[Jewelry making - Article 00115] - Re: [Orchid] Whitish points appeared in a ruby

[Daniel R. Spirer]

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Laura,

    The following three paragraphs are an excerpt from an article in the
    latest National Jeweler (May 1, 2008). I have a feeling what they are
    describing here may be what you got in Tucson. 

    But there was negative reaction to lead-glass-filled rubies, which
    some of the exhibitors at the Tucson shows were selling for telltale
    low prices of $10 to $50 per carat for polished goods. Since hitting
    the U.S. market in 2005, the stones have circulated to the point that
    the American Gemological Laboratories (AGL) started calling the
    stones "composite rubies" on grading reports. The treatment, which
    involves heating and injecting glass into the stones, is easily
    detectable by labs, but the level of lead glass used to seal major
    flaws and fractures has set off alarms. 

    "Do you want to call it a ruby or do you want to call it ruby pieces
    in glass?" asked Dr. Lore Kiefert, laboratory director of the AGTA
    Gemological Testing Center, during a seminar where she displayed a
    slide of a lead-glass-filled ruby, splintered by cracks after it was
    exposed to heat during the resetting process. "It's not only cavity
    filling any more. It's more than that." 

    In addition to heat, the treatments are also susceptible to
    solvents, including everyday household cleaners.

    It's this last statement that makes me think that this is what you
    have as it's possible that just from normal cleaning you might have
    removed some of the filler and hence the whitish spots. 

Daniel R. Spirer, G.G.
Daniel R. Spirer Jewelers, LLC
1780 Massachusetts Ave.
Cambridge, MA 02140
www.spirerjewelers.com
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