Green Tiger's Eye

Green tiger's eye is a treated natural material: tiger's eye, a chatoyant variety of quartz containing altered crocidolite (amphibole) fibres, that has been dyed green. Tiger's eye does not naturally occur in this vivid green; gemmological references list dyeing (sometimes after bleaching) as a treatment of tiger's eye, and the Japanese retailer Pascle states that its green tiger's eye is artificially dyed.

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Full material guide
Material facts

What the material is, where it comes from or how it is made, identification and care, from the cited sources.

Properties

Material type Treated natural material (dyed tiger's eye)
Base material Tiger's eye: quartz with included, altered crocidolite fibres
Treatment Dyed green; the colour is not natural
Chemical formula (quartz host) SiO₂
Mohs hardness 6.5 to 7
Specific gravity (tiger's eye) 2.55 to 2.91
Refractive index (tiger's eye) 1.544 to 1.553
Optical effect Chatoyancy (silky moving bands)
Transparency Opaque

Origins & sources

The colour is produced by dyeing, so green tiger's eye has no natural deposit of its own. Its base material, tiger's eye, comes mainly from South Africa; other recorded sources include Western Australia, India, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, Brazil, China, Namibia and the United States. Where the stones are dyed is not documented in the sources consulted; Pascle gives South Africa and Namibia as origins of its material.

Identification

Green tiger's eye keeps the fibrous structure and moving chatoyant bands of tiger's eye. The gemmologist R. Webster noted that many tiger's eye cabochons are stained and that vivid greens, blues and blacks are obviously stained; natural hawk's eye, the unaltered blue form, is only grayish to occasionally greenish blue. GIA notes that a qualified gemologist can detect dyed gems in most cases. Fibre-optic glass can imitate the chatoyancy of these materials but is a man-made product.

Care

Because the colour comes from dye, keep the stones away from solvents such as alcohol or acetone, which can remove many dyes, and from prolonged sunlight, which can make some dyes fade. Jewelers commonly recommend cleaning tiger's eye only with a polishing cloth rather than alcohol, steam or an ultrasonic cleaner, and note that it chips or breaks more readily than many gems when struck.

History & culture

History

Not collected yet

Cultural meanings

The Japanese retailer Pascle says that green tiger's eye shares the meanings it gives to all colours of tiger's eye: because the "tiger's eye" was traditionally thought to see through everything, the stone is said to sharpen its wearer's insight, and the retailer associates it with luck in work and money.

Traditional beliefs

Not collected yet

Sources

Collected Oct 23, 2026