Information about the new "lead glass filled/repaired" ruby treatment

kewl thanks for the info!

Thanks Mogok for the link!  Gives us some ideas about the liability/durability issues.

I always enjoy your contributions to this forum!  It's always important to have "eyes and ears" on the "front lines"

Mogok,
That was an excellent article ! I was surprised at the amount of penetration that the glass achieved in those rubies. I also really like your gemstone inclusion photos. Thank you.

Hello,

Thanks to all of you for these nice comments.

I wanted to inform you that we have post and replaced the previous article by an update:
AIGS laboratory page

AIGS gemologists are still working on this new treatment.
There are some minor changes...

As durability is a serious consern for jewellers and also final users, we will continue to work on this subject.

All the best,

Hello everybody,

I''m currently finishing a serious update of the study that AIGS has already done about the treatment. Several new things will be disclosed: Rubies with lead glass filling are not only produced in Chantaburi. I''ve visited several other companies performing the treatment and studied their stones which present some differences compared to the one i''ve studied for the first study.
Second I''ve new informations about rubies treated in chantaburi...

Anyway, in few days, the new article will be on-line and of course I will keep you informed.

I wanted to ask you something: As I was supposed to go for a scientific expedition in Mogok, I did not went to Tucson... But the Burmese military have closed Mogok so I was grounded in Bangkok. Good for my work on lead filled rubies but not too good for the rest.
Anyway, if you have some informations and comments about how these stones were received in Tucson, if you have also some personal opinions about them i would be happy to read about...

Thanks to all of you,

All the best,

Vincent,

A number of these treated rubies were seen in Tucson and they were a major topic of discussion at the GILC meeting just prior to the Tuscon show. It was quite refreshing to see the representatives from Thailand at that meeting taking a pro-active stand on their disclosure and pushing for a clear description of these stones so that they do not affect the regular market in rubies. Certainly the lessons from the previous beryllium debacle have been learned.

Thanks again for your fine article. I look forward to seeing you at the ICA Congress.

Hello:

Wonderful article.  Thank you.

My question will cetainly identify me as a novice in this area--but I am curious about something.  If many of these stones have large areas requiring lead glass filling or reparation, then why should they not be considered or called ruby "doublets"? 

cheers--Sharon

Hi Sharon,

Well not a bad question at all, as I had a discussion about that with Mahiton Thondisuk, the Chantaburi Burner. He is a unheated stone lover as myself and when we were inspecting his stones he was telling that in fact if technically they are not doublets, as the stone does not present 2 parts separated by a cement, the same idea is the purpose: To provide nice looking large stones at affordable prices...
I had the same discussion few days before in the lab with a doublet expert: Manfred Kammerling from Idar...

They are not assembled stones but the concept idea is not that far.
The very different thing is that doublets are globally all the same: Here a large number of stones from the initial parcel were full of fissures and as a result will be greatly improved but in the same parcel you will have many others that will not be really bad and in this case there is quite a little amount of glass present in the stone. Sometimes if no fissure reach the surface on the table you will have problem to detect the treatment. I had this problem once or twice with small stones.

Anyway, I''m prepairing an update that I will try to post today as tonight I''m leaving to Laos for few days and come back in Bangkok to attend the ICA congress and the Bangkok show.

All the best

Thanks Richard for this news,

Thats good news for sure. There are many very nice and open "burners" in Thailand, and I met a guy working with Mahiton which is married with a friend of your wife. He asked me to transmit both of you his hello if I was to meet you!
Anyway Mahiton is a former student of AIGS and he told me that from the day he studied there around 10 years ago (may be with you?) he believe that sharing knowledge is the best thing to do in order to grow. And its in everybody interest.  Sounds like ideas from guys like you and Henry have somewhere spread around!

I will be really happy to meet you this week end, you can call me at anytime while in Bangkok.
All the best,

Hello,

Just a word to say that we have replaced the former version of the article about lead glass rubies with a new one that inlcude the study on the rubies filled in Bangkok by orangesapphire and also some more information about the "copper story"

The article can be seen on the following page:
aigs laboratory page

All the best, 

kewl
Thank You!