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Oiled Rubies, Sapphires, and Spinels

Coloured oil has been around for a long time although it’s usually used on emeralds only. With prices rising and quality material becoming scarcer, there will be an increase in treated material (outside of emerald) in the gem market. I’ve already seen oiled Paraiba and ruby.
 
I've seen colored green oil in emeralds and jade. Colorless oil in corundum and spinel. But I have not seen red oil yet.
 
Shameful. Some sellers will do whatever they can to improve the apparent quality of their goods. It is this kind of thing that makes me develop relationships with vendors I know I can trust and stick with them!
 
As if I'm not already struggling enough to learn about colored gems...:wall:
 
I’ve recently watched a few videos on ruby mining in Burma and it’s quite the eye opener.
Rubies are found in their host rock marble so they drag these massive lumps of marble out and start smashing them up to find the rubies.
An astonishing amount of hard work and time to find what looks like mere “specks” of ruby (and I thought the colours more pink than red).
The geologist doing the video was being offered spinels as rubies and kyanite as sapphire. He was able to tell the difference.
Oiling I think is very unfortunate, however it is detectable. Beryllium treatment is the difficult one to detect by normal means.
All these “treatments” and endeavors to create “good rubies” just make the genuine good and untreated ones all the rarer and more valuable.
And unless you have a “rock solid reliable” vendor it means that you definitely need a report / certification from a reputable lab before you buy a ruby.
 
Clarity enhancement via oil, resin or otherwise, is used on some garnets as well. Rule of thumb, if it's got lots lots of fissures and cracks, it could be clarity enhanced, or in the case of opaque stones, stabilized.
 
Bron357 said:
I’ve recently watched a few videos on ruby mining in Burma and it’s quite the eye opener.
Rubies are found in their host rock marble so they drag these massive lumps of marble out and start smashing them up to find the rubies.
An astonishing amount of hard work and time to find what looks like mere “specks” of ruby (and I thought the colours more pink than red).
The geologist doing the video was being offered spinels as rubies and kyanite as sapphire. He was able to tell the difference.
Oiling I think is very unfortunate, however it is detectable. Beryllium treatment is the difficult one to detect by normal means.
All these “treatments” and endeavors to create “good rubies” just make the genuine good and untreated ones all the rarer and more valuable.
And unless you have a “rock solid reliable” vendor it means that you definitely need a report / certification from a reputable lab before you buy a ruby.
Click to expand...

Please share what videos you watched. :geek2:
 
On U tube - A Journey to Mogok (I just put Mogok ruby in search) with Dr Adolf Peretti who is a chief gemologist with GRS (Gem Research SwissLab) plus some others by a guy called Federico Barlocher.
Really fascinating, and the prices are massive - you might think being there makes them cheap - ha- no way, they know exactly what is what.
 
Bron357 said:
On U tube - A Journey to Mogok (I just put Mogok ruby in search) with Dr Adolf Peretti who is a chief gemologist with GRS (Gem Research SwissLab) plus some others by a guy called Federico Barlocher.
Really fascinating, and the prices are massive - you might think being there makes them cheap - ha- no way, they know exactly what is what.
Click to expand...

Thanks! I’m all set to watch them tomorrow. :geek2:
 
A lot of oiled paraiba tourmalines have been popping up for sale too.....
 
Which is why the locals tell me don't buy gems in Mogok. They ask for the sky. You either wait for them to filter to the cities through middlemen to manage the prices or else get to know private mine owners who are not in production sharing contacts with the government and can sell privately.

That said, the richest here are probablythe richest in Southeast Asia and if they are not in the gem business but need to upkeep appearances, they will spend on these with the sky high prices because it's a matter of face.

Complex society to understand. Still learning after all this time.

Yes they do put their gems in oil which I've seen myself at the gem museum.
 
Burmesedaze said:
Which is why the locals tell me don't buy gems in Mogok. They ask for the sky. You either wait for them to filter to the cities through middlemen to manage the prices or else get to know private mine owners who are not in production sharing contacts with the government and can sell privately.

That said, the richest here are probablythe richest in Southeast Asia and if they are not in the gem business but need to upkeep appearances, they will spend on these with the sky high prices because it's a matter of face.

Complex society to understand. Still learning after all this time.

Yes they do put their gems in oil which I've seen myself at the gem museum.
Click to expand...

Thanks for sharing your "in the thick of it" point of view. Many choices are influenced by culture and gems are not immune to this.
 
It happened to me! Just got a batch back from AGL. I sent in a sapphire I had removed from a three stone ring I had bought from Shopgoodwill. It came back as unheated but with Minor clarity enhancement, oil. In the interests of science I am thinking about soaking it in acetone or something to see what it looks like without the oil. Has anyone here done that?
 
Mrsz1ppy said:
It happened to me! Just got a batch back from AGL. I sent in a sapphire I had removed from a three stone ring I had bought from Shopgoodwill. It came back as unheated but with Minor clarity enhancement, oil. In the interests of science I am thinking about soaking it in acetone or something to see what it looks like without the oil. Has anyone here done that?
Click to expand...

please start a thread and post photos
it will be fasinating
 
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