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Ascertaining the Quality of a Colored Gem Stone
Ascertaining the Quality of a Colored Gem Stone
Ascertaining the quality of a colored gem stone is not hard to do as long as you have an understanding of what you are looking for. All you need are some simple tools and a reputable jeweler. The tools that are needed are a loupe or a microscope and a discerning eye. Your jeweler will usually have these tools available for your use; if not a 10 x loupe is all you will need. As we all know gem stones come in a plethora of colors and not all of them are created equal. By this I mean that not all amethyst are the same nor are all sapphires etc. If you have a particular stone in mind the first thing that you should do is go to your local library or do a web search and read about the stone you would like to purchase. Then go out to see your jeweler. Having this knowledge will help you distinguish between a stone with poor, good or excellent color. Amethyst for instance come in many shades of purple from very light to very dark, the light ones are from South America and the very dark are from Mozambique and Russia. Ok we have found our stone; the next thing is to look at the inside of the stone with your loupe.
Hold the loupe up to your eye and bring the stone up until it is in focus, once it is in focus, look for any imperfections or inclusions. If there are none then the stone is what is called eye clean, if it cannot be seen under 10 power than it is considered to not be there. The next step is look at the stones edge or girdle, when looking at the girdle make sure that it is straight and not wavy this helps the stone refract light better and helps the jeweler set the stone more securely. The final thing that you should do is hold the stone above your finger app. ½ inch and if you can see your finger through the stone than it is what is known as being fish eye cut or leaking light. All gem stones are a mirror of them selves, meaning that all stones reflect light back up through the top of the stone. When a stone is not cut to proper proportions it will leak light out of its sides and bottom. All colored gem stones except for diamonds will show this by being transparent to some degree. Diamonds do show this, but they do show a lack of color or luster. Now that you know the basics when you go out to shop Please, be aware that many of the colored stones come in many shades and some like sapphires come in almost all colors, be aware that the density of color or sometimes the lack of color will determine the value of the stone, along with the size. And as we all know that when it comes to Gems bigger is always better.
