Reviews on Diamonds & Gemstones Superblog: Why I Like Gemstones<P>

Reviews on Diamonds & Gemstones Superblog

Friday, January 30, 2009

Starting The Hobby Of Loose Gemstone Collecting

By Lee MacRae

Many people today say collecting various loose gemstones or loose diamonds is a favorite pastime. They love the colors and the beauty of the various gemstones found worldwide today. This article will examine the things you need to know when starting this gemstone hobby.

The first thing you need to do is to get yourself some books on gemstones. You want to understand as much as you possibly can about precious and semiprecious gemstones. The more you know about the hobby of gemstones the less likely you are to make a mistake. You'll know exactly what to look for in a quality stone.

To start with, an important aspect in gemstone evaluation is color. Without a doubt, gemstones are the most intensely colored natural materials you can find. Gemstones are so related to color that they've even become associated with particular ones. Without a doubt you will recognize sapphire blue, ruby red, jade green, aquamarine, emerald green or turquoise. Gemstones will have a higher value the closer they are to the colors in the spectrum of red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and violet. They drop in value the farther they are from the pure spectral color.

Cut is one of the all-important 4Cs and factors into appraisal of diamonds but along with your gemstones. A good cut showcases the gemstone's color, diminishes its inclusions, and highlight the proportions and symmetry of the stone. One way to determine the precision of the cut is to consider how well it reflects light on a consistent basis throughout the surface of the stone. If the stone is cut on the shallow side most of the light will refract out instead of reflecting internally. Gemstone color will be washed out.

Gemstone clarity is our next factor. Clarity refers to the amount of inclusions (trace elements or large particles of other elements or minerals) that a gem has. The gemstone without flaws is obviously valued highly. To see flaws beyond with the eye can see requires a 10X gemstone clarity magnifier or gem microscope. Many hobbyists will use a jewelers diamond gemstone loupe 10X for viewing stamps, coins, beads as well as gems.

Next on the agenda is the duo of size and weight. Because gemstones can vary greatly in density and specific gravity. Weight and size are not necessarily equal across the board. If you have a diamond that weighs 1.00 carats a ruby of equal size would weigh 1.20 carats. An emerald stone would be about 0.95 carats and an Alexandrite gemstone would be about 1.23 carats.

Taking up the collecting of loose gemstones can be very rewarding hobby. And there are so many different types when it comes to gemstones. You can start collecting gemstones like Emerald, Tanzanite and other varieties of zoisite or Variscite for example. The varieties are nearly endless. And if money is tight you can go hunting for raw gemstones. Take the example of the US. In Missouri you can hunt for Pearl, Fluorite, Pyrite and Calcite.

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The name for the Garnet gemstone is derived from the Latin word for grain because of the rounded crystals. It comes in many colors, except blue. The garnets normally used in jewelry designed by James Avery are generally in the red-violet to red-brown color range. In ancient times, only people of noble birth could wear garnets. Garnets mainly come from the East Coast of Africa. Small deposits are also found in the U.S., Czech Republic and India. It ranks 7 to 7.5 on the Mohs Scale of Hardness and is the birthstone for the month of January.
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Alexandrite's color switches between green to red, brown, or mauve in
incadescent light. Alexandrite is quite durable as its hardness rating is 8.5.
Synthetic alexandrite is very common. Shop carefully to make sure you are
getting what you are paying for. Natural alexandrite is uncommon and hard to
find.
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Brilliance is the amount of light reflected from the crown facets of a facet-cut gemstone. It is a combination of the light reflected back out of the stone and the light reflected directly from the facet surfaces. Two factors critical in achieving maximum brilliance are the angle of the pavilion facets and the degree of polish on the facet surface (lustre). The table facet of a diamonds is cut to various sizes depending on the desire for more brilliance and less fire(dispersion), where a larger table is used. Or more fire and less brillinace, where a smaller table is used. A good balance is obtained by cutting to ideal proportions. The pavilion facet angles are not only critical in determining the amount of brilliance, shallow angles may result in creating a 'window' in the stone; an area of the stone that can be seen through. Deep angles result in dark areas in the stone, termed extinction. Brilliance is lost in both situations.
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Some loose cut gemstones Stories