Do you buy stones with extinction?

[Shijitake]

I found a really nice sapphire but it's one of those with extinction. Just wondering if anyone buys them or avoid them even if they have a nice color and have good clarity.

 

[voce]

I can only speak for myself, but I think most of us would pass on a stone that has significant extinction. A little bit, maybe 10%, is OK though not ideal. Extinction either comes from poor crystal or a bad cut, or both, because they are not mutually exclusive.

Personally, I think another reason (besides hardness and rarity) that red garnet is priced lower compared to other red stones is that garnets show areas of darkness, which, if it is not extinction, looks similar to extinction.

 

[Shijitake]

I found a sapphire that looks like this one
https://gemfix.com/gems/sapphire-blue-11-1286

Nice crisp blue but has a bad case of extinction. Not sure if it's worth it.

 

[marymm]

The GemFix is not a crisp blue to my eyes but a velvet blue due to the silk and has only a slight bit of extinction.

If the sapphire you're interested is a silky stone with mild extinction, then it is worth purchasing as long as there is a reasonable return period and you can afford the shipping back and forth. If it is not silky, then IMHO extinction is more obvious even if only mild; and if more than mild, for me it is not worth it. I've returned or sold every single stone with extinction I ever bought (even the silky ones). YMMV.

 

[mellowyellowgirl]

The patchiness of extinction drives me crazy! I would rather have my stone all pitch black than patchy.

That said I bought a blue sapphire with extinction once and it didn't look too bad. I wore it for years until I decided I didn't like blue at all! I gave it to my sister though (don't care much for blue) so who knows! Maybe I never loved it because it was patchy!

 

[Karl_K]

Depends on the distance its is obvious and the use of the stone.
Due to viewing distances a pendant and ear ring has different extinction requirements than one for a ring to me.
Also is it extinction or is it color zoning?
How much of the stone is impacted? to what degree?
At what distance does it become an issue?
Is it really leakage causing the lighter areas?
There are a ton of factors and it comes down to eyeballs and use.

 

[Shijitake]

The GemFix is not a crisp blue to my eyes but a velvet blue due to the silk and has only a slight bit of extinction.

Ah, yes I want sure how to describe it. When I said crisp I meant its very blue.

Karl it's very much extinction. It was the nice velvety blue until he turned it on the video. About half of it turned dark. I'll have a photo up when I can use my laptop.

 

[chrono]

Stones won’t stay that same blue when moved because the direction of the light source changed. It will depend on how severe the angle is for me. Set stones are never static so the expectation that it remains “picture perfect” all the time isn’t realistic.

 

[2Neezers]

Elongated shapes like an oval will often show shadowing or what a lot of PS’ers call half/half extinction. Setting stones with that type of extinction in the east/west orientation (sideways) can sometimes help with that. I would be happy with the Gemfix sapphire you linked, but the type of extinction in ovals and long cushions where one half of the color blacks out I can’t handle.

 

[chrono]

I have trouble with the split style extinction too.

 

[Shijitake]

Here's the sapphire. I'm not sure if it's worth getting or even having it shipped to look at.

 

[voce]

I wouldn't call that extinction, necessarily. To me extinction means going all black. However, nothing about that stone screams top quality sapphire. It appears translucent, not transparent, and I can see no brilliance/scintillation. There's no telling if it's a lab-created stone or even kyanite. I would pass unless it came with a certification form a trusted lab.

 

[Shijitake]

I'm not sure what scintillation is and a quick google search isn't helping. It's from one of the trusted vendors, so I'm not sure if it can be kyanite. I actually do sort of like translucent stones stones. Sometimes the transparent ones look too much like glass imho.

 

[voce]

Scintillation is brilliance or sparkle. It's the effect of refracted light reflected back through the top facets. The colors of the facets change as you move the stone, so you get a multicolor effect, different shades of blue. Translucent stones have less brilliance and the color is a lot more uniform, with no flashes of light catching the eye, like a blob of only a single color at worst. Transparent sapphires do not look like glass unless they're cabochons. Glass just doesn't refract or scintillate like faceted gemstones do. Glass will look duller and less sparkly when you're comparing them side by side.

For reference, here's my oval sapphire. The first two pictures are from the vendor and the third picture was taken by myself; note the bright flashes of blue that are lighter in tone than the body color of the gemstone; different facets will flash with a brighter color depending on the direction of the light source, and when you move the stone these flashes or sparkles will move around. Refraction and scintillation are what make a diamond sparkle, and diamonds are one of the sparkliest gemstones because they have the highest refraction and nearly perfect crystal. You don't get that with a translucent stone, nor glass, because glass is not crystal, and the light will bleed out of the stone's pavilion (not get reflected back to the table and top facets) with imperfect crystal (translucent stone).

 

[voce]

Can you see scintillation for yourself in this video? This is one of the best cut sapphires offered by NSC. The way the light reflected by the facets changes is scintillation.
https://www.thenaturalsapphirecompany.com/1.33ct-ceylon-round-blue-sapphire-b10359-/

 

[voce]

I take back what I said about glass not scintillating, because some types (like Swarovski crystal elements) do sparkle like glitter. However, on close inspection the Swarovski crystal elements will scintillate in a telltale manner, like six-pointed stars, without you being able to discern individual facets. On my diamonds and variety of colored stones, the flashes of light from the scintillation come from facets themselves, and you can see the tiny little facets changing color, or showing multicolor effect (dispersion, fire).

 

[Shijitake]

Yes, I think I see what it is. Thanks for the explanation. I didn't really mean glass per se, I guess I just meant it's a bit less interesting to me. Like a completely transparent emerald is a little less appealing than a translucent one, imo, since the translucent ones usually have a sort of glow.

Like the one on top is a little bit boring to me. I sort of like the glow of the translucent one. But maybe it's the color. Either way, even if it's a bad quality saph, I kinda like it. I'd buy it for the right price.