Natural and Untreated Gemstones

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Sacha

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Joined
Jun 24, 2008
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Many of us have been rather dismayed by recent revelations of undisclosed treatments to different gemstones.....on here and elsewhere. So.......what untreated / untampered with gemstones are there
that we may prefer to add to our collections?

At the moment Scott is presenting the first Goshenite hour, which he says is a pure white stone
in the Beryl family....also goes under the name of Fire Beryl on GemsTV.

So I'll start off the list with GOSHENITE (named after the mine in Goshen, Massachusetts)
and now from the Minas Gerais area in Brazil.

I do hope you all will add to the list and perhaps give us a little info/feedback on the merits
of each gemstone. Thanks....
 
ZULTANITE is a completely natural gem. A rare gem with a colour change in incandescent light, going from green/brown to champagne/peach.
 
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Sacha

Do you mean completely natural and even unheated? Some gemstones for example, Tanzanite, Citrine etc., have to be heated to get their colour. Others improve greatly with colour and whilst it's a treatment per se, it's (IMVHO) a less unnatural treatment if that makes sense!
 
Hi Meesh, yes - completely untreated, just cut and polished.
Thank you for your response Greenie, hadn't thought of Zultanite.
 
Garnet
Iolite
Peridot
Clinohumite
Diopside (I think)
Jasper
Agate
Kyanite
Moldavite
Opals (some)
Prehnite
Scapolite (some colours - not all)
Tourmaline (some - not all)
Sphene
Spinel (be careful buying this one because there are lots of synthetics about for example on Ebay).
Pezzottaite (I think)
Quartz (some not all eg Citrine, Amethyst, Ametrine etc)
Chrysoberyl (some not all)
Alexandrite
Aquamarine (but can also be heated)

A caveat to the above is that new treatments are being applied and whilst you would expect those listed above to be totally natural, there are exceptions that may be treated or may not i.e. Alexandrite.

Of course you CAN buy Rubies and Sapphires that are totally natural but you will pay more.
 
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With thanks......

Very many thanks Meesh for taking the time to compose the above list of natural gemstones. :mysmilie_687:

I was delighted to see one of my favourites at the top of the list......the Garnet. Have been trying
o build up a collection of inexpensive Garnet pieces from different sources and of differing colours.....
a very versatile stone imho!

Have thought of another one as well........MARCASITE. No description needed here I think!
 
I was going to say Garnet as they are always natural. I believe Amblygonite is another, also Andalusite, Adventurine, Russian Diopside, Moonstone and Petalite.
 
Bumped up......

I just recalled from way back this thread on untreated gemstones......how the time flies! Talking of treatments on another forum reminded me that we have a ready made list of natural gemstones. Many thanks to the original contributors and anyone please feel free to contribute if you have any comments at all.
 
Hi Meesho,
always good to have a post from you.Can you give me your advice.
I am very tempted by TJC's Colombian emeralds,however I have an assumption that emeralds get a lot of treatment in the way of filling and oiling,also need oiling from time to time.
Quite honestly if this is the case I am loathe to spend my hard earned cash on this expensive gemstone however pretty.
 
I used to live in West Africa and bought quite a few pieces of carved malachite, so I think that must be untreated. Thanks for this thread, think I'll note all the stones down and keep for future reference.
 
Hi Meesh
Thanks for that info it really helped I guess it confirmed what I suspected,so I probably won't be buying Colombian Emeralds from TJC.
If I buy a cheap piece of jewellery I don't worry about treatments but emeralds are expensive and I would want to know exactly what had been done to it and I believe that information to be difficult to obtain from a shopping channel.
Suppose I'll have to wait for a wealthy Colombian drug dealer to take a fancy to me.
YES there are some desperate people out there.
 
Hi Meesh
Thanks for that info it really helped I guess it confirmed what I suspected,so I probably won't be buying Colombian Emeralds from TJC.
If I buy a cheap piece of jewellery I don't worry about treatments but emeralds are expensive and I would want to know exactly what had been done to it and I believe that information to be difficult to obtain from a shopping channel.
Suppose I'll have to wait for a wealthy Colombian drug dealer to take a fancy to me.
YES there are some desperate people out there.
NannieA I don't understand why you are completely writing off buying an emerald from TJC (or any other channel) just on the basis of one post in the TJC forum?? I have recently purchased a Colombian emerald and have asked TJC to tell me what treatment(s) it may have had. Oiling I can accept as this is commonly used and as emeralds are brittle it can protect the stone from cracking, however if my gem has been filled it will be returned. Why don't you buy the emerald that you want and ask your questions to the relevant person, you can always return it if you don't like the answer you receive. Then you can go to Graff and buy a natural untreated emerald for many £1000s. All this paranoia regarding treatments is getting tedious imho.
 
NannieA I don't understand why you are completely writing off buying an emerald from TJC (or any other channel) just on the basis of one post in the TJC forum?? I have recently purchased a Colombian emerald and have asked TJC to tell me what treatment(s) it may have had. Oiling I can accept as this is commonly used and as emeralds are brittle it can protect the stone from cracking, however if my gem has been filled it will be returned. Why don't you buy the emerald that you want and ask your questions to the relevant person, you can always return it if you don't like the answer you receive. Then you can go to Graff and buy a natural untreated emerald for many £1000s. All this paranoia regarding treatments is getting tedious imho.

I would agree with Sue about treatments to Emeralds and actually finding an untreated Emerald is like finding the Holy Grail. Oiling is in most Emeralds and has been around for years AND accepted. Filling (to a certain extent) and all the other treatments (depending on their severity) is not. TJC's Emeralds represent brilliant value for money and actually trying to find a similar Emerald elsewhere will be almost impossible (if you compare carat weight, clarity etc).

I don't think however that anybody should be complacent about treatments. It's very sensible to know what you're buying so you know (a) if you've got good value for money and (b) how to care for your gemstone.

It's like everything else in life - find a balance that you're happy with!
 
I would agree with Sue about treatments to Emeralds and actually finding an untreated Emerald is like finding the Holy Grail. Oiling is in most Emeralds and has been around for years AND accepted. Filling (to a certain extent) and all the other treatments (depending on their severity) is not. TJC's Emeralds represent brilliant value for money and actually trying to find a similar Emerald elsewhere will be almost impossible (if you compare carat weight, clarity etc).

I don't think however that anybody should be complacent about treatments. It's very sensible to know what you're buying so you know (a) if you've got good value for money and (b) how to care for your gemstone.

It's like everything else in life - find a balance that you're happy with!

A propos of the 'coated' Pink Diamonds and questions being asked on this forum (thanks to Gemcherub) about the
hitherto unknown and undisclosed treatment of these diamonds......which GemsTV had been selling since the previous summer. As I recall it lead to many queries by forumites about other gemstones pieces they had bought in the past.
Luckily it all seemed to be handled satisfactorily in the end.....but if questions hadn't been asked in the first place.......:eek:
 
A propos of the 'coated' Pink Diamonds and questions being asked on this forum (thanks to Gemcherub) about the
hitherto unknown and undisclosed treatment of these diamonds......which GemsTV had been selling since the previous summer. As I recall it lead to many queries by forumites about other gemstones pieces they had bought in the past.
Luckily it all seemed to be handled satisfactorily in the end.....but if questions hadn't been asked in the first place.......:eek:

Thought my ears were burning :grin:
 
Yes GC, you stirred up a real hornet's nest with that one and thank goodness you did!! :rock:
 
Thanks for all the opinions but I still believe that I prefer to buy a different stone which doesn't need loads of work to make it commercially viable.
Chaque'un a son gout?
 
While we are on treatments,about 10 yrs ago I bought a cabochon emerald,18k,from an antiques fair.
Didn't know much about gems then but now realise there is a crack at the back of the stone.
Any ideas where i could get it "fixed",is it expensive and is it worth it.?
It's a colombian colour and about 8x6mm.
 
While we are on treatments,about 10 yrs ago I bought a cabochon emerald,18k,from an antiques fair.
Didn't know much about gems then but now realise there is a crack at the back of the stone.
Any ideas where i could get it "fixed",is it expensive and is it worth it.?
It's a colombian colour and about 8x6mm.

Hi NannieA

What I would suggest is that you get this checked out to make sure that the crack isn't going to affect the durability of the gem. It could be a number of things (i.e. a previously filled crack that has lost its filler, or the filler has dried out or it could be a new crack from a knock or bang).

It may be possible to have the crack filled which would potentially strengthen the gem and make the crack far less visible. I know of a guy in the US that does it but am not sure if there's anybody in the UK.

Is the cabochon mounted? If so, the other risk you might face, especially if it's a new crack will be in de-mounting.

Best to get it properly checked and then at least you know what you're dealing with.

Good luck!
 

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