How to tell the Difference between Black Onyx, Jet, Apache Tear, Black Tourmaline & Black Obsidian

A common question I get from my students in my Certified Crystal Practitioner Course is:

How to tell the difference between our many shiny black tumbled stones.

There are several common ones that all polish up pretty shiny, making it almost impossible to tell them apart; both physically and sometimes even energetically.

But there are slight differences and I’m going to tell you what to look for right here.

I’m going to focus on the 5 most common ones:

  • Jet
  • Obsidian
  • Apache Tear
  • Onyx
  • Black Tourmaline

As most black stones usually are, all 5 of these are considered to generally be energetically grounding, protective and usually resonating well with either the Earth Star Chakra or Root Chakra

Now let’s get into the subtle differences…

difference black obsidian onyx

Non-Mineral Stuffs

I’ve divided the stones into 2 sub-groups of “non-mineral” & “mineral.”

The non-minerals, although usually lumped in with the rest of the crystals, are not technically minerals because they don’t have one very important aspect that all minerals must have: a crystalline atomic matrix, a repeating geometric pattern among their atoms.

Jet

Jet is not a crystal/mineral…it lacks a crystalline … Read More