[Jewelry making - Article 00705] - Re: [Orchid] Red tiger eye

[The Doctor]

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    Hi Adam. Yes and no. And maybe. I've been told by people of some
    experience that a lot of Tiger Eye/Tigereye/Tiger's Eye (you pick
    the nomenclature. GIA refers to it as Tiger's Eye and I'll stick
    with that) is open-pit mined. Sometimes the brush is burned off,
    occasionally turning the material red from the fiery blaze. In
    effect, it becomes heat-treated via mining technique. Others say
    that a brush fire won't reach the temperature necessary to change
    its' color. Then again, much of it may have undergone a natural
    heat-treatment in the earth's crust by some long-past geological
    event, possibly millennia before it was discovered and mined. Some
    say that none of it comes out of the ground red and that all of it
    must be treated to turn it red. I've never personally mined the
    stuff, so I wouldn't swear to anything other than it being
    heat-treated by a human being. To add further to the confusion,
    Tiger's Eye is also commonly dyed or bleached, or a combination of
    both. To make it even MORE confusing, the heat-treatment is
    undetectable. In other words, anybody who practices proper
    disclosure and did not actually mine the stone (and therefore see it
    emerge from the ground as a natural red stone) must assume it to be
    treated. Whoever told you that all red Tiger's Eye is heat-treated
    may have been practicing just such a disclosure. At any rate, the
    heat-treatment has excellent stability and is unlikely to fade over
    time. I know this sounds rather vague as opposed to a "yes or no"
    answer, but sometimes, there are no "yes or no" answers in the
    trade. Sincerely,  James 



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