Sapphires from Afhgaistan

[SB621]

Hi Everyone,

Please be kind this is my first post!

I know someone who''s husband is stationed in Afhganistan. Occasionally he send hers home very nice 2-6 carat sapphires that he purchases over there. We live on a base on a small island south of Japan so we dont'' know where to take the stones to have them tested- and if we did I''m not sure they speak english. Is there a at home test we can try to see if they are real or lab or something else? I heard dipping them in mineral oil- and if the color doesn''t change- then they are real but thought i would ask anyhow.

Thank you so much!

 

[Barrett]

first see if one scratches glass..if so then take a steel file and try scratching the stone..if it scratches then go find you a piece of quartz and try scratching the sapphire with that..alos take a tile like in your bathroom and flip it over to the backside..take your sapphire and scratch the back of the tile...if it leaves any colored powder or "streak" it''s called then it''s not sapphire..sapphire will leave no streak and only scratch the unglazed tile..those are good home test for idenitfying mins...little harder to do without certain insturments or a scratch test kit

 

[SB621]

thanks for the feedback....so if it scratches glass, but is not scratched under the filer then it is real?

 

[Barrett]

oh I am sorry i forgot to add that part in..steel and quartz will both NOT scratch sapphire if it is..you can take as sharp a piece of steel as you want and press as hard as you want and it will not scratch one bit..pretty much take any rock you can find outsdie that looks hard and sharp and try scratching it and using a magnifying glass to make sure it didn''t scratch even a little..sapphire is super hard so almost anything you have in hand or around the house wshould not scratch it if it is sapphire(corundum)

 

[ma re]

This might be a bit harder to do, but if you have some old piece of jewellery with cubic zirconia (that you don''t like or don''t wear, or that''s broken...) try scratching them with one another. CZ should end up scratched, and sapphire unscratched. But that still doesen''t prove that it''s real, as synthetic sapphires have the same hardness as the natural ones.

 

[mastercutgems]

Yes i agree with ma re...

I have a friend that was stationed in Afghanistan also and he brought back 8 stones; all typical step cut, windowed sapphires; good blue and he got them very cheap; but after testing them they all were synthetic. He did have one emerald that was a natural.

So it is tough as there are many in all countries that will take advantage; but then again if you think you are going to buy a fine blue sapphire in the 3+ carat range for 50 dollars; a light should go off that something is not right... The emerald he paid 300 for and it was a good deal; but not dirt cheap like the sapphires. He thought because they were poorly cut they had to be real...

The only true way to test it is to send it to a competent gemologist or a lab for complete testing. Hardness, RI tester, dichroscope and even spectrometer will only tell you it is corundum; the microscope in higher powers will give you more info on it being natural than the other tools once you have discovered it is corundum. They are getting really good with their synthetic corundum as I have spent some time on them and have a full lab for testing; but in the end the microscope with high enough powers is the key to identifying abnormal zoning, inclusions, types or lack of. The days of hardness tests, RI, etc. are over as to the final indicators of a sapphire being natural or synthetic...
Now the digital spectrometer will help you determine if the gem is Be heated, etc. as to have certain colors you must have the trace elements that make it that color; but if they cooked it properly they added the elements to make it that color so they will show up on the spectrum; still a great tool but if the cook was a good chef the elements that make it blue or yellow will be present; therefore you are just determining the cook was a good chef that knew how to read the recipe

Yes I know boring stuff

 

[chrono]

I’m with Dana on proper testing for the sapphires, not just that it might be a real sapphire but that it has not been overcooked (real colour has been masked to make it look 1000% better). I guess I just don’t have the guts to try to scratch a sapphire. The tip off to them being synthetic or BE treated will be the unbelievably cheap price.