Oh wow, I had no Idea you could cast around sapphire, that opens up a huge amount of opportunities a lot of organic forms and shapes I wouldn't even try to set stones into if I have to do it by hand. Thanks for the tip about rubies sad that it's the signature red ruby you have to watch out for, since that's what I would probably first look to rubies for.
Guess I will add it to the list of things to look out for when I buy. Honestly I have noticed that there are a lot of odd somewhat underhanded tactics in the gem marketplace. Repairs on gems not being noted and false or misleading labeling on certain types of stones. People calling Moissanite "Lab grown diamonds" or selling irradiated topaz as natural blue topaz. mostly online, wish I could get to the gem and rock expo and deal with some people face to face since that basically eliminates all of the risk on those sorts of things. Sadly though the insane over reaction to covid has shut it down repeatedly so I'm stuck on ebay buying blind since my state has gone full on Soviet totalitarian on us. Completely halted my gem buying habit to be honest, which long run may be good because I have a fair stash of stuff that I am now starting to re-approach with projects in mind.
There are a lot of liars on eBay! That's why I put in my own optics lab, so I could verify the stones were accurate.
If you don't buy from china, you have a better chance of getting good gemstones. More likely, the lions share of listings from china, are lies....
The most reliable Gemstone sources on eBay, are from Thailand.
Mho Hardness test sets are not expensive, and a good scale should be under $30. The scale will let you calculate the specific gravity of the stone. with hardness and specific gravity, you can identify a lot of stones.
Casting in place is a good option, and your clay is fine enough to do it!
Keep on casting...and posting of course.
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Yeah a high precision scale and a good quality jewelers loop was my first purchase after I started buying online. Will look into the hardness testing kit, been using my diamond tester since I can get a general idea of hardness but since it’s mostly a threshold test of hardness and hard to calibrate for softer stones it’s definitely a little hit or miss.
If you make a wire hangman with as small horizontal loop to put the gemstone into, you can use a small cup of water to immerse the stone in the loop. The difference in weight will allow you to calculate the specific gravity.
Make a mark on the rope part, and immerse the fixture in the water, to set your tare value. This removes the weight change of the support wire, to give you a better calculated number.
The mho tester set will help. A refractometer reading of refractive index, is the other number that really narrows it down.
A loupe is a good tool that will give you a lot of information about the stone. Lab created stones are perfect, so they show up with a loupe. I want to see some inclusions, before I buy! Even a bubble can prove it's natural....
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This is such an excellent tip! I have a big piece of bright orange gemstone that I am fairly certain is spessartite and this may be the trick I need to make that conclusive! Thanks again!
Specific gravity is a good indicator, make sure no bubbles are left on the stone. Visual inspection is acceptable, because bubbles will mess up your calculations.
Do you have any other test equipment?
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just a diamond hardness tester and a jewelers loupe, nothing really fancy since a lot of the real fancy tools are so pricey.
Do you have a scale that measures grams or carats? They are about $25, and good for other things. They can allow you to get to measure specific gravity. The first gem💎💎 microscope I got was a kids unit from a garage sale, and it worked fine.
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