Blue Spinel Vs Sapphire

Blue spinel is a rather special stone.

Blue spinel vs sapphire.

In fact spinel is in great demand among gemologists and gem connoisseurs. Garnet pg 2 understanding garnets. Spinel occurs in a wide variety of colors. Color is an important factor that defines spinel s price red spinel is rarer than other varieties and also more expensive.

Red and blue spinel. Sapphire ruby. A case in point is the internal diffusion seen in a heat treated sapphire induced as the titanium from rutile silk inclusions was dissolved into the crystal lattice of the host sapphire at high temperatures. Its cheaper than sapphire and is very light.

Spinel has been making a name for itself over the last couple of decades and demand for fine stones well exceeds supply. Tourmalines pg 3 pink red yellow and other colors. This has to some degree closed the spinel vs. Blue exemplars are the second rarest spinel gems.

Nevertheless spinel s price even in those cases is still lower than the price of sapphire and ruby. Sapphire ruby pg 2 ruby. Spinel pg 2 red spinel pink spinel other colors. With modern gemological tools we can easily distinguish between blue spinel and blue sapphire.

Other varieties are more common and less sought after. Blue spinel is a gem made of a compund of iron and sapphire. Spinel pg 3 synthetic spinel. Blue spinel hues range from violet blue through very slightly greenish blue.

Blue topaz is the result of irradiation treatment and tanzanite is often heated to enhance its blue color. There are few gems that occur naturally in blue. There is no telling how many spinels have actually been sold as sapphire. Blue spinel vs sapphire.

Discovered accidentally when scientists were experimenting to try and produce a flame fusion blue synthetic sapphire spinel s great advantage is that it can be made to reproduce almost all colors except purple the blue synthetic spinel sapphire imitant is much more genuine looking than a synthetic blue spinels imitating synthetic sapphires. Man made spinel is used extensively. Tourmaline pg 2 black orange blue green tourmalines. In the deeper blue colors there are only softer stones such as kyanite and iolite.

It is easy to understand how early gem traders confused spinel with ruby and sapphire for over 1000 years. However hundreds of years ago when spinel was found together with sapphire and ruby it was impossible to tell them apart. Tourmalines pg 4 paraiba tourmalines.