Axinite gets its name from the sharp-edged, axehead-shaped crystals. Although attractive and hard, they're brittle and rarely flawless, and faceted for collectors only. Brown is easily the most usual colour, although additionally, it happens in honey-yellow and plum-purple varieties. An uncommon Tanzanian axinite is blue. Axinite is strongly pleochroic. Axinite can be found in cavaties in granite as well as in metamorphic rocks. Localities include New Jersey (USA), in which the attractive honey-yellow crystals are simply, Mexico, Cornwall (England), France and within the gem gravels of Sri Lanka. Darker axinite may be wrongly identified as smoky quartz.
