What is it about spinel?

[SouthernGent]

What is it about spinels that makes them such an attraction for those of you who love them? I am asking out of complete, honest ignorance here.
One thing that initially attracted me to spinels was their hardness and durability for everyday wear.

 

[voce]

For me, it's their brilliance. A good spinel has great crystal and sparkle. Easier to find in spinel than sapphire. And it's not a dichroic stone, so colors appear purer, with less color zoning. Plus they come in so many colors!

 

[chrono]

Comes in a wide variety of colours
Most are untreated (might want reds to be lab verified)
Excellent brilliance and sparkle
Durability
Reasonable pricing
Generally easy to find for purchase

 

[Nick_G]

I'm not aware of any sapphires that reach the saturation and intensity of the best vivid blue cobalt spinels from Luc Yen, Vietnam. That is reason alone to love this gem.

 

[chrono]

I'm not aware of any sapphires that reach the saturation and intensity of the best vivid blue cobalt spinels from Luc Yen, Vietnam. That is reason alone to love this gem.

They are blue sapphires like the well known Jedi spinel. In fact, blue sapphires of that intensity is far more common in sapphire than spinel. These Jedi spinels are very rare and usually sub-carat.

 

[scouty]

@voce Is their brilliance generally superior to sapphire brilliance?

 

[Nick_G]

They are blue sapphires like the well known Jedi spinel. In fact, blue sapphires of that intensity is far more common in sapphire than spinel. These Jedi spinels are very rare and usually sub-carat.

Where can you find 'Windex blue' sapphires? I'm not sure I've seen any with quite the eye-popping blue of those cobalt spinels.

The only other mineral I can think of that comes in blues so vivid is hauyne.

 

[ShinyPink]

The first time I held a precision cut spinel, I was hooked! It shimmered and looked like flowing water, seeming to have movement to it. I look for that quality in spinels now. I just received a beautiful one from Gary and I could "watch" it all day!

 

[scouty]

The first time I held a precision cut spinel, I was hooked! It shimmered and looked like flowing water, seeming to have movement to it. I look for that quality in spinels now. I just received a beautiful one from Gary and I could "watch" it all day!

What spinel did you get from Gary? Pics please!!

 

[Hivona]

The first time I held a precision cut spinel, I was hooked! It shimmered and looked like flowing water, seeming to have movement to it. I look for that quality in spinels now. I just received a beautiful one from Gary and I could "watch" it all day!

Yes please share pictures!

 

[voce]

@voce Is their brilliance generally superior to sapphire brilliance?

Having owned both, I would say yes. You'd need to see a video to appreciate.

 

[chrono]

Where can you find 'Windex blue' sapphires? I'm not sure I've seen any with quite the eye-popping blue of those cobalt spinels.

The only other mineral I can think of that comes in blues so vivid is hauyne.

I wouldn't call them Windex blue because that has an element of green.

https://www.africagems.com/trillion-bluesapph-g2k-3800.html
https://www.africagems.com/sapphire-blue-ja331.html

Older examples

 

[Nick_G]

I wouldn't call them Windex blue because that has an element of green.

https://www.africagems.com/trillion-bluesapph-g2k-3800.html
https://www.africagems.com/sapphire-blue-ja331.html

Older examples

Close yes, but still not quite there. The most vivid blue gem in the first link is heat-treated so presumably wasn't that blue when it came out of the ground. What about the other two pics?

The cobalt spinels from Luc Yen are 100% natural and don't need any heat-treatment.

 

[chrono]

They are also incredibly small IF you can even find any for sale. And the price? Don't even ask. You will probably find 1 for every 100 sapphire. Very few are willing to pay $$$ for such small stones. It is more of a collector's gem.

 

[voce]

https://americangemsocietyblog.org/...oolest-gem-youve-probably-never-heard-of/amp/

https://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/13/arts/13iht-acaj-spinel-jewelry13.html

A couple articles so you can hear others talk about spinel. Being an August baby, I really liked that spinels have been found on meteorites and exist in outer space.

 

[Nick_G]

It's funny with the historical confusion between spinels and rubies. I collect the rough crystals rather than cut gems and even now I see spinel and ruby specimens getting confused with each other on eBay. It's meant I've obtained some pretty nice ruby-in-matrix specimens for cheap prices. I have a few spinel specimens here too, in various colours.

Thanks for the NY Times link btw voce. I hadn't read that one.

 

[ShinyPink]

Well, here you go!

 

[scouty]

@MrsKMB Ohhh!! I saw that in a video on his instagram, looks awesome!

 

[alene]

Mrs MKB, I’m so glad you got it! I was so tempted, but figured I should focus on setting the spinel from Gary I already have. I was both sad and relieved when it was gone and was really hoping it went to PSer. Please please post more photos!

Beside the sparkle and durability, I really love the color shift in spinel. Mine almost looks like two (if not more) different stones depending on the lighting.

Well, here you go!

 

[leslie1956]

Well, here you go!

That is stunning, @MrsKMB! A grey spinel is on my gemstone wishlist

 

[AV_]

@Nick_G Digressing to crystals: I remember seeing dog tooth type pink sapphire with spinel core - or so the claim went; wish I got one just for the irony!

 

[lilmosun]

Comes in a wide variety of colours
Most are untreated (might want reds to be lab verified)
Excellent brilliance and sparkle
Durability
Reasonable pricing
Generally easy to find for purchase

This plus they I love that they aren't something you typically see on others. While I wish they had named it as a birthstone for my birth month, I'm happy to share my love of spinels with my mom who was born in August.

 

[Nick_G]

@Nick_G Digressing to crystals: I remember seeing dog tooth type pink sapphire with spinel core - or so the claim went; wish I got one just for the irony!

Yes a similar specimen here:

http://www.corunduminium.com/images/Namocta_3.JPG

The whole octahedral face has been replaced by lilac and deep pink corundum.

 

[Lisa Loves Shiny]

Everything Chrono said. They are beautiful stones and the larger sizes with great color were very affordable when I first started collecting them.

 

[T L]

Comes in a wide variety of colours
Most are untreated (might want reds to be lab verified)
Excellent brilliance and sparkle
Durability
Reasonable pricing
Generally easy to find for purchase

All of the above, and I have to include the beautiful luster. It’s an underrated, but important aspect to the overall beauty of a stone.

 

[voce]

While browsing, I came across this description of spinel. It's very well written.

https://yavorskyy.com/collections/spinel

Scroll all the way down to the bottom of page to read it.

 

[chatoyancy]

I love silver and gray spinels, though I have others. They sparkle and don’t look like any other gems to me.

 

[Mrs_Strizzle]

I've always been in complete love with Spinels. Here's some of my favorites of mine, all taken in low light.

 

[dk168]

Range of colours, durability, sparkles and affordability (with exceptions, of course).

Apart from the lust to have a glowy raspberry red spinel one day, I also like greys.

DK

DK

 

[voce]

@dk168 I guess you would want a larger raspberry red spinel?

I came across this while browsing on Etsy, and it's very affordable, but I don't know what I'd do with it. It was described by the vendor as cranberry, so I thought I would share it.

https://www.etsy.com/listing/289122...rry-color?ref=shop_home_active_23&pro=1&frs=1