Given what you know about Dan''s pics, what do you think about this tourmaline?

[cellentani]

Date: 6/7/2009 10:51:04 PM
Author: Chrono
Just curious: is this one unheated?

Dang! I forgot to ask, Chrono. I''m interested in knowing that too, so let me shoot him an email.

 

[cellentani]

According to Dan:

"To the best of my knowledge, this tourmaline is completely untreated. I''m at the mercy of what the rough dealers tell me, but I don''t think any of these pink tourmalines are heat treated when they come straight from Nigeria. They do heat some of the blue-greens though. Also, I hear the Germans have been irradiating some of the pink stones. I buy most of mine straight from Africa though and don''t even sell irradiated or diffusion treated stones."

And, how does one tell if a stone has been heat treated? And are irradiated stones easier to pick out? I hear that sapphires, especially pink ones, have a tell-tale color if they''ve been irradiated.

 

[chrono]

From what I''ve been told, the treatment of pink tourmalines is very difficult to detect. There will be no obvious tell tale signs of heating, nuking or both. Gene told me that even when he buys a parcel of rough directly from the source, he has to look out for synthetics or cheap lookalikes that are roughed up and dirtied to look like the real rough. Very risky business indeed. I know Dan is honest from prior dealings with him and to his best ability, if he thinks it is untreated, I''d accept his word.