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 Post subject: Synthetic red stuff
PostPosted: Fri Oct 28, 2005 4:28 am 
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I've seen this stuff set in sterling jewelry and it comes in very large sizes, the biggest I've seen being a square cut stone 30x30mm. Various sellers have called it red CZ, red quartz and synthetic garnet. It's a deep red with an orangy, browny tinge, looks doubly refractive to the naked eye, no pleocroism that I can tell, cuts nicely with very crisp facet edges and super high polish and is heavy for it's size. The weight alone makes me think it's CZ.

Thanks in advance for any info.


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PostPosted: Fri Oct 28, 2005 10:19 am 
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color sounds like garnet.. you did say no plechroism(sp).. heres a large synthetic on ebay 5044718389 .. cz would bounce back, reflect, alot of light and be glitzier than garnet... dave


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PostPosted: Fri Oct 28, 2005 12:43 pm 
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That's the very one!

I just got one from that seller yesterday. When I bid on it, I wasn't sure what it was, just that it was large and pretty looking. The cut on the square stone is really precise. I have another one (round) that I got last year that was sold as red CZ. 'Dark and rich' would describe this stuff rather than glitzy. It looks fabulous in sterling silver.

This seller also has something they're calling padparadscha sapphire that I think is the same stuff. I got a round one last month. It's not cut as well as the square. It looks the same as the garnet but is a few shades lighter in color. A very pretty red orange but a lot darker than I would expect of a pad. Would a synthetic sapphire of this color have pleochroism?


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PostPosted: Sat Oct 29, 2005 12:10 am 
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when observed from all directions with a dichroscope sapphires will show two colors.. ...you may not be able to see the two colors with the naked eye.. dave..


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PostPosted: Sun Oct 30, 2005 2:26 am 
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I need to get my hands on one of those.

I don;t even know what in the heck I was doing when I discovered something quite by accident about the corundum group: When I hold a sapphire or ruby up in front of the screen of my laptop and rotate it 45 degrees I see an obvious color change. Rubies are almost purplish in one direction and red orange in another. Alex sapphire goes from greenish grey to purplish blue. My blue sapphire goes from darker blue to a bluish green. The change is much fainter in yellow or pink sapphire. It seems to be that the darker the stone the more obvious the change. My 'padparadscha' does nuffin' and it's a pretty dark stone which makes me think it's not corundum. The real test will be to get a dichroscope. It will be very interesting to see if the two colors I see in various stones match up with what my screen reveals.

Pretty bizarre, isn't it?


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PostPosted: Sun Oct 30, 2005 10:17 am 
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along with your dichroscope and loop and chelsie filter, id get a good book.. for starters i recomend handbook of gem identification by liddicoat from gia. for instance it lists rubys plechroism as purpleish red/ orangish red.. blue corrundum liddicoat says changes from dark violet blue to light greenish blue, yellow corrundum is yellow and light yellow.. looks like your pretty good at using your computer as a dichroscope,, dave


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PostPosted: Sun Dec 11, 2005 3:10 am 
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The quickest and easiest way to get you in the ballpark for identifying it would be to do an actual direct specific gravity test.

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