✨ Common Gemstone Treatments

Many gemstones undergo treatments to enhance their color, clarity, or overall appearance. These enhancements can make stones more visually appealing or affordable, but they should always be disclosed to consumers. Below are the most widely used treatments:

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🔥 Heat Treatment

One of the most common and permanent treatments.

• Purpose: Alters or enhances color and clarity.

• Examples:

  • Turns brown zircon into colorless or blue.

  • Enhances color in sapphire, ruby, and amethyst.

🎨 Dyeing

Coloring agents are introduced into the stone.

• Purpose: Changes or intensifies color; improves color uniformity.

• Commonly dyed stones: Agate, turquoise, jade, howlite.

🪔 Oiling

A traditional and accepted practice, especially for emeralds.

• Purpose: Fills surface-reaching fractures to improve clarity and color.

• Typical oil: Cedarwood oil (colorless and stable).

• Common stone: Emerald.

☢️ Irradiation

Uses radiation to change a stone’s atomic structure, altering its color.

• Often followed by: Heat treatment.

• Common result: Produces blue topaz from colorless topaz.

🔍 Fracture Filling

Fills cracks or cavities with materials such as glass, resin, or oil.

• Purpose: Improves appearance by increasing transparency or reducing visible flaws.

• Common in: Emeralds, diamonds, and rubies.

🎭 Coating

Applies a thin film to a gemstone's surface.

• Purpose: Alters color, luster, or brilliance.

• Often used on: Topaz and quartz.

• Note: Coatings can wear off over time.

💧 Diffusion Treatment

Chemicals are applied to the surface and then heated to diffuse into the gem.

• Purpose: Enhances or changes color.

• Example: Creating deep blue sapphires or orange "padparadscha" sapphires.

💎 HPHT (High Pressure, High Temperature)

Mimics natural conditions deep within the Earth.

• Used on: Diamonds.

• Purpose: Removes or reduces brown coloration in diamonds, making them appear whiter or more desirable.

⚠️ Disclosure Is Key

Treated gemstones can be just as beautiful as untreated ones, but transparency is essential. Reputable sellers should always disclose any enhancements a gemstone has undergone.

However sometimes the supply chain is fallible - as our nice and good sellers. So intention is also very important and we see other sellers clearly accidentally selling the wrong stones, and this should be kindly understood too. 

We have over the last 25 years made a couple of mistakes, especially when our carvers stones are lost in translation but we endeavour to be transparent on all treatments to stones. 

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