
Titanite – CaTi(SiO4)O
Class: Silicates – Nesosilicates
Crystal System: Monoclinic
Hardness: 5-5.5
Apatite
Talc (1)Diamond (10)
About as hard as a steel knife blade.
Origin: Campo do Boa Mine, Capelinha Minas Gerais – Brazil
Did you know?

Ilmenite is jet black, yet it is the source of the whitest white we know. Refined into titanium dioxide, it becomes the bright pigment in most white paint, and in paper, plastic, sunscreen, and toothpaste. The black stone in your hand is what puts the white in half the objects around you.

Titanite breaks light into color better than diamond does. Its dispersion, the measure of that fire, is 0.051 against the 0.044 of diamond. Cut well, it flashes rainbows a diamond cannot match. It is almost never worn, because at hardness 5.5 with easy cleavage it would not survive a week on a hand.