Jewelry

[yat]

Has anyone noticed that Effy sapphires say "Diffused" on the tag? I looked it up on the IGA site and they are worthless pink or clear sapphires that are chemically dyed. Doesn't that mean they are still worthless stones? They can't be polished because the blue will come off and if you chip it you'll be able to see the real stone underneath the blue "skin". The ones at Macy's say "Manufactured Diffused" on the tag. How can they sell for thousands? If anyone has looked into this, please share. Also, I have heard the emerald market is being flooded with stones that are made up of small pieces of dyed, poor quality emeralds held together with polymers. Anyone?

[serenity4ever]

There are many fine jewelry stores that refuse to sell diffused sapphires. I think they are obviously strange looking...bright and almost iridescent. Buyer beware..

[NJgirl 1205]

OMG That sounds like fraud!

[Jersey Born]

Yat, I think you should page our resident expert, Sammycat, for an answer. It doesn't sound to me like this material is worth the purchase. Certainly not for thousands of dollars

[Sammycat1]

On 2/26/2014 Jersey Born said:

Yat, I think you should page our resident expert, Sammycat, for an answer. It doesn't sound to me like this material is worth the purchase. Certainly not for thousands of dollars

The overwhelming majority of sapphires in the market are heat treated...greater than 99%. Diffusion is a combination of heat plus a chemical applied while the stone is under the heat treatment to bring color up further. It does not go through-and-through the stone.

There was some controversy about this several years ago regarding the highly prized padparadscha sapphires.

Here are some good, credible articles through the Gemological Institute of America about the process, including when it's done on synthetic stones with photos. There's another link from Berkeley that is shorter but has interesting links showing how you can tell what the diffusion process does and whether it's been performed on a particular stone.

When you go to these pages, you may have to download a PDF of the article in its complete form or scroll down the page to get to the pertinent area:

http://www.gia.edu/doi/10_5741-GEMS_26_2_115

http://www.gia.edu/gia-news-research-Sapphire-Series-Treated-Synthetics

http://www.giathai.net/pdf/Beryllium_diffused_blue_sapphires_at_June_26th_2009.pdf

http://nature.berkeley.edu/classes/eps2/wisc/Lect8.html