How hard is topaz and is it usually treated?

[innerkitten]

I know that most of them are sort of an amber color, but I''ve seen blues and pinks.

 

[Colored Gemstone Nut]

Natural Topaz is available in several different colors: Colorless (White), Yellowish-Orange with some Peach in it (Imperial) as well as Light Blue, Yellow, Orange, and Pink. Topaz is mainly mined in Brazil, Mexico, Sri Lanka, Africa, and China. Blue Topaz starts as an off color, usually bluish-gray to silvery-gray in color, and it is irradiated (treated) to produce bold colors like the blue-green color "London Blue", the light blue color "Sky Blue", the medium blue color "Swiss Blue", and the more intense blue color "Maxi Blue". These colors become permanent treatments to give the gem a very bright, durable, and attractive color. There are several other types of treatments being used on some of the Topaz on the market to produce a variety of other colors, but most of those treatments are only on the surface of the gem and/or not permanent treatments.


There have been some blue topaz that rival the blue seen in fine sapphires, but can be expensive compared to the more available commercial quality topaz../idealbb/images/smilies/21.gif


Topaz is a durable, but softer (similiar to emeralds) scoring an 8 on the Moh's scale of hardness..

 

[valeria101]

Pink is usually heat treated (ths removes the orange shade in it) and valuable, esp. if of an intense color. Natural blue is not all that rare (esp. Russia) but the color is faint - akin to the usual pale aqua, only topaz has better sparkle to it.

I usually keep two things in mind about topaz:

#1. Large pieces of blue topaz (the irradiated stuff, right) are awesome objects LINK)! Some oddities are very desirable collection items: such as deep pink specimens (LINK) and pink/blue bicolors LINK).

#2. Lots of stones with awesome (mostly orange, but pinkish-orange too) color are unstable to light exposure - the color fades fast enough to make these stone impractical purchases and keep the crystals off site if collected as such. It is not inconceivable that such pieces could be presented as precious topaz...

 

[valeria101]

... and it takes some patience to tell what's $100/ct from $1000/ct - no idea why these dazzlers are not on show more often!

 

[valeria101]

... and more of my liking

(both came from mineralminers.com)

 

[pyramid]

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On 5/1/2004 11:49:14 AM Colored Gemstone Nut wrote:



There have been some blue topaz that rival the blue seen in fine sapphires, but can be expensive compared to the more available commercial quality topaz../idealbb/images/smilies/21.gif




Colored Gemstone Nut Are the blue topaz which rival the blue seen in fine sapphires natural or treated to make them this blue?

 

[valeria101]

Blue topaz coudl be natural, but 99.999% it is iradiated, If anythig fine blue ever got out of the ground as such - I have yet to find any note on it, anywhere.

The nicest blue topaz (trated) usually has a greenish overtone - possible in sapphire, but not prefered. The violet overtone of 'royal blue' sapphire does not seem to occur in blue topaz. Besides, the RI would betrau topaz - not sure it can make a convincing sapphire look-alike

 

[Colored Gemstone Nut]

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On 5/1/2004 1:17:40 PM pyramid wrote:

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On 5/1/2004 11:49:14 AM Colored Gemstone Nut wrote:









There have been some blue topaz that rival the blue seen in fine sapphires, but can be expensive compared to the more available commercial quality topaz../idealbb/images/smilies/21.gif



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While it is possible for Topaz to come from the earth in a light blue color, almost all of it on the market today is treated to one degree or another as Val points out. It is a result of irradiating colorless or near colorless precious topaz. Nearly all blue topaz starts out white, but there are natural blues as well, though quite rare. The results can vary from a light to medium rich blue coloration that includes many different intensities of blue depending on what enhancement method is used.

I like the blue color present in glacier blue topaz and it reminds me of the blue seen in fine ceylon sapphires. Topaz which is surface treated is relatively inexpensive making replacement a practical solution if damage or chips occur over time.

 

[valeria101]

Surface treatment (coating) explains it: there are even Tanzanire simmulants purpose made like this. Otherwise I had no idea how one can get warmer tones (blue-violet instead of greenish-blue) by the traditional heating and irradiation.

Very nice green topaz is made by diffusion, but this the only color made this way I know of. Anyhting else ?

Actually, the stone you posted makes the point for an iteresting story: what happens when some treatment is applied the BETTER stones, rather than the absolute, un-sellable worst. The respective coating on fant blue topaz gets something looking like not-so-great Tanzanite (and makes the worthless fant blue pieces desirable rather thna trash). Your example (and the same can be found marketed under less inspired names than 'glacier' too)swos coating on already nice medium-blue topaz! Great idea!

The same line of thought was used to make a case against sapphire Be diffusion: what happens if not only trash-worthy white, cracked sapphire gets 'promoted' blue but also already good blue sapphire gets to look like the best of Kashmir by gentle (= hard to detect) tratemnt

(I am not the wise inventor of the argument, this can be found in the Ruby & Sapphire book).

Oh well... the stone looks fine, and who knows if anyone would have taken so much liberty to create such a nice cut on expensive, top sapphire material !

 

[valeria101]

And this is what I show when someone tries to persuade me that all gem treatments are a bad idea

The 'sky blue' is possible to get from untreated rough...

 

[Colored Gemstone Nut]

Nice Pictures Val...

I like the color of the Swiss Blue the best

 

[innerkitten]

I like the swiss blue too.

 

[jasita]

Valerie, I am looking for a pale yellow topaz gem as I have learned that these are the ones that are untreated. I have read that the coloured ones are usually always heat treated. I also do not know why some people call them Citrine and Ceylon. To me the pale yellow is a true topaz , am I right? Anyway is there a trusted company out there on the internet to purchase a play yellow untreated topaz from? Thanks Jasita

 

[valeria101]

I would think that pale yellow and/or brown are the more usual natural colors, and should be cheap. To be honest, I am not aware of any shop that may offer a consistent supply of those, simply because the pale ones are not considered very valuable and either colorless or blue would be prefered as a less costly material for fancy faceting or such. Hot colors are out there, very natural, rather rare and somethimes outrageously expensive (AGTA dictionary and Ref.LINK).

It is common to get better citrine sold as "topaz" ...

For better or worse, here are some links:
Topaz at MtLilyGems , Mineralminers , Daniel Stair (there is one more on the front page, a more common rectangle shape) and Gemhut (ok, it's been a while since I passed by this site, but I have no bad memories or reasons not to trust them).

This list is a complete hotch-potch: varied and good for browsing.

I do not really know where the 'light yellow or fake' word comes from, but it true that high quality topaz is relatively rare and too expensive to bear the same name as some of the most ordinary faceted material (blue topaz).