Treasure Hunting

So you’ve been out gem hunting and you’ve found what look like really nice stones. Now what do you do with them? A lot of the depends on you and what type of collector you are. But many people like the idea of having the stones they’ve found cut and set into unique, personalized jewelry. This begs an entirely new question, however. What is gem quality? And what stones are worthy to be made into jewelry?

The second question is a lot easier to answer. If you like the stone and want to make a piece of jewelry from it for yourself, then there’s always a way. In this instance, since you’re the only one you care about pleasing, it’s more about personal taste that actual “gem quality”.

However, if you want to sell your jewelry to others or sell the stones directly to jewelry-makers, then you have to start thinking about gem quality, because that’s what will drive the price for your stone. In general, gem grading is based on four qualities that are also known as the four C’s: color, clarity, cut, and carat. For rough stones, the important things to look at are color, clarity, and carat. The cut will be determined by how you decide to have the stone cut after you make decisions about the other three items.

I believe the first thing you want to focus on for your stone to determine if it is of gem quality is the clarity. Remember, this does not have to apply to the entire stone as the rock is going to be cut. What is important is that the stone has a sizable area of “good” clarity so that it can be cut out of the rest of the rock. When classifying the clarity of a gem, you’re looking for inclusions. How this effects gem quality will be different for each type of stone, but basically an inclusion is anything about the gem that will block the passage of light. This could range from cracks or hollow areas in the gem to the presence of other minerals. In terms of gem quality, fewer inclusions are better.

When discussing clarity, one of the most frequent questions is if a gem is “eye clean” or not. Simply put, a gem is eye clean if it has no inclusions that are visible to the naked eye. For stones with color, this is generally what determines the clarity gem quality. Gems that are not eye clean are generally worth much less, but other factors such as the type and size of the stone come into play here as well.

Trackback URI | Comments RSS