Rubies-what a convoluted can of worms!

theboomz said:

Funny I should see this today, I just bought a ruby necklace... rubies are supposed to be natural from Mozambique, of course, I have no way of knowing. It looks great though.

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I got a bite! Where's Briar Rose?? I'll have to pm her...What a beautiful necklace! But why did you say 'of course' Mozambique? Because rubies are found in Montana, N & S Carolina, Wyoming, Thailand, Pakistan, Afghanista, Africa, even Greenland. Mozambique rubies are inferior to Burmese rubies & are considered 'fine red rubies on a beer budget', has a lot to do with the current ban on rubies imported from Burma, which escalated the general price of rubies everywhere, plus they're nearly mined out everywhere oy!!!

Most experts agree that a ruby should have a medium, to medium dark, red color tone. Lighter gems should be classified as pink sapphire, cause of the amount of chromium. But nobody has ever agreed on exactly where the line is to be drawn. I have a gorgeous very light pink pear shaped sapphire someone gave to me I want to have set someday. It fluoresces hot pink also. There's an old joke about questionable stones: "Whether it's a ruby or a pink sapphire depends on whether you're the buyer or the seller." Pink sapphire has considerably less monetary value than rubies (and they're NOT cheap), but I personally don't like the looks of that super-dark pigeon blood color; some of them actually look black. I don't get it, they're both corundum but to each his own, eh? Plus, just the term 'pigeon blood red' grosses me right out.

Get a little UV flashlight (blacklight, I think that's the short UV rays vs long UV rays, NOT a regular LED light), some go for under $5 on eBay; they're really fun to play with! You might like that pendant even more when you see what it actually does!

Yours don't look to be heat treated, or they would be darker red, which actually increases the value, to not be treated I mean. And anyone with a butane torch can heat-treat them in the kitchen; it removes trace elements in the natural fractures. Carefully. On a fire-safe stone. With goggles on. (Never done it but I have forged silver clay jewelry that way.) What a unique setting! Is anything stamped on the back?

I like this - "In ancient India, stories circulated that God created the Ruby and then created men to own it."

I said of course because they are "supposed to be natural from..." because many of the listings say natural, and I doubt it. This is a good company, though.

That's what I meant.

I am not surprised at all that I bought something described as "on a beer budget" heh.
I wonder if I should be buying anything from Africa at all. The labor situation there is probably awful, and I'm responsible for some deaths. But it was shiny.

I love the way this looks, so I'm fine with these rubies, and glad they fit my budget, glad you like it too!

theboomz said:

I said of course because they are "supposed to be natural from..." because many of the listings say natural, and I doubt it. This is a good company, though.

That's what I meant.

I am not surprised at all that I bought something described as "on a beer budget" heh.
I wonder if I should be buying anything from Africa at all. The labor situation there is probably awful, and I'm responsible for some deaths. But it was shiny.

I love the way this looks, so I'm fine with these rubies, and glad they fit my budget, glad you like it too!

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I misunderstood, sorry. But yours look cut from a 'real' crystal to me. I know, I feel guilt about purchasing any gems because of the abominable way workers are treated...trouble is, there's no industry standard to actually define 'natural'. Lab grown crystals can be called natural also since they may contain a molecule of the mineral. If you got a ruby from S Carolina for instance, that would probably be extremely inferior, not even beer quality! But it's still technically corundum with chromium...I wonder if any really good specimens have been found here in the US. Gotta go look it up...

That is a really cool pendant.