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| Treatments Gemstones.
The treatment of gemstones goes back many thousands of years with emeralds being sold to roman soliders by the egyptians over 3,000 years ago that had been enhanced.So by no means is treatment or enhancement of even synthetic or fake gems a new problem.Whilst there are many labs that will test these gems for you it will depend on the gem and lab cost to see if it is worth doing this.
Some gems such as amethyst were belived to be to cheap to bother making synthetics but as the cost and demand outstrips availiblity now it is common to see grown or lab production amethyst for sale in many cases sold unknowingly by third partys as natural but it is in fact not.
Today some treatments are the norm rather than the acception such as heat treating sapphires. It is very rare now to find an unheated sapphire so much so that it is estimated that over 98% of all sapphires are heated.
The same is now becoming the same with Ruby as many sources become mined out or become closed to general buyers such as Myanmar (Burma) the demand for Rubr far outstrips the availible gems on the market.
Most Rubies now are either heated or lead glass filled which enables a low quality gem to be enhanced and to be used in jewellery or collected as a loose gemstone.
As a certain type of gems becomes rarer the more treatments that can be used to keep a gem in circulation become more accepted as ok or normal like heated sapphires.
Not all gem treatments are done to confuse or mislead people and in some case a gemstone would be to rare to be to get. A classic example of this is citrine as this is extremely rare in a natural form amethst is heated to cause citrine. So this cheap gem that is availible everywhere would become extremly hard to find and is rarely as nice as the treated version as natural citrine is normally pale and dull compared to the treated sort.
In some cases a gem would not even exist if it where not for treating such as Pink topaz as this is such a rare natural colour for topaz.
The same can be said for tanzanite being violet or blue as most zosite is a muddy brown colour but is changed by heating to a lovely blue/violet colour. Although this does in some cases exist it is very rare and is belived in some circles to have undegone some freak of nature such as a lightning strike.
There are even pink and green tanzanite found but again very rare and hard to come by so great care must be taken when purchasing such items.
Is a natural stone better or more beautiful in some cases it can be better stronger or just better looking if enhanced.
Does this affect the value? In most cases it will depend on how rare it is to find an untreated version of that gem. The rarer it is the more valuable it is, is nealy always the rule of thumb.
Natural untreated/heated rubies and sapphire comand better prices but dont always look better. So it down to what you are willing to own/wear.
here is a list of gemstones that are routinely heat treated
Tanzanite
Citrine
Pink Topaz
Aquamarine
Paraiba Tourmaline
Apatite
Ruby
Sapphire
Zircon (both blue and colorless).
Oiling coating and other common treatments.
Oiling
Of emeralds has been common for many years now and is the most common form of treatment for emeralds. In most instances of this the rough emerald is placed in to oil filled pouchs or even barrels of oil until they are ready to be cut or sold.
Also in many cases oil is used as a lubricant in faceting or cutting an emerald. This isnt always the case as you will find un oiled emeralds for sale but if it isnt advertised it could be assumed that it is oil treated.
Emeralds like many other gemstones are prone to inclusions or cracks and oiling is a form orf treatment to hide or disquise this fact or to even simily make it more appealing.
Many other treatments exist to cover these inclusions and cracks such as fracture/cavity filling with oil or resign.
Whilst this used to be easy to detect either with a 10x loupe of refractometer sceince has moved on in that the resigns can now be coloured and the R.I reading the same as the gemstones which in many cases can not under normal tests be proved. In some cases many labs also can not be sure either.
Coating.
Many gemstones now can be found in colours that are not natural such as many of the topaz colours. Many new colours come out almost daily some of the better known ones such as mystic topaz, neptune topaz, sunset topaz and many many more.
Natural topaz is normally clear unless it has had some form of natural chemical inclusion whilst forming to give it some hint of colour.
Most natural coloured topaz is pale and normally the treated enhanced look much better and have brighter colours. The way most coating treatments work is a gem will be facetted (cut) then a powder coating placed on the gem and the heated melting the powder into a glass like substance.
Some gems like ruby that are porus soak the solution into the gem where as others the coating will stay on the outside of the gemstone.
Irradiation
To irradiate a gemstone you will need to pound it with subatomic radiation particules.
In many cases the gem may then be heated afterwrds to improve the colour of the gem.
A prime example of this is blue topaz in its many forms. Although blue topaz does exist naturally it is often very pale and very rare so the vibrante colours we see for sale are not natural.
Many countries offer this treatment and most of them do it in safe and controlled enviroments. The US and Western european countries inforce this very strictly to protect against any harmful residue.
Tourmaline is another gem undergoing more of this treatment to turn pink into red tourmaline as this colour is more sought after in China and now increasingly in India.
Diamonds are also another gem and often greens, yellows, blues, browns & pinks are treated this way as again the supply against demand dictates.
That said natural green diamonds are caused by natural radiation but the treated tend to be more viabrate in colour.
Dyeing
Dyeing is one of the oldest form of gem treatments and has been occuring for many hundreds if not thousands of years.
This treatment is done to many gemstones but without it many well know gems such as black onyx would not exist. Chalcedony (agate family) is often dyed blue, green, or even orange.
Many pearls are dyed to give either new colours or classic colours such as the rose pinks.
Many of the cheap jade that we see in many market places and tourist shops are normally cheap dyed poor quailty jade as this is still an expensive gem to get and with it normally found in hard places to access so the costs involved are extreamly high.
Some dyeing of gems such as jade lapis lazuli are easy to detect with simple nail varnish remove pour some on to a cotton cloth and rub if the colour bleeds onto the cloth then it is dyed and the price should reflect that. Other gems such as Sapphire and emerald are much harder to detect.
Lead Glass Filling
The improving of gemstones is as we have said nothing new and as long as sellers fully disclose any treatments this is fine and is down to your preference as to what you want.
In somecases putting a high end gem worth several thousand dollars next to a treated gem worth only a few dollars and not many people could tell which is which with the help of a lab.
Lead glass filled rubies are slowly becoming more acceptable as the original is now so expensive it has gone out of the reach of all but a few pockets.
The process for treating lead glass filling is simple low quaility or cracked ruby rough gemstones are placed in a beaker and then lead glass powder is added to the beaker and rough gemstones after dipping the Rough ruby into oil or some other form as adisve. The beaker is then put in an oven and heated to around 900 degrees centigrade.
Some rubies under go a process called low tube heat, when the rough gemstone is heated over charcoal of a temperature of about 1300?C for approx 20 to 30 minutes.
Because rubies are porous they will then soak or absorb the now liquid glass in to any cracks or faults. The colour can be improved by colouring the glass solution.
The rough gemstone is then cut and polished in its new improved form.
As we have said putting the 2 natural unheated and lead glass filled side by side you decide what you want to do spend several thousand dollars or several dollars and in some cases the several dollar rubys can win as the better more Beautiful gem.
By filling the fractures inside the ruby the transparency of the stone is dramatically improved making previously unsuited rubies now fit for for use in jewellery.
The way most coating treatments work is a gem will be facetted (cut) then a powder coating placed on the gem and the heated melting the powder into a glass like substance.
Some gems like ruby that are porus soak the solution into the gem where as others the coating will stay on the outside of the gemstone.
Irradiation
To irradiate a gemstone you will need to pound it with subatomic radiation particules.
In many cases the gem may then be heated afterwrds to improve the colour of the gem.
A prime example of this is blue topaz in its many forms. Although blue topaz does exist naturally it is often very pale and very rare so the vibrante colours we see for sale are not natural.
Many countries offer this treatment and most of them do it in safe and controlled enviroments. The US and Western european countries inforce this very strictly to protect against any harmful residue.
Tourmaline is another gem undergoing more of this treatment to turn pink into red tourmaline as this colour is more sought after in China and now increasingly in India.
Diamonds are also another gem and often greens, yellows, blues, browns & pinks are treated this way as again the supply against demand dictates.
That said natural green diamonds are caused by natural radiation but the treated tend to be more viabrate in colour.
Dyeing
Dyeing is one of the oldest form of gem treatments and has been occuring for many hundreds if not thousands of years.
This treatment is done to many gemstones but without it many well know gems such as black onyx would not exist. Chalcedony (agate family) is often dyed blue, green, or even orange.
Many pearls are dyed to give either new colours or classic colours such as the rose pinks.
Many of the cheap jade that we see in many market places and tourist shops are normally cheap dyed poor quailty jade as this is still an expensive gem to get and with it normally found in hard places to access so the costs involved are extreamly high.
Some dyeing of gems such as jade lapis lazuli are easy to detect with simple nail varnish remove pour some on to a cotton cloth and rub if the colour bleeds onto the cloth then it is dyed and the price should reflect that. Other gems such as Sapphire and emerald are much harder to detect.
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