Do you know what corundum is? In the popular masses, this stone was called sapphire or ruby. Such a division depends on its characteristics. If you see a colorless or some other stone (excluding red shades), then this is a typical color of sapphires. The cost of sapphires often depends on the cut: the more faces a crystal has, the more expensive it is.
Rubies have dark red shades, contain chrome in their composition. The listed stones are often found in jewelry. The color of sapphires can have reddish or pinkish shades, such a stone is called pink sapphires. It will be easy for the average user to confuse such sapphires with rubies, the color transition is negligible. Almost transparent unpainted sapphires are called leucosapphires. The condition for their sale is the obligatory availability of a trade license.
The main features of leucosapphire:
- The stone has in its composition only two elements - oxygen and aluminum.
- There is a great resemblance to diamond.
- Strong shine is observed, but sapphire is not able to play in the light.
The most eye-catching property of sapphire is the ability to play. The process is the ability of sapphire to crush light into sparks. Light, like a fan, emanates from the core of the stone itself and swings open around it. In jewelry, the shade of the stone and the brightness of its color are always appreciated.
Color classification of sapphires:
- The color of the sapphire stone may be blue. During the experiments, it was found that the stone contains titanium. It gives the stone a bluish tint.
- The color of sapphires may have yellowish hues. Iron oxide is able to give yellow stone.
- Many other options relate to multi-color sapphires.
Stone reaction in different conditions
During heating, the stone has the property of lightening. If sapphire had a pale color, then after heating it will turn pale completely. Violet saturated colors will smoothly turn into pinkish.
If you subject sapphire to X-ray, the degree of color intensity will increase, the color will become deep. What color are sapphires? In a word, it is impossible to answer such a question. Corundums of yellow, green, orange, pink shades are also referred to as sapphires.
Opaque sapphires are very common in nature. The color of sapphires can vary from blue to gray-blue and ultimately to gray-yellow. It is these stones that are most often found in nature. The process of introducing granite magma into crystalline limestones is able to produce corundums. The mentioned deposits are called skarn. When mining stone, uneven coloring is often found, this factor affects the price in the direction of its decrease.
The cost of sapphires is held in line with diamonds. An interesting fact is that until the 19th century, all blue stones were called sapphires. The most vibrant and colored corundums are now considered to be stones with sky blue shades (they are called Burmese or Ceylon). Less popular is the green shade of the stone (also called Australian or Kenyan). At the peak of popularity and value are blue sapphires.