Pls help! Seeking 4-5ct blue sapphire, any help appreciated

[lucabuca]

Hi everyone,

I know almost nothing about sapphires, but I would really like to buy/create a 4-5ct blue sapphire ring for my wife for our anniversary. Thinking round / oval cut, set in a halo with pave, and something precision-cut. I don't know who to trust or who to ask all my questions to ... if anyone has any insight, it would be really appreciated!

1) I've seen lots of recommendations for Jeff White. Does anyone have any other recommendations for who to reach out to?

2) Are mined sapphires distinguishable from lab-grown? And are unheated distinguishable from heated? Can you only see the differences under magnification? Or is there a difference in the depth of color or vividness? I don't need to pay more for something that's not visually distinguishable, but I am willing to pay if my wife or others might be able to appreciate some difference.

3) I see a lot more oval cuts than rounds available. Is that just because ovals are easier to cut large? Or is round a sub-optimal cut for sapphires?

4) Is it possible to get some sparkle in a royal-blue sapphire? Does that require having it cut in a particular way?

Thank you in advance!

 

[mellowyellowgirl]

Not really visually distinguishable except that lab created will look “perfect”

If you don’t really care I’d go lab. You can just drop a few hundred dollars and get a beautiful lab stone with the qualities you’ve described.

It gets long, complicated, finicky and expensive once you start to delve into unheated natural stones. Or even heated ones. If you don’t care, go lab. It will likely be the most perfect looking.

https://precisiongem.com/LabCreatedGems/LabPrecisionGems.php

This vendor is an amazing cutter and is likely able to deliver what you want in terms of cut.

 

[Avondale]

1) I've seen lots of recommendations for Jeff White. Does anyone have any other recommendations for who to reach out to?

Jeff White is a very solid recommendation.
Jeff Davies has a large selection of lab stones and plenty of choices.
FinewaterGems cuts lab stones, too.
Second the recommendation for Gene at PrecisionGem, his cuts are amazing, I have one and it's one of my favourite stones.

2) Are mined sapphires distinguishable from lab-grown? And are unheated distinguishable from heated? Can you only see the differences under magnification? Or is there a difference in the depth of color or vividness?

The experienced eye can sometimes notice some very delicate differences, more like tendencies. Lab stones are usually perfect - excellent clarity, no inclusions, no colour zoning, vibrant colour. Natural stones are expected to have some of these.

Then, heated sapphires usually have better clarity and better colour compared to unheated.

Aside from those tendencies, it is virtually impossible to distinguish between three nearly identical stones which is lab, which is heated and which is untreated. From normal viewing distance when set in a ring it will matter even less. The more important thing to take into consideration is your wife's preference. Is she someone who prefers to stick to natural stones, or does she have a positive attitude towards lab stones? If the latter, lab will offer you the most bang for the money by a large margin.

3) I see a lot more oval cuts than rounds available. Is that just because ovals are easier to cut large? Or is round a sub-optimal cut for sapphires?

That's because of the natural shape the natural rough is often found in. Natural sapphires are cut to preserve weight. Round cuts usually lead to more weight loss in the cutting process. For that reason and due to the fact they're quite desirable, they're usually more expensive per carat.

This won't matter with lab stones. You can get a lab stone cut in any shape.

4) Is it possible to get some sparkle in a royal-blue sapphire? Does that require having it cut in a particular way?

It is, and it does require an optimised cut, and it will never sparkle the same way a diamond sparkles. But it's possible and far more attainable if you get a lapidary to cut a lab stone for you as a custom order. In natural stones sparkle is more often found in lighter coloured sapphires.

 

[dk168]

From a personal perspective, my go-to lapidary artists are Jeff White and Gary Braun at Finewater Gems, and I have had many satisfactory custom projects with them, and had met them both in Tucson in 2023.

Jeff does not cut many lab stones. However, he has a vast inventory of Sapphire roughs (he just cannot resist them). If the OP desires natural stones, then I would strongly advise for Jeff to be contacted to see if he has anything that would suit.

My usual advice is to go to Jeff's website and pick out colours that one wants from his Sold Gemstone Galleries, and provide him with an idea of size, shape and budget, and see if he could help.

Gary at Finewater Gems cuts more lab stones, and I suspect he will have lab roughs in hand. I still one of his blue lab Sapphire in an Asscher cut waiting to be set.

Jeff Davies has many lab blue Sapphires listed in his website if lab is acceptable.

Personally, lab stones can appear too perfect, this much is true for Emeralds IMHO.

I don't have an issue with heat-only treatment for natural coloured stones, however, that's my personal preference. Likewise with locations. For CS, if the colour, clarity, size and cutting appeals to me, then I would consider buying it regardless whether it is heated or where it was mined. As I have mentioned, that's my personal preference.

DK

 

[Rfisher]

2) Are mined sapphires distinguishable from lab-grown? And are unheated distinguishable from heated? Can you only see the differences under magnification? Or is there a difference in the depth of color or vividness? I don't need to pay more for something that's not visually distinguishable, but I am willing to pay if my wife or others might be able to appreciate some difference.

Some questions to ask yourself because being happy in the end / really only matters with what you and your wife think/enjoy/want to see.
(I truly hope your wife is involved in the choice of what’s distinguishable to the eye?)

Precision cutting means different things to different people/cutters. I think paring down your objective to your definition will be beneficial.

Sometimes precision cutting for light return does disservice to color of the material as perceived by the eye, or as an aside - the ‘wrong’ precision cut pattern for the RI of the material.

In an ideal world hypothetical situation with natural sapphire material - I’d choose a well cut non precision cut that has no window, makes the most of color and material over that same natural sapphire material cut in a designer pattern that prioritized light return over everything else. Others may differ.

Precision cut lab sapphire oval? Do you want /expect the oval footprint shape to be made from a continuous curve, or made from 16 (or more) straight lines? Does that matter to you/your wife?

I think very few people own a 5ct natural royal blue precision cut sapphire that’s casually visually indistinguishable from a similar lab royal sapphire. In real life. Not a photo.
Maybe your part of the world is different than mine though.

Natural unheated over heated it’s much much less evident over casual observation. IMO, again.

4) Is it possible to get some sparkle in a royal-blue sapphire? Does that require having it cut in a particular way?

Regarding the sparkle - yes it’s a cut issue (a window/too shallow/too deep) but it’s also the material. It’s too dark, or it’s got extinction issues, even with a decent cut. Some people prefer scintillation (clear crystal very few tiny inclusions) in sapphire over a ‘glow’ in the material that can/does reduce scintillation because it’s many dispersed tiny inclusions. Sometimes all the time - sometimes depends on type of light source and orientation.