Gemstones Blog

Further exploration of Joe the Aspiring Designers Cornflower Blue Sapphire to learn more about its origin and treatments…

This is a darkroom view with the table facing up. The cat scratch type inclusions that are more or less parallel and linear are rutile crystals forming long needles. These arent the same types of needles you see as text book examples, but these are rutile inclusions in crystalline form that appear in various corundum from various places. The nail head type inclusion near the bottom is also seen in Madagascar rubies as well as something that GRS has imagery of in Burma sapphires. If you look near the center of the image, there appears to be another faint set of rutile crystals, and what you might call a fingerprint type inclusion. Other imagery suggests this liquidy yellow field is a field of F-phlogobites based on sources contributing to GRS. These things are found in Madagascar sapphires. You can see the crystals near the top of the image out of focus…

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Below is another post from our good friend and AJS Gems customer Joe the Aspiring Designer, with his research and findings on a certain cornflower blue sapphire he bought from us a while back…

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Dear Arnold, Matt, Rung, and whomever else I might be missing:

I hope this finds you all well. Despite the fact I cant indulge in my hobby of collecting colored stones due to this ever so great economy and the like, I do enjoy studying these things and what I have acquired. I am happy to provide proof of a discovery I have long since suspected, and I am pleased to announce to you my finding. I am sure youll agree.

I wanted to forward you a micrograph I took of a sapphire I bought from you guys back in the very final days of 2006. I have a portable digital microscope, and I managed to obtain this image at 95 magnifications. If you look in the lower left quadrant of the image, youll see what appears to be intact corundum crystals. If you notice towards the center left of the image, you can make out of there what appears to be something shaped like an intact biotite crystal.

Cornflower Blue Sapphire Magnification

I have another image at around 45-50 magnifications that shows what appears to be rutile needles that are intact. This stone was said to have been heated. When I first looked at it over nearly 2 years ago, I noticed things that suggested the stone was in fact unenhanced. I think this is a good illustration as to how if you do make an error, it is in favor of the end customer on the side of caution.

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