Your predictions on too good to be true spinel on e-bay?

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There is only one way to achieve happiness on this terrestrial ball, and that is to have a clear conscience or none at all. Ogden Nash

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There is only one way to achieve happiness on this terrestrial ball, and that is to have a clear conscience or none at all. Ogden Nash

Hi velouriaL,

It isn't the cut it's the material itself that is a little dark.  If it were tourmaline or sapphire it would be heat treated to lighten the tone but spinel can't be heat treated.  The darker colors need more light to look better. Wear it out doors in the sun.

 I had an 8ct tsavorite that was dark in tone.  I sent it to Wink to have Richard Homer recut it with concave facets.  The stone came back still dark.  Sometimes the best cutter in the world can't do much if the material isn't up to it.

It isn't the cut it's the material itself that is a little dark.




A lot of gems occur in tones that are too dark to cut bright stones. Learning to inspect gem rough in reflected, not transmitted light to judge color is one of the toughest lessons a would-be cutter faces. There's always the temptation to hope proper cutting will brighten a dark gem. It won't. I have nice parcel of very dark blue spinel rough that will probably never cut anything but inky stones. But I'm going to cut one soon just to find out -- hope wins out again! One trick is to deliberately window the stone to allow more light through but that destroys brilliance. It's not nice when Mother Nature fools us!


Richard M.

www.Artcutgems.com

Hello Richard M.

I have learned that the hard way and bought many a stone that was partially described with ony the good points like clarity and color.  Then they flood the stone with light to make it look brighter this way they are accuratly describing the stone and it looks great.  I have now learned to email and ask more questions and not just hope it is what I think it is.

contrast mostly.

Most of the light return will be around the edges and in sunlight the bright edges make the center look even darker.

I like dark stones. They have a sence of mystery that more even colored stones dont.

My favorite are the garnets that look black but hit them with bright light and they blaze fire red.

........... Karl has joined the diamond trade and is now posting as Karl_K

My guess that it looks better at night is that incandesent light has more red than natural sunlight or florecent lighting.  Since the spinel is red there is more pure red reflected from the stone.  But this is just a guess.