Questions about emeralds...

[obx_marina]

I have always been hesitant of purchasing an emerald due to its softness. I found one that I would love to wear in an 'everyday' ring (while typing, but removed for anything more intensive such as cleaning, etc.). The setting would place the emerald in a faux bezel for added protection.

I recognize there is an inherent risk to wearing an emerald frequently so I have some questions:

1) Exactly how fragile are they?
2) In an everyday ring, would I need to remove it before washing my hands? That might be a dealbreaker for me.
3) How often do they need to be re-oiled, and how difficult is it to find someone to do this?

Thanks in advance.

 

[PrecisionGem]

I have always been hesitant of purchasing an emerald due to its softness. I found one that I would love to wear in an 'everyday' ring (while typing, but removed for anything more intensive such as cleaning, etc.). The setting would place the emerald in a faux bezel for added protection.

I recognize there is an inherent risk to wearing an emerald frequently so I have some questions:

1) Exactly how fragile are they?
2) In an everyday ring, would I need to remove it before washing my hands? That might be a dealbreaker for me.
3) How often do they need to be re-oiled, and how difficult is it to find someone to do this?

Thanks in advance.

1. Actually emeralds are pretty hard stones. They have a hardness of 7.5 to 8. So there isn't much that will scratch it. Not a nail, knife, glass etc. Emeralds are considered by some to be fragile, as they are sometimes very heavily included. So bang against something may cause the stone be break along an inclusion line. If the stone is not heavily include, an emerald is no more fragile than Aquamarine or Helidore. All 3 are beryl, just different colors.

2. No need to remove it when washing your hands. Soap and hand lotion will build up in the setting just like any other stone or diamond ring.

3. Not very often if it's oiled, after many years. Often emeralds are treated with other thing instead of oil that are more permanent such as Opticon or the ExCel process. Some jewelers, usually privately owned shops that specialize in colored stones can do this. Or the stone could be sent out. Just dipping the stone in oil doesn't do the trick, done properly it's done with pressure that forces the oil into surface reaching inclusions.

 

[Garry H (Cut Nut)]

I have always been hesitant of purchasing an emerald due to its softness. I found one that I would love to wear in an 'everyday' ring (while typing, but removed for anything more intensive such as cleaning, etc.). The setting would place the emerald in a faux bezel for added protection.

I recognize there is an inherent risk to wearing an emerald frequently so I have some questions:

1) Exactly how fragile are they?
2) In an everyday ring, would I need to remove it before washing my hands? That might be a dealbreaker for me.
3) How often do they need to be re-oiled, and how difficult is it to find someone to do this?

Thanks in advance.

1. they are the same stuff as aquamarine and I have rarely seen a broken aqua in 45 years of trinket flogging. But emeralds are inherently full of cracks - so a clean emerald is quite tough. I have seen 3 tough ones in my life and most are pale and wishy washy (except the 9ct one being picked up in 2 hours)
2. hot water and detergent are only a problem regarding leaching out fillers like oil
3. You can get a bottle of cedar wood oil easily - pour some into the cap, put it in a warm to not too hot place, window in sun, top of a hot kettle etc and stand the ring in upside down in the oil for hours. Clean off with tissue and give a gentle tooth brush scrub with warm water and detergent to get the outer layer off - it has a strong odour.

 

[obx_marina]

1. Actually emeralds are pretty hard stones. They have a hardness of 7.5 to 8. So there isn't much that will scratch it. Not a nail, knife, glass etc. Emeralds are considered by some to be fragile, as they are sometimes very heavily included. So bang against something may cause the stone be break along an inclusion line. If the stone is not heavily include, an emerald is no more fragile than Aquamarine or Helidore. All 3 are beryl, just different colors.

2. No need to remove it when washing your hands. Soap and hand lotion will build up in the setting just like any other stone or diamond ring.

3. Not very often if it's oiled, after many years. Often emeralds are treated with other thing instead of oil that are more permanent such as Opticon or the ExCel process. Some jewelers, usually privately owned shops that specialize in colored stones can do this. Or the stone could be sent out. Just dipping the stone in oil doesn't do the trick, done properly it's done with pressure that forces the oil into surface reaching inclusions.

1. they are the same stuff as aquamarine and I have rarely seen a broken aqua in 45 years of trinket flogging. But emeralds are inherently full of cracks - so a clean emerald is quite tough. I have seen 3 tough ones in my life and most are pale and wishy washy (except the 9ct one being picked up in 2 hours)
2. hot water and detergent are only a problem regarding leaching out fillers like oil
3. You can get a bottle of cedar wood oil easily - pour some into the cap, put it in a warm to not too hot place, window in sun, top of a hot kettle etc and stand the ring in upside down in the oil for hours. Clean off with tissue and give a gentle tooth brush scrub with warm water and detergent to get the outer layer off - it has a strong odour.

Thank you both for the helpful info - really appreciate it!! I feel much more confident now about potentially purchasing an emerald...

 

[Neptune]

Emerald Re-oiling Advice Please

Last week, in a consignment store, we found an emerald in a beautiful diamond setting. Apparently the piece was originally designed to hang from a diamond necklace, but could be detached and worn as a broach. My wife intends to add a bale and wear it as a pendant. The diamonds and platinum...

www.pricescope.com

 

[Bron357]

If the emerald is fully bezel set then its unlikely to come to any harm during day to day activities.
I wouldn’t wear an emerald swimming (pool or sea) or in a hot spa. I also wouldn’t wear an emerald gardening or doing household activities.
An emerald won’t scratch with normal wear what you have to watch out for is “impacts” for eg bumping the ring putting or pulling your hand out of drawers. So I wear my emerald ring on my left hand because I’m right handed.

 

[Bravissimo]

Why are most emeralds full of cracks but aquas arent?

 

[Garry H (Cut Nut)]

Why are most emeralds full of cracks but aquas arent?

Excellent question.
Hope someone can answer. But rubies are the same stuff as sapphire (corundum) and have more inclusions than sapphire - ruby and emerald are colored by traces of chrome - so that may be a factor.

 

[Garry H (Cut Nut)]

Why are most emeralds full of cracks but aquas arent?

I put your question to my retired metallurgist gemmologist friend. Hope you understand the explanation better than I do
I remember somewhere back in the dim dark past hearing an explanation of exactly this query. As I remember it, the reason was along the lines that the components of beryl are generally not soluble to anywhere near the same extent in the geological fluids under the geological conditions (pegmatites, metasomatism etc) that also make chromic compounds (like the ubiquitous chromite, so often found for instance as a black opaque spinel-group inclusion in especially Brazilian emeralds, providing the source of the green colour, but also in those emeralds from other locations) so that the (I think more-acidic, lower-pH, ?) environment necessary to provide fluid-soluble chromic (or vanadium3 for that matter, which is also known to be a contributory green chromophore to many emeralds) is not compatible with easy growth conditions of beryl (such as generates the more relatively "pure" aquas/heliodors with only their minute traces of iron, or of manganese (morganites). The Cr3/V3 'contaminated' beryls are then structurally stressed (exact reason uncertain, excessive rates of growth & uneven lattice strains?) causing fracturing & stress relief during growth but which then spontaneously at-least-partially reheal, leading to the observed veils & feathers & "fingerprints" etc. Such emeralds contain generally many more inclusions ("jardin") & cavities (entrapping portions of original growth fluid etc) as well as assorted inclusions of other foreign junk (eg limonitic or goethitic debris & other stuff), which is so characteristic of many emeralds.



As far as Cr being the common factor for fracturing, & Cr3 has an ionic radius of 78pm & it usually replaces the other trivalent cation in minerals (like corundum or beryl or chrysoberyl etc), of aluminium3 of ionic radius 67.5 pm (ie picometres, or millionth-millionth metres, 10-12 m), iron2 (ferrous, as in aquas) radius 75 pm, manganese3 of 72 pm (as in bixbite) or Mn2 (morganite)at 81 pm, or even V3 at 78 pm. The size variations between the different substitutional chromophores (of low-spin configuration?) is relatively small and their variations are rather considerably less than their difference between the replaced primary trivalent host ion of Al3 at 67.5 pm, so that it would seem that it is unlikely to be specifically the size of only the chromic in the beryl lattice whilst replacing the aluminium causing the stressing leading to fracture & rehealing etc, but not in aquas, since if chromic caused the problem, then iron could also be expected to do the same (in aquas) as also manganese (morganites), but which is not generally observed.



Anyway, not sure whether I remembered the story correctly, so it's only worth what is paid for it!!! )>

Best, Grant Pearson



Ionic radius - Wikipedia

 

[MollyMalone]

My engagement ring, @obx_marina , was a Victorian, rosy-peach gold ring with 2 emeralds & mine-cut and rose-cut diamond accent stones. At the time of my divorce, it was ~135 years' old; the emeralds -- which were prong-set, not bezeled -- had just a couple of teensy "flea bite" nicks (I'd worn it daily and was guilty of not babying it, apart from not wearing it at the gym or when sailing, camping or doing heavier housework).

If you decide to purchase an emerald ring, I hope you love it as much as mine delighted me -- and that you will share pics with us!

 

[PrecisionGem]

Why are most emeralds full of cracks but aquas arent?

I think some of it has to do with scarcity. There are plenty of Aquamarine rough that is full of inclusions, but there is also clean material, enough to provide material to cut clean aqua in quantities to satisfy the market. There are clean emeralds, but not many, so more included material is cut to provide stones for the market.

 

[VividRed]

I think some of it has to do with scarcity. There are plenty of Aquamarine rough that is full of inclusions, but there is also clean material, enough to provide material to cut clean aqua in quantities to satisfy the market. There are clean emeralds, but not many, so more included material is cut to provide stones for the market.

I read somewhere that it has to do with the way chromium adds stress to the crystal structure of beryl, same as chromium in corundum (ruby)

 

[Bravissimo]

I put your question to my retired metallurgist gemmologist friend. Hope you understand the explanation better than I do
I remember somewhere back in the dim dark past hearing an explanation of exactly this query. As I remember it, the reason was along the lines that the components of beryl are generally not soluble to anywhere near the same extent in the geological fluids under the geological conditions (pegmatites, metasomatism etc) that also make chromic compounds (like the ubiquitous chromite, so often found for instance as a black opaque spinel-group inclusion in especially Brazilian emeralds, providing the source of the green colour, but also in those emeralds from other locations) so that the (I think more-acidic, lower-pH, ?) environment necessary to provide fluid-soluble chromic (or vanadium3 for that matter, which is also known to be a contributory green chromophore to many emeralds) is not compatible with easy growth conditions of beryl (such as generates the more relatively "pure" aquas/heliodors with only their minute traces of iron, or of manganese (morganites). The Cr3/V3 'contaminated' beryls are then structurally stressed (exact reason uncertain, excessive rates of growth & uneven lattice strains?) causing fracturing & stress relief during growth but which then spontaneously at-least-partially reheal, leading to the observed veils & feathers & "fingerprints" etc. Such emeralds contain generally many more inclusions ("jardin") & cavities (entrapping portions of original growth fluid etc) as well as assorted inclusions of other foreign junk (eg limonitic or goethitic debris & other stuff), which is so characteristic of many emeralds.



As far as Cr being the common factor for fracturing, & Cr3 has an ionic radius of 78pm & it usually replaces the other trivalent cation in minerals (like corundum or beryl or chrysoberyl etc), of aluminium3 of ionic radius 67.5 pm (ie picometres, or millionth-millionth metres, 10-12 m), iron2 (ferrous, as in aquas) radius 75 pm, manganese3 of 72 pm (as in bixbite) or Mn2 (morganite)at 81 pm, or even V3 at 78 pm. The size variations between the different substitutional chromophores (of low-spin configuration?) is relatively small and their variations are rather considerably less than their difference between the replaced primary trivalent host ion of Al3 at 67.5 pm, so that it would seem that it is unlikely to be specifically the size of only the chromic in the beryl lattice whilst replacing the aluminium causing the stressing leading to fracture & rehealing etc, but not in aquas, since if chromic caused the problem, then iron could also be expected to do the same (in aquas) as also manganese (morganites), but which is not generally observed.



Anyway, not sure whether I remembered the story correctly, so it's only worth what is paid for it!!! )>

Best, Grant Pearson



Ionic radius - Wikipedia

Wow! Thank you! I have some science background so I got some of it. Chemistry is so . The conditions that make these jewels are so interesting!!!

 

[Bravissimo]

I think some of it has to do with scarcity. There are plenty of Aquamarine rough that is full of inclusions, but there is also clean material, enough to provide material to cut clean aqua in quantities to satisfy the market. There are clean emeralds, but not many, so more included material is cut to provide stones for the market.

Also plausible. Especially considering prices.

 

[T L]

Aquamarine and other beryl is a stone that can easily chip if you bang it. However, what gives emerald less durability are the myriad of cracks and surface reaching inclusions. If these are resin or oil filled, the cracks can become more obvious or get larger if you hit them the wrong way, or use a harsh cleaner/cleaning solution.

The cleaner and less treated an emerald is, the more durable it will be, but I don’t consider beryl to be a particularly durable stone in my experience. I consider garnets more durable even though they’re around the same hardness.