Sapphires and Rubies... need education

[annadragon]

Pricescope has a strange way of becoming an obsession...it''s very sneaky like that.

I started here looking for diamond information. I''ve gone through so many permutations of what I want, how much to spend, and then just chucking it all in the name of eloping without the hullabaloo. It doesn''t stop me from guiltily day-dreaming at work and conspiring to put together my dream ring.

I am in love with tension settings, most especially the Steven Kretchmer Swirl design. And this is not the first time I''ve posted regarding it. My other love is the color green. I did look into a green diamond but didn''t think I had the fortitude to start a career in bank-robbery.

Is there a tutorial on Sapphires and Rubies (these are the only two other acceptably hard gems for a true tension setting) or colored gems in general? Is there information regarding green colored sapphires and rubies? (I always associate Rubies with red and Sapphires with blue, so don''t even know if you can get them in green. I liken this to my staunch opinion as a young child that all dogs were boys and all girls were cats

)

Maybe someone has pictures of their gorgeous green ruby or sapphire stones they want to share?

 

[LtlFirecracker]

Here are some starting points

http://www.palagems.com/sapphire_connoisseurship.htm

http://www.palagems.com/burma_ruby.htm

http://www.secretsofthegemtrade.com/chapter_22_o1.htm

http://www.ruby-sapphire.com/r-s-book.htm

Hope this helps. Also, do a search of old threads, there is a lot of good stuff on here over the years.

 

[Kismet]

Rubies and Sapphires are both the same stone, corundum. Setting aside the red/pink issue, when corundum is red, it''s called ruby, otherwise it''s a sapphire. There are green sapphires but they tend to be rather muddy looking. I''m sure there are nice ones out there but they''re few and far between. I don''t think they get as pure a green as emerald or tsavorite.

This is a pretty nice looking green from AJS.

 

[chrono]

Any colour sapphire should be fine in a tension setting. LtlFirecracker has provided links to a lot of good reading material to get your started. Sapphires come in a huge array of colours ranging from yellow, orange pink, pink, red, purple, blue, blue green and green. The downside to green sapphires is they typically aren''t a bright green; tending to look grayish green. The other thing to think about is what form of treatment or lack of treatment would be acceptable to you. I would only accept gentle heat treating at most.

 

[PrecisionGem]

Are those rings actually called "tension setting"?

As an engineer, I would think they should be called "compression setting". The stone certainly is not in tension, but in compression. As for a stone that would work, I wouldn''t think it would be a matter of hardness, but toughness and ductility. A very hard stone could still be brittle and crack from the compression.

 

[chrono]

Believe it or not, it is called a tension setting, which as another engineer, I agree that the term compression would be more accurate.

 

[marcy]

I can''t add more suggestions than what you''ve already got but I have some green sapphires they are about the color of jolly rancher''s green apple candy. I know you can find them a little darker green too. Have fun and good luck with your search.

 

[icekid]

Date: 5/22/2009 11:23:16 PM
Author: Chrono
Believe it or not, it is called a tension setting, which as another engineer, I agree that the term compression would be more accurate.

But... tension sounds a lot more sexy than compression

 

[MakingTheGrade]

My favorite green stone is tsavorite, but I''m a hardcore garnet lover, lol.
Gary has a nice one up right now I think:
http://www.finewatergems.com/garnet.html

But I''ve heard that green sapphires can be lovely too Just thought I''d throw the idea out there. The garnet isn''t as hard as the sapphire, but people have had garnet engagement rings made before (I know of at least 3 people from Pricescope with garnet erings), so it''s not too far fetched.

 

[annadragon]

LtlFirecracker thank you for the links I''ve spent the weekend reading up and it''s been most enlightening.

Precision & Chrono Yeah, they are called tension settings and I know it''s been debated in some other threads about being a technical misnomer.

MtG I love Tsavorite and Peridot for the color but they would get smooshed to bits in a tension setting. I have, of course, begun scheming about using them in some type of RHR

What surprises me most are the prices. Some of these gorgeous, eye-popping, enormous gems are only a few hundred $$!

Onward with the search and education! Thank you all