Fissure filling in all kind of gems that used to be untreated

[Anne111]

I've become a rather obsessive follower (not much buyer) of catawikis gemstone auctions. Over the last months I have increasingly noticed that lap reports for all kind of gems like tsavorites, tourmaline, spessartite, kunzite, opals, etc etc aside the usual suspects of emeralds, ruby, sapphire, jade, note 'fissure filling with this-that for clarity enhancement". Especially from the Spanish lab but also others.
Is this a new thing, or simply higher alertness in the labs?
Or is it just the lapidary wiping his gems with an oily cloth after cutting?

 

[chrono]

Clarity enhancement (fissure filling) has been on the rise the past 10 years as nice material are getting fewer.

 

[arkieb1]

The Chinese are fissure filling and treating the bleep out of everything these days, I'm in Australia so I've seen treated just about every kind of stone - even the ones I would have thought were inexpensive enough that it wasn't worth bothering, and yet they mess with those too...

 

[Anne111]

I had feared so. Does fissure filling need heat?

 

[ChaiK]

The Chinese are fissure filling and treating the bleep out of everything these days, I'm in Australia so I've seen treated just about every kind of stone - even the ones I would have thought were inexpensive enough that it wasn't worth bothering, and yet they mess with those too...

There are rogue traders everywhere. It isn't just the Chinese.

 

[ChaiK]

No politics here, I know, but it seems obvious that 'globalization', on which this trade depends, has lost its strongest supporter and turned into the opposite. I read a few articles in which big jewelers, pandora, bulgari, and I think it was graff, reported downturns since 2016.

Other possibility would the rise of yet undetected treatments that make all ducks look great (see the other thread).

Perhaps it's both. And yet prices for good quality are rising anyways.
Or did you feel prices got stuck in HK?

Thought it best to reply about the treatment issue here.

Yes. I was going to say there could be new undetectable treatments.

 

[IcePhoenix]

The Chinese are fissure filling and treating the bleep out of everything these days, I'm in Australia so I've seen treated just about every kind of stone - even the ones I would have thought were inexpensive enough that it wasn't worth bothering, and yet they mess with those too...

What stones and what kind of treatment?

 

[Lisa Loves Shiny]

I think it was last year that I saw a red spinel online with a lab report that listed "oiling" under treatment. This surprised me at the time because spinels had traditionally been considered stones that were untreated. With a large online marketplace where stones are offered on Etsy, IG, Ebay, etc., it makes sense that sellers will try to sell their treated stones to those in the market for a specific gemstone as supply for these gemstones dwindle. We as consumers are paying more for these stones now, and many times insisting on a lab report before purchase. So maybe they have been treating them for longer than we knew.

 

[chrono]

I had feared so. Does fissure filling need heat?

It depends on the type of fissure filling; oil doesn't need heat but resin does.

 

[chrono]

What stones and what kind of treatment?

Spinel, tourmaline, spessartite and many typically untreated stones have seen an increase in treatment. For example, spinel did not use to be heated or clarity enhanced.

 

[Arcadian]

Does anyone know if peridot is being treated? its in general dirt cheap until you start talking about larger Burmese pieces.