Opinions on Sphene please!

[theredspinel]

Hi everyone! So delved into the world of sphene today and I'm strongly considering this...

What are the experts opinions? Should I hold out for a more saturated yellow? Brighter yellow? (What would what be called, tone?)

 

[GregS]

It looks cloudy, which will hinder light return/dispersion, which is what Sphene is good at.

I'd pass, Sphene has become very common. You should not have much trouble finding a really good one.

 

[theredspinel]

Ah thank you so much, I didn't notice the cloudiness until you just pointed it out!

I've looked at all the usual vendors and bar Yvonne no one has any

 

[chrono]

Do you prefer the green or yellow version? Bought mine off eBay.

 

[theredspinel]

I think I prefer the pure yellow (but not the "golden" browny yellow) purely for the dispersion. From the pics I've seen the yellows throw better fireworks then the greens (but generally I prefer green stones). Not a fan of the peridot colour ones though...

I checked eBay but got a headache.... There are just so many I don't know which ones are legit!


ETA this is my holy grail... ignoring what I just said about the golden yellows lol

[URL='https://www.pricescope.com/community/threads/madagascar-sphene-arrived-from-precision-gem.136541/']https://www.pricescope.com/community/threads/madagascar-sphene-arrived-from-precision-gem.136541/[/URL]

 

[GregS]

Ah thank you so much, I didn't notice the cloudiness until you just pointed it out!

I've looked at all the usual vendors and bar Yvonne no one has any

Check out Multicolour, they have a lot. That green 3.2 ct cushion might be a good candidate for a recut, the color and clarity looks really good.

http://www.multicolour.com/gallery/?/gallery/sphene/

 

[theredspinel]

Thank you Greg!

I don't want to buy 1 specifically to have it recut (just can't afford to do that)! So I'll have a look and see what jumps out at me. Thanks again very helpful!

Eta; what do you think of the 2 hearts. Will the darker golden yellow heart perform like the one in my previous post (in the link)?

 

[minousbijoux]

It is a personal preference but I am absolutely drawn to green sphene - the greener the better! I guess it makes sense as I'm not a terribly big yellow fan in general. That said, if I were you, as Chrono said I'd look on ebay, look for the most saturated green without being dark, and good, clear crystal and cutting so as to showcase what its known for - its dispersion and light return.

 

[theredspinel]

Minous what do you think of this one;

 

[chrono]

Whatever you end up with, go for the best cut. It makes a huge difference between "nice" and "wow". I sent mine to Jerry Newman to tweak and it behaved like a totally different stone. Due to its diamond-like sparkle, like diamonds, cut is extremely important for a sphene. I write this as someone who almost always puts colour above cut.

 

[Arcadian]

Like its been said, it depends on what you like.

Greenish yellow/ yellowish green (bright of course) is really kind of the moneyshots of all moneyshots and where you're going to see the biggest price increases. Start with Yellowish green, those are easy enough to find. You CAN find bright yellow but you may not like the yellow that goes toward orange/brown.

Cut matters here. Mine were all "native cut", but they're really extremely WELL cut. You defo want that. You want the cleanest material you can get. Yes you can indeed find bad material (but you can find that in anything!)

I'm going to disagree that the sphene is cloudy. But it DOES look like a bad pic + bad cutting. Sphene is NOT easy to take pictures of.

If you're plan is to set one. LOL... yeah think about that for a second. You don't REALLY want someone that all they do is set diamonds. yah don't. You want someone that has experience with softer stuff...like pearls. And you would need to stress how soft the stuff is. Most benches don't set stuff like this.

I did a ring stone with a sphene but I really don't recommend it, and the guy that set it said "never again" I always threatened to bring in another. He told me if I did I would be fired. yeah we joked about it afterwards but he was pretty darn serious. Because they're so soft, several of mine have never been set.

 

[minousbijoux]

Like its been said, it depends on what you like.

Greenish yellow/ yellowish green (bright of course) is really kind of the moneyshots of all moneyshots and where you're going to see the biggest price increases. Start with Yellowish green, those are easy enough to find. You CAN find bright yellow but you may not like the yellow that goes toward orange/brown.

Cut matters here. Mine were all "native cut", but they're really extremely WELL cut. You defo want that. You want the cleanest material you can get. Yes you can indeed find bad material (but you can find that in anything!)

If you're plan is to set one. LOL... yeah think about that for a second. You don't REALLY want someone that all they do is set diamonds. yah don't. You want someone that has experience with softer stuff...like pearls. And you would need to stress how soft the stuff is. Most benches don't set stuff like this.

I did a ring stone with a sphene but I really don't recommend it, and the guy that set it said "never again" I always threatened to bring in another. He told me if I did I would be fired. yeah we joked about it afterwards but he was pretty darn serious. Because they're so soft, several of mine have never been set.

Spoken like a sphene expert - and Arc knows what she's talking about, just look at her avatar!

 

[theredspinel]

Thanks so much guys, you won't believe the amount of times I've read*all* the old sphene threads....

Arcadian, LD, TL and a couple of others that have shared their sphene (awesome rings - I think the famous one is LD'S... The one taken on overcast day in snow but still amazingly sparkly...) so all I know I I want one that performs like that.

I totally hear you all on the cut but I *really* don't want to deal with buying a stone, shipping customs bank charges then posting it out again to be re cut (shipping customs) so I'd rather just buy a great cut one. The problem is I don't know *what* a great cut sphene looks like (even after studying all the great example of sphene from old PS threads)!

Can I be a baby here and give you my budget of up to $400, preferred size of at least 10mm lenght/hight (any shape but I am going for as large as I can in my budget) so probably at least 3.5 ct

Lastly Arcadian I'm glad you mentioned my opening pic one might not be cloudy because it really would make it easy for me if *that* was the perfect one haha. I have emailed for more pics and specifically asked it's it is as cloudy as it looks so will await an answer.

Thanks again everyone.

 

[Arcadian]

Like its been said, it depends on what you like.

Greenish yellow/ yellowish green (bright of course) is really kind of the moneyshots of all moneyshots and where you're going to see the biggest price increases. Start with Yellowish green, those are easy enough to find. You CAN find bright yellow but you may not like the yellow that goes toward orange/brown.

Cut matters here. Mine were all "native cut", but they're really extremely WELL cut. You defo want that. You want the cleanest material you can get. Yes you can indeed find bad material (but you can find that in anything!)

If you're plan is to set one. LOL... yeah think about that for a second. You don't REALLY want someone that all they do is set diamonds. yah don't. You want someone that has experience with softer stuff...like pearls. And you would need to stress how soft the stuff is. Most benches don't set stuff like this.

I did a ring stone with a sphene but I really don't recommend it, and the guy that set it said "never again" I always threatened to bring in another. He told me if I did I would be fired. yeah we joked about it afterwards but he was pretty darn serious. Because they're so soft, several of mine have never been set.

Spoken like a sphene expert - and Arc knows what she's talking about, just look at her avatar!

If by expert you mean I buy too many of the damn things.... I can accept that...

 

[chroman]

So, its not sphene, but its the even-more-dispersive sphalerite:
http://kosnargemco.com/listing/262651394/green-sphalerite-gemstone-from-bulgaria

Looks pretty clean, concave cut; i bet it looks bonkers in person!

 

[theredspinel]

Thank you chroman but sphenes jumped onto the back burner for now. My fingers are into too many imaginary pies....

 

[LD]

Thank you for the lovely comment on my Sphene. Just to let you know that the Heart shaped one linked to above, is likely to perform in exactly the same way as mine does! Hope that helps.

 

[Sungura]

Thank you chroman but sphenes jumped onto the back burner for now. My fingers are into too many imaginary pies....

best comment ever!!!!