Ruby Treatments & Enhancements
- Heat Treatment. Heat treatment is done to improve both clarity and color of rubies. ...
- Fracture Filling. Above: There are trapped gas bubbles at the top of the image, and faint, flowy lines indicative of glass filling.
- Beryllium Diffusion. Of the three most common treatments, diffusion is the least popular and the most controversial. ...
What is the fissure filled Ruby treatment?
This process developed in two stages of the fissure filled ruby treatment. In this treatment, the rubies are added to the oven with certain 'flux agents'. The effect of these additional ingredients into the oven, help to drop the melting point of the ruby gemstone.
What is fracture-filling for rubies?
Cavities and fractures can cause a huge loss of clarity in rubies and other gemstones, which is why fracture-filling treatments exist. The first is fracture-filling with colored, lead glass.
What is a glass filled Ruby?
Gem experts refer to this as a 'composite' gem as it combines ruby and glass. One of the negative features of glass filled rubies is that, they drastically reduce the toughness of the ruby. The physical properties of the treated ruby are altered, the gem is not stable.
How are ruby gemstones treated?
The earliest form of treating a ruby gem stone was to heat the gemstone to a high temperature, this caused impurities in the gemstone to evaporate and also enhanced the reddish color of the ruby gemstone. This is the conventional heating process used to treat rubies.
Are Filled rubies valuable?
A lead glass filled ruby is worth under $10 a carat compared to a natural ruby which currently goes for a few thousand dollars to several thousand dollars a carat. But the lead glass-filled stones are being sold at natural ruby prices!
What does a filled ruby mean?
The rubies start to melt internally, the molten ruby seeps into any fissures or cracks that might be (naturally) present in the gem. The molten ruby then hardens on cooling and helps to 'fill' the cracks or 'heal' the cracks in the gemstone.
What is the purpose of filling rubies?
Silica glass has been used extensively to fill cavities and fractures in rubies since the 1980s. Cavity filling was noted first, and it was described as early as 1984 (Kane, 1984). This filling did improve the stones' face-up appearance and could add weight, but it could also readily be detected with magnification.
How can you tell if a ruby is filled?
1:505:27How to Classify a Lead Glass–Filled Ruby by GIA - YouTubeYouTubeStart of suggested clipEnd of suggested clipThis is a telltale sign that this treatment has occurred you also might see large gas bubbles insideMoreThis is a telltale sign that this treatment has occurred you also might see large gas bubbles inside cavities inside the stone. Or flattened bubbles that are confined to wide fractures.
Do real rubies have bubbles?
Gas bubbles are in the glass and not the corundum (ruby) part of the stone. Gas bubbles do not occur "free floating" in ruby or sapphire.
How can you tell a real ruby from a fake one?
At a 9 on the Mohs scale, rubies aren't easily scratched unless you use a diamond. Other gemstones and imitations are more fragile. You can scratch the surface of your ruby with a coin, and if it leaves marks, you likely have a fake. Real rubies won't get scratched by keys or coins.
How do you tell if a ruby is real with a flashlight?
Real rubies glow with a deep, vivid, almost "stoplight" red. Fake gems are often dull: they are "light, but not bright." If the gem is more of a dark red, then it may be garnet instead of a ruby.
Are most rubies fissure filled?
What stones are fissure filled? At Shop LC, the two most common fissure filled stones are emerald and ruby.
What are black spots in ruby?
Gemstone ruby often has many inclusions. Black spot, yellow and brown spots, cracks, milky, are main inclusions of ruby. More inclusions means lesser clarity (purity). Clean is rare and fetches highest price.
How can you tell a quality ruby stone?
0:112:34How to check Real Ruby Gemstone - YouTubeYouTubeStart of suggested clipEnd of suggested clipThe surest way to tell is to take the stone to a licensed jeweler. At home you can gauge the Ruby'sMoreThe surest way to tell is to take the stone to a licensed jeweler. At home you can gauge the Ruby's authenticity by looking at its color and its hardness.
What is an unheated ruby?
Unheated Ruby is classified as Natural Ruby that has not been heat treated. These natural rubies are known to be quite easy to identify as compared to the unheated rubies, as it has natural inclusions that are 10 times visible when seen using a microscope.
What is the process used to fissure fill rubies?
But in the process used to fissure fill rubies, silica (glass) salts are added to the crucible that contains the rubies. The oven temperature is turned way up and this causes the silica salts to melt and become molten. The flowing glass (melted silica) goes through the now porous ruby rough and also fills the fissures and cracks in the stone.
What is the process of filling ruby stones?
Since the treatment causes cracks in the ruby gem stone to be filled, it is referred to as the 'fissure filling' process.
What is a ruby gem?
Natural rubies like all other natural stones will have inclusions and fissures (cracks) within the stone. Rubies are expensive gems and you will have to accept the fact that, these flaws will in most cases be visible to the naked eye. Over the years, gem manufacturers have studied and tested various treatments that can be used to better the appearance of natural gems. Ruby is one gem that has been heat treated for many decades, this treatment is used for almost 95% of the rubies that reach the gem and jewelry markets. Gem experts accept this treatment since, it does not affect the durability of the gemstone. The enhancement that heat treatment does on the clarity and color of the ruby is permanent.
How durable are rubies?
The stones look gorgeous, if you wanted to get such a gem through the conventional heating treatment, you would end up paying at least 100 to 150 times more! Durability: By nature, rubies are extremely durable. They boast of a hardness factor of 9, making them a wee bit less harder than diamonds.
What is junk ruby?
It was normally the junk ruby that was either thrown away or made into low value carvings and objects. Gem manufacturers experimented for years hoping to find a way to better the appearance of this very low grade ruby stones. A few years ago, they came up a process that was set to revolutionalize the gemstone industry.
What happens when you acid wash rubies?
Rubies are normally very hard gems, second only to diamonds. But the acid wash makes them lose this hardness.
Is ruby harder than diamond?
They boast of a hardness factor of 9, making them a wee bit less harder than diamonds. You should know that diamonds are the hardest gems to be used in conventional jewelry. However all this durability and hardness deserts the fissure filled ruby.
Where is ruby mined?
The same is true for the famous ruby mines of Mogok in Burma ; the production from Mogok has been reduced to a mere trickle. In the last ten years the main sources for ruby have been the Mong Hsu deposits in Burma (discovered in 1992), and the Madagascan mines (discovered in 2000).
Is a fracture filled emerald good?
Technically, the treatment appears to be effective. Many of the fracture-filled stones look very good indeed. The Asian Institute of Gemology (AIGS) tested samples for durability and found them to be more durable than a typical emerald that has been fracture-filled with oil or resin.
Is ruby rarer than sapphire?
Though ruby and sapphire are both corundum, ruby is much rarer than sapphire. The world demand for ruby far exceeds the supply, and some of the famous ruby deposits, such as those in Thailand and Cambodia, have been completely worked out.
Why is ruby treated?
A ruby like any other gem stone is almost always treated in some way or the other to enhance it' s beauty. The treatment enhances the color and/or the clarity of the gemstone. Contrary to what many gem and jewelry lovers believe, ruby treatment is not a new practice, it has been done for many decades now. The earliest form of treating ...
What is glass filled ruby?
This is also basically a fissure filling process used to treat ruby gems but, some important details need to be understood.
How does molten ruby affect the beauty of a gem?
This obviously increases the transparency of the gem and also it's beauty.
What happens when you heat a ruby?
When a ruby gem stone is heated in this way, the hardness and durability of the gem remains intact. Conventional heating also brings about a permanent change in the appearance of the ruby that is heated. The color is stable and the gem will not turn back to it's original color. This is a desirable effect of ruby gems that are conventionally heated.
What is the technic used to treat ruby?
A technic was developed that became known as the 'fissure filling'treatment for ruby gemstones.
Where is ruby found?
It is the junk material that would otherwise have been discarded. Natural unheated ruby was found in Africa in significant amounts in the mines of Tanzania as well as Mozambique – the Winza mine ruby of Tanzania and the Niassa ruby from Mozambique.
Do rubies turn back to original color?
The color is stable and the gem will not turn back to it's original color. This is a desirable effect of ruby gems that are conventionally heated. This treatment is accepted by all gem experts, gem and jewelry providers do not even care to mention that the rubies that they sell are heat treated.
What is the treatment for rubies?
The treatment involves taking very low grade ruby with significant surface cracks and 'repairing' then by heating them with lead glass.
Is it dangerous to set a ruby stone?
Because lead glass has a much lower melting point than ruby, setting these stones can be dangerous . Since natural ruby is very hard and durable, jewelers don't usually worry about applying heat to ruby when setting a stone. But applying heat to a fracture-filled ruby can melt the glass filling, leaving a sorry looking stone full of surface cracks.
Is ruby a rare gem?
Ruby belongs to the same gem family -- corundum -- as sapphire. But where sapphire is a rare gem, ruby is extemely rare. And the market prices for fine ruby reflect this. But there is an apparent paradox in ruby prices in today's market. As the worldwide demand for ruby has increased, the supply of high quality material has declined.
Is glass in ruby a composite?
Over time, gemologists have detected larger amounts of glass in the fractured-filled rubies and some gemological labs have begun issuing test reports that describe these sto nes as composites rather than natural ruby. This term is certainly appropriate when the glass filling serves more as glue holding together fragments of ruby.
Is it fraudulent to sell rubies?
It is of course fraudulent to sell these fracture-filled rubies without proper disclosure of the treatment. But in our view, it is fraudulent to sell these rubies even with disclosure, since the consumer may not understand how unstable the treatment can be.
Is synthetic ruby real?
Synthetic ruby is real ruby (aluminum oxide), but it has been created in a laboratory using a technique known as flame fusion. Though these synthetic rubies can look attractive, they have a very low value in the market, literally a few dollars a carat.
Where was ruby discovered?
In the early 1990’s, a major discovery of ruby was made in Burma’s Shan State, at Mong Hsu ( pronounced ‘ Maing Shu ’ by the Shan; ‘ Mong Shu ’ by the Burmese), northeast of the provincial capital of Taunggyi.
How does flux fill a fracture?
When flux fills a fracture, it dissolves the wall of the fracture until that small amount of liquid in the crack becomes saturated with sapphire solute. As noted above, at that point it dissolves wall material at the same rate that it deposits fresh material on the wall. But note that we now have an efficient mechanism of material transport in the crack. The system now tries to minimize the surface free energy of the crack by transporting material from the wall to the sharp tip of the crack, healing it. Assuming that we maintain the temperature this process will continue until the surface free energy differences from one place in the crack to another are minimal. Since we are in a crystal the shape will eventually have crystal facets on the crack (see Figure 2). This process does a lot of healing, but it cannot completely fill the crack with new corundum.
What is flux healing?
Flux healing involves heating corundums with borax or other fluxes. These fluxes actually dissolve the surfaces, including the internal surfaces of cracks. The corundum within this molten material then re-deposits on the fracture surfaces, filling and healing the fractures shut.
Is Mong Hsu ruby healing permanent?
However, the flux healing of Mong Hsu rubies differs in three important respects: The Mong Hsu ruby treatment is not a fracture filling, but a permanent healing of the fractures and fissures, with any filling merely a remnant of the process .
Is a filled fracture visible?
Similar to placing an ice cube in water, a filled fracture is much less visible because the filler replaces air (RI = 1.00) with a substance that has an RI that more closely matches the gem itself (1.76–1.77). However, the flux healing of Mong Hsu rubies differs in three important respects:
Was Mogok ruby cooked?
There was also evidence of high-temperature heat treatment. Someone had apparently been cooking Mogok ruby. It was equally clear that the heat-treatment process was healing fractures, either pre-existing, or those produced by the stresses of the heat treatment itself. For a brief period, we saw many such stones.
Can you distinguish between synthetic ruby and ruby?
In reality, no distinction can be seen between the surrounding ruby and the newly grown synthetic ruby. D. Any flux glass present on the surface can be dissolved away with acid. The synthetic ruby in the crack is unaffected by the acid, as is the ruby as a whole.
Who is the author of Gem Treatments?
An Introduction to Gem Treatments. Robert Weldon. As a consumer, you will regularly encounter in the marketplace gems that have been treated to change their appearance. A topic that often comes up is whether a particular gemstone is or isn’t treated. In a sense, humans alter all gem materials after they are found in the earth in order ...
What is the chemical used to alter / reduce a component of, or the entire color, of a por
Bleaching. – a chemical used to alter / reduce a component of, or the entire color, of a porous gem. Some gemstones are bleached and then dyed, a form of “combination treatment.”. 1. The most commonly encountered bleached gems include:
Why is it necessary to disclose gems?
Because these treatments are not always apparent to the unpracticed eye, and are sometimes difficult to distinguish even by experts, it is necessary and legally required for anyone selling a gem (including consumer to consumer trade) to disclose the treatment procedure it may have received.
Why do pearls need dye?
Pearls – Dye often improves the appearance of lower–quality natural and cultured pearls by enhancing their color. Many pearls seen in the market are dyed, as the bottle of dye-soaked pearls (left) shows, and the single pearl demonstrates (right).
How to make coral golden?
This golden coral is the result of a two-step process: one to bleach away the dark color (the coral branch has been partially dipped in bleach to result in the golden color). The coral is then coated with a resin to deepen the tone and protect the coral.
Is a gemstone treatment permanent?
Non-disclosure of this treatment could cause a person to believe that a particular gemstone was of higher quality naturally and therefore be more valuable than it actually is. An added challenge is that treatments can be permanent, long lasting, or short-lived under normal jewelry use.
Can you use resin on quartz?
Other materials – Resins and glasses can potentially be used on any durable gem with surface-reaching fractures, including quartz, aquamarine, topaz, tourmaline and other transparent gems. This kind of treatment is, however, less prevalent than the other treatment processes mentioned above. 2.
