Ramdohr characterized shandite by its metallic luster and a brass-yellow color.

Shandite is commonly found as an inclusion in other minerals such as Heazelwoodite Ni3S2 or serpentine.

Shandite is an anisotropic mineral, which means it has different properties when being viewed from different directions.

It has strong birefringence, which is the decomposition of light into two rays, and appears dark blue and gray.

In subsequent decades several compounds with shandite type structure were synthesized by several chemists.