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Fine Jewelry University Articles matching: “Sterling silver sapphire”
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Gem in the Spotlight: Tourmaline
… is one of the most beautiful gems that you’ve probably never heard of. Less popular than the likes of ruby or sapphire, tourmaline flies under the radar in the gem world and remains the best kept secret of gem collectors and connoisseurs who… it for hundreds of years. But, before the advent of modern gemology, most tourmaline was believed to be ruby, sapphire, or emerald. Gemology of Tourmaline Gemologically speaking, tourmaline is its own mineral and not a species or member of a…
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Gem in the Spotlight: Ruby
… arguably the richest history of all gemstones. Gemology of Ruby Rubies are in the corundum gem family along with sapphires. Corundum is an extremely durable form of aluminum oxide with a Moh’s hardness of 9. This makes ruby one of the … from trace amounts of chromium in the crystal structure. If they are too purple or too pink, they are called purple sapphires or pink sapphires, respectively. Since sapphires and rubies are the same gem material, they also share a refractive…
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Jewelry Solder: What You Should Know
…. For the sake of simplicity, we will focus our discussion on gold jewelry, but the same concepts also apply to silver and platinum as well. If your ring is made out of 14 karat gold, you know that approximately 56% of it is gold with the …, and the chlorine reacted with the base metal alloys in the solder but not with the more noble (tarnish resistant) silver alloys in the rest of the ring. This caused all of the solder to discolor and become visible. After a few days or …
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Caring for and Cleaning Your Jewelry
… as 1 the softest. Pure gold (24 karat) is Mohs 2.5, 14 and 18 karat list at Mohs 3. Platinum list at Mohs 4.33. Sterling silver list at Mohs 2.5. This shows why jewelry metals get scratched by things like hard toothbrushes and dirt (most …
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Synthetic Gems: The Whole Story
Ruby, sapphire, emerald and alexandrite are very beautiful gems and very rare in their stunning beauty. These four gems have been … thousands of years. But, what if anyone could own them? At gem shows and museums, I have seen jaw dropping rubies, sapphires and emeralds. These gems in high quality have put ownership beyond most people to justify the price. Just a one …to positively identify as synthetic. Both, I feel, are impossible to identify in a piece of jewelry. Synthetic ruby, sapphire, alexandrite and emerald are very complex because there are different ways to make them. The inexpensive way to make…
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Gem in the Spotlight: Iolite
…near the top of the list. Iolite’s color range of blue, blue-violet, and violet competes for public attention with sapphire, tanzanite, and amethyst. They may have name recognition, but iolite has a rich, unique color and great gem value on …. The Gemology of Iolite Iolite is the gem variety of the mineral Cordierite. Iolite was once known as a “water sapphire”. Dichroite is another synonym for iolite. Dichroite is a Greek word which loosely translates as two-colored rock. This …
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Gem in the Spotlight: Alexandrite
Emerald by day, ruby by night, more expensive than diamond and more illustrious than sapphire, emerald, or even ruby, alexandrite has been known around the world as one of the most sought-after gems for the … isn’t the only stone to display color-change phenomena. There are color-change varieties of many gems including sapphire, tourmaline, spinel, garnet, etc. Alexandrite is, however, the most famous for it. It is so famous, in fact, that color-…
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Measuring Gold Weight
… of drugs, precious metals and gemstones. The name comes from the French city of Troyes. The noble metals (gold, silver and platinum) all use the troy system. A troy ounce is 20 pennyweights. The pennyweight was the weight of a silver penny…
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The Difference Between White Gold and Platinum
… that make them unique. How is white gold made? White gold is an alloy of gold and some white metals such as silver, nickel or palladium. The white color is achieved by a careful choice of the alloying metals, which bleach the deep yellow …, then don’t buy it. New white gold rings are usually coated with a hard protective finish of rhodium, a silver-white metal like platinum. The rhodium plating is used to make the white gold look more white. The Rhodium is very white and …
