My friend Florian le Goff stumbled upon some very convincing and interesting garnet simulant in Tanzania. The simulant rough had been tumbled in order to look like your typical alluvial rough. I know at least one person who got scammed this way, so be careful!
Florian did some gemological testings: All credits: Florian le Goff.
These "Malaya garnets rough" turned out to be nanosital. Photo credit: Julien Sellier
Did he spot it in the field, or was this figured out after purchasing? Impressive work--it's amazing how devious people in the trade can be when they put their minds to it.
Joined: Sun Oct 16, 2005 12:22 pm Posts: 21602 Location: San Francisco
For anyone unfamiliar with the term nanosital:
steinfroilein wrote:
Nanogem / Nanocrystal is suitable for faceting if you have experience with glass; It is a glass-ceramic including Al2O3, MgO, TiO2, SiO2 Hardness 6,5-7 Density 3–3.3 gram/cm³ RI 1,61-1,65 Dispersion 0,012-0,02 Fire resitant max. 900 °C - stable in wax casting Melting temperature 1500-1750°C Crystallographic structure equal to that of Spinel Homogeneous hue throughout each single stone in green, black, blue, gray blue, yellow, orange, peridot, garnet, purple to pink
When they say "crystallographic structure equal to that of spinel" I think they mean "is singly refractive" and are just saying it in a way that is wrong. Structurally my guess is that it's just glass given the somewhat vague and contradictory stuff they say about it.
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