[Jewelry making - Article 00430] - Re: [Orchid] Pink Sapphire or Pale Ruby?

[R . E . Rourke]

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    specific gravity test will give you an archaic parameter..but in
    general Thai producers/labs have eliminated the "pink sapphire" as a
    corundum class on its own..opting for shades and types of ruby
    classifications..While stones are sold as pink sapphires,many are
    heat treated sapphires that appear pink..there are very few stones
    actually categorized/classed as pink by major labs(GIA,AIGS,etc.)
    and pink as far as some labs go is a dilute red, so the only way to
    know if a dealer is offering you "pink sapphire" would be a specific
    gravity test, as colour alone is controversial as far as
    classification goes..however, there are reputable sellers offering
    pink corundum,clear,and in various shades of red and blue
    combinations (on the spectroscopic level) that were sold (and
    purchased) before 1980 that are termed pink sapphires. In
    thailand,and Africa there have been occasions when I have been
    offered pink sapphires,raw and uncut in the field..the miners refer
    to them as pink sapphires,they are corundums,and they appear pink-
    the same thai miners and/or dealers (dealers in Africa) had rough
    mogok ruby(most of the material fairly opaque to translucent),and
    various low quality to fairly clear (SI1) light magenta to fuschia
    to crimson carmesci rubies that the miners and dealers differentiated
    between on their own- in some cases, with no formal training,just
    hard work at producing stones for sale from gravel beds in their
    farming holds..If they say pink sapphire,and it's pink and a
    corundum,I'm not arguing with the miners,or dealers- just having
    them cut,and setting them, and selling them as whatever they told me
    they were in the first place..pink is pink- not diluted reds in my
    observation of colour! and sapphires are not rubies as I have
    learned..If one were to put a geologist,crystallographer,jeweler,and
    lab owner in the same room with the same stones and were asked to
    write a brief description of the stones shown, I have no doubt they
    would all write something different- who's to say one is more right
    than the other as they have all been trained in similar sciences that
    are worlds apart... 

RER
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