Blue Spinel Vs Sapphire

Other varieties are more common and less sought after.

Blue spinel vs sapphire.

Red and blue spinel. Blue spinel is a rather special stone. Spinel occurs in a wide variety of colors. Sapphire ruby pg 2 ruby.

Blue exemplars are the second rarest spinel gems. However hundreds of years ago when spinel was found together with sapphire and ruby it was impossible to tell them apart. Blue spinel is a gem made of a compund of iron and sapphire. There are few gems that occur naturally in blue.

Discovered accidentally when scientists were experimenting to try and produce a flame fusion blue synthetic sapphire spinel s great advantage is that it can be made to reproduce almost all colors except purple the blue synthetic spinel sapphire imitant is much more genuine looking than a synthetic blue spinels imitating synthetic sapphires. Blue sapphire is the most famous. Nevertheless spinel s price even in those cases is still lower than the price of sapphire and ruby. Blue spinel vs sapphire.

Spinel pg 2 red spinel pink spinel other colors. Tourmalines pg 4 paraiba tourmalines. A case in point is the internal diffusion seen in a heat treated sapphire induced as the titanium from rutile silk inclusions was dissolved into the crystal lattice of the host sapphire at high temperatures. In the deeper blue colors there are only softer stones such as kyanite and iolite.

It is easy to understand how early gem traders confused spinel with ruby and sapphire for over 1000 years. Spinel has been making a name for itself over the last couple of decades and demand for fine stones well exceeds supply. Man made spinel is used extensively. Garnet pg 2 understanding garnets.

Spinel pg 3 synthetic spinel. Color is an important factor that defines spinel s price red spinel is rarer than other varieties and also more expensive. In fact spinel is in great demand among gemologists and gem connoisseurs. Blue spinel hues range from violet blue through very slightly greenish blue.

Tourmaline pg 2 black orange blue green tourmalines. Its cheaper than sapphire and is very light. Sapphire ruby. Blue topaz is the result of irradiation treatment and tanzanite is often heated to enhance its blue color.

Tourmalines pg 3 pink red yellow and other colors. There is no telling how many spinels have actually been sold as sapphire. The bright reds and deep blues are spectacular specimens.