Hey Peter, thanks for keeping us in the Loupe. I have some antique Amethyst which is chipped, included and beyond rescue, but I’ve kept it because it’s got a beautiful purple colour changing properties. I’ve never understood why manufactured Quartz is used to impersonate gemstone as it’s quite abundant in nature. People don’t favour included stones, but for me, inclusions give the stone its own character. Great to see your looking well. Rog. 😀👍
Cheers Rog~ I've never seen hydro amethyst (synthetic) that I thought beat out top natural fine amethyst. Medium to low? ok fine. In my mind... There is something about fine natural stones that visually calls out, and I don't have a scientific way to explain it, nor can I guarantee that I pick them right every time. And yes I agree with you - there are plenty of included natural amethyst that are still captivating beyond what a flawless hydrothermal can be. Again... I can't back it up with science and standards - totally an unabashed feeling.
@@GemologyforSchmucks The last gem I cut is amethyst with almost all possible inclusions and it goes straight to my collection ..... Peter thanks for again nice video.
Thanks JS - we're all continuing to learn about gemology along the way. I may have studied gemology formally, but I learn tons about the stones themselves each time I cut them.
Hey Peter, thank you for your fantastic content, I am a jewelry teacher here in France and although I have been working with a gemmologist for the past 12 years, there are some concepts that I never managed to grasp... until you explained it . I love the way you tackle these subjects and how accessible and understandable you make them. On top of that, your content helped me explain to my students how stones are valued/priced in a very simple way. So thank you because your content make me a better teacher !
How common is synthetic quartz? Being so common, is it more prevalent in larger cut gemstones? I cant believe it would be a good return on investment to make a bunch of lab created sub 5c amethysts etc.
Synthetic quartz is now hyper common, and i'd say the real advantage for synthetic quartz as a buyer is that you have more selection for evenly coloured stones. If you're trying to make a perfectly matched suite of amethyst or ametrine jewelry etc, its much easier to do that with manufactured material than it is with natural. So yes, large sizes are common, but also small in highly calibrated sizes because it makes production lines of inexpensive jewelry much easier. Not my schtick, i'll say, but I understand the function for folk who want to buy pretty trinkets for trinket prices.
Ok, so I have a clean-ish rainbow moon cab that shows a bullseye... but no lines at the edges at all. Why is this? I doubt it's quartz as it glows the same red under shortwave light as my other moonstones, and microscope doesn't show any signs of a doublet...
Hi there~ Without seeing the stone you're describing in person to test, I can't say where the problem might be. What I *can* say is that sometimes optic signs in the polariscope can trick our eyes. Moonstones and other gem quality feldspars (orthoclase, or labradorite in the case of "rainbow moonstone") have a bi-axial optic character. The optic sign you should see when using the conoscope would be more like a bow-tie due to having more optic axes than the uniaxial stones such as quartz. As far as i've seen, heard and read, only quartz displays the bull's eye effect. If it does not have a bow-tie sign, then that would be an indicator that the stone may not be what you believe it is, or there is an error in how we are testing the stone. I hope that helps rather than confuses.
Hi there~ i'd be curious to hear where you have heard this and which institution is able to support the claim. I've been looking around and i'm not finding any articles promoting, supporting or defending the idea.
A fantastic question. In some stones with stronger pleochroism (directional colour), such as tourmalines or even emerald and ruby~ that is a much more important question because it directly impacts the colour of the final stone (and therefore the price per carat).
So..... today, i have been playing around with the coneoscope/quartz and have not yet found any sweetspot /optic axis (yet) whereby that bullseye is seen...my question however is... Does that cool looking bullseye (or any crosshair) "symbol" manifest itself when looking through the scope when you are NOT looking at the optic axis? In other words... Are most of the observations big nothingburgers UNLESS you are actually looking at the stone through the optic axis? So far all i see is some warped magnification but no "symbols" when i look...
An excellent question, and in my experience, its nothing burgers until you get it right. The axes are where they reveal themselves, and everything in between is chaotic deceit. My suggestion is to play with the stone(s) until the interference coloures are clear. Not all stones will be clear, as the faceting angles may make it brutally improbable.
@@GemologyforSchmucks Tremendous thank you for your great reply....I will share my joyful epiphany/Ah-haa moment when it comes as i practice some more....i read somewhere that at least one facet has to be perpendicular to the optic access in order for the symbols to manifest!
Hey man is it true that diamonds arent rare at all and are therefore a bad investment? Im thinking about buying some rough ones from the congo. Seen a 1 karat for $30. Figure ill get addicted after i feel one in my hand. Do you have any suggestions for something that would be pretty easy to sell? Would a sapphire be a better investment as far as actual rarity (but still durable). Your videos are fun to watch.
Hi ~ diamonds are a well regulated market, and have been for about 120 years. I'd say the combination of diamonds being plentiful (but difficult complex and expensive to mine) are what make them unattractive as an "investment" in my mind. Beware the super cheap rough diamonds unless you just enjoy having a trinket. They aren't magically going to blossom in value. Many of those are industrial grade diamonds, and typically look like a hot mess if they are cut. They are cool in their rough state, but they are what they are: plentiful and before synthetic diamonds were discovered/invented, those types of low clarity off colour diamonds were sold as industrial abrasives. Sapphire on the other hand, if you can find the right ones (untreated or minimal, traditionally accepted treatments like heating, good colour and clarity) have potential for value increase. Not all sapphires fit that category mind you~
@@GemologyforSchmucks thank you. What size or price range would you consider to be the most liquid? Whats the average karat size or price range that people buy the most often? Do you sell loose gems?
@@idonthaveaname42 This all depends on what kind of sales funnel you create. Some people build their position in a market that buys 1 carat (karat with a K is for gold purity btw) sapphires or rubies every day, others who only do 2ct and above emeralds, and i've met people who don't bother with anything less than 100cts and sell to collectors. The last one just maybe has a longer sales cycle. The big question that you need to answer when you get into gemstones is what market you want access to and how you're going to cultivate that market. Its not like the stock market where the price changes, but the stock always sells. With gemstones, building the sales funnel/ pipeline is one of the most important logistical concerns. Some people do phenomenal business on instagram, some people only sell in person. You buy the stones that your market will consume from you.
Any quartz can have the bull's eye effect, but not all do, so it depends on the individual piece. Exceptional amethyst is often the highest priced in the quartz family, or some natural ametrines ( citrine and amethyst that have intergrown). There doesn't seem to be a correlation between the effect and the quality or value of the individual quartz crystal.
Hey Peter, thanks for keeping us in the Loupe. I have some antique Amethyst which is chipped, included and beyond rescue, but I’ve kept it because it’s got a beautiful purple colour changing properties. I’ve never understood why manufactured Quartz is used to impersonate gemstone as it’s quite abundant in nature. People don’t favour included stones, but for me, inclusions give the stone its own character. Great to see your looking well. Rog. 😀👍
Cheers Rog~ I've never seen hydro amethyst (synthetic) that I thought beat out top natural fine amethyst. Medium to low? ok fine. In my mind... There is something about fine natural stones that visually calls out, and I don't have a scientific way to explain it, nor can I guarantee that I pick them right every time. And yes I agree with you - there are plenty of included natural amethyst that are still captivating beyond what a flawless hydrothermal can be. Again... I can't back it up with science and standards - totally an unabashed feeling.
@@GemologyforSchmucks The last gem I cut is amethyst with almost all possible inclusions and it goes straight to my collection ..... Peter thanks for again nice video.
Love your videos! I'm a gemcutter/lapidary in South Eastern USA and been learning gemology along the way.
Thanks JS - we're all continuing to learn about gemology along the way. I may have studied gemology formally, but I learn tons about the stones themselves each time I cut them.
Hey Peter, thank you for your fantastic content, I am a jewelry teacher here in France and although I have been working with a gemmologist for the past 12 years, there are some concepts that I never managed to grasp... until you explained it . I love the way you tackle these subjects and how accessible and understandable you make them. On top of that, your content helped me explain to my students how stones are valued/priced in a very simple way. So thank you because your content make me a better teacher !
Thanks very much. It's my honour to contribute to your journey, and I'm glad that my work is assisting you on your way to building up others. Cheers~!
Wonderfully said, Mr. Nelson
Thanks very much, Dan~
Peter, love your channel! You are both informative and entertaining. Please keep the videos coming.
Thanks Kevin ~ I hope to do just that :D
How common is synthetic quartz? Being so common, is it more prevalent in larger cut gemstones? I cant believe it would be a good return on investment to make a bunch of lab created sub 5c amethysts etc.
Synthetic quartz is now hyper common, and i'd say the real advantage for synthetic quartz as a buyer is that you have more selection for evenly coloured stones. If you're trying to make a perfectly matched suite of amethyst or ametrine jewelry etc, its much easier to do that with manufactured material than it is with natural. So yes, large sizes are common, but also small in highly calibrated sizes because it makes production lines of inexpensive jewelry much easier. Not my schtick, i'll say, but I understand the function for folk who want to buy pretty trinkets for trinket prices.
Ok, so I have a clean-ish rainbow moon cab that shows a bullseye... but no lines at the edges at all. Why is this? I doubt it's quartz as it glows the same red under shortwave light as my other moonstones, and microscope doesn't show any signs of a doublet...
Hi there~ Without seeing the stone you're describing in person to test, I can't say where the problem might be. What I *can* say is that sometimes optic signs in the polariscope can trick our eyes. Moonstones and other gem quality feldspars (orthoclase, or labradorite in the case of "rainbow moonstone") have a bi-axial optic character. The optic sign you should see when using the conoscope would be more like a bow-tie due to having more optic axes than the uniaxial stones such as quartz. As far as i've seen, heard and read, only quartz displays the bull's eye effect. If it does not have a bow-tie sign, then that would be an indicator that the stone may not be what you believe it is, or there is an error in how we are testing the stone. I hope that helps rather than confuses.
Whoa whoa, bullseye is also displayed by feldsparthoids 😉
Hi there~ i'd be curious to hear where you have heard this and which institution is able to support the claim. I've been looking around and i'm not finding any articles promoting, supporting or defending the idea.
Hi there, newbies question, is there any relation between optic axis and table positioning in cutting quartz
A fantastic question. In some stones with stronger pleochroism (directional colour), such as tourmalines or even emerald and ruby~ that is a much more important question because it directly impacts the colour of the final stone (and therefore the price per carat).
So..... today, i have been playing around with the coneoscope/quartz and have not yet found any sweetspot /optic axis (yet) whereby that bullseye is seen...my question however is...
Does that cool looking bullseye (or any crosshair) "symbol" manifest itself when looking through the scope when you are NOT looking at the optic axis?
In other words...
Are most of the observations big nothingburgers UNLESS you are actually looking at the stone through the optic axis? So far all i see is some warped magnification but no "symbols" when i look...
An excellent question, and in my experience, its nothing burgers until you get it right. The axes are where they reveal themselves, and everything in between is chaotic deceit. My suggestion is to play with the stone(s) until the interference coloures are clear. Not all stones will be clear, as the faceting angles may make it brutally improbable.
@@GemologyforSchmucks Tremendous thank you for your great reply....I will share my joyful epiphany/Ah-haa moment when it comes as i practice some more....i read somewhere that at least one facet has to be perpendicular to the optic access in order for the symbols to manifest!
Hey man is it true that diamonds arent rare at all and are therefore a bad investment? Im thinking about buying some rough ones from the congo. Seen a 1 karat for $30. Figure ill get addicted after i feel one in my hand. Do you have any suggestions for something that would be pretty easy to sell? Would a sapphire be a better investment as far as actual rarity (but still durable). Your videos are fun to watch.
Hi ~ diamonds are a well regulated market, and have been for about 120 years. I'd say the combination of diamonds being plentiful (but difficult complex and expensive to mine) are what make them unattractive as an "investment" in my mind. Beware the super cheap rough diamonds unless you just enjoy having a trinket. They aren't magically going to blossom in value. Many of those are industrial grade diamonds, and typically look like a hot mess if they are cut. They are cool in their rough state, but they are what they are: plentiful and before synthetic diamonds were discovered/invented, those types of low clarity off colour diamonds were sold as industrial abrasives.
Sapphire on the other hand, if you can find the right ones (untreated or minimal, traditionally accepted treatments like heating, good colour and clarity) have potential for value increase. Not all sapphires fit that category mind you~
@@GemologyforSchmucks thank you. What size or price range would you consider to be the most liquid? Whats the average karat size or price range that people buy the most often? Do you sell loose gems?
@@idonthaveaname42 This all depends on what kind of sales funnel you create. Some people build their position in a market that buys 1 carat (karat with a K is for gold purity btw) sapphires or rubies every day, others who only do 2ct and above emeralds, and i've met people who don't bother with anything less than 100cts and sell to collectors. The last one just maybe has a longer sales cycle. The big question that you need to answer when you get into gemstones is what market you want access to and how you're going to cultivate that market. Its not like the stock market where the price changes, but the stock always sells. With gemstones, building the sales funnel/ pipeline is one of the most important logistical concerns. Some people do phenomenal business on instagram, some people only sell in person. You buy the stones that your market will consume from you.
Please tell me how to differentiate between natural citrine and heated amethyst citrine ?
Thank you.
For quartz treatments aside from the super blatant varieties like quench-crack and dying, and coatings, you'd need to seek out an advanced lab.
Buon giorno carissimo Peter, potrebbe fare un video in cui mostra le tipiche inclusioni naturali del quarzo e delle altre gemme? Grazie
Hopefully soon i'll be posting a video on inclusions~
Hey...! Have you planed your Srilanka Trip?
While I would be ecstatic to visit Sri Lanka ~ I feel the time isn't quite ripe. Hopefully soon~!
@@GemologyforSchmucks Eagerly waiting to meet you..
How many have the bulls eye that are valuable??
Any quartz can have the bull's eye effect, but not all do, so it depends on the individual piece. Exceptional amethyst is often the highest priced in the quartz family, or some natural ametrines ( citrine and amethyst that have intergrown). There doesn't seem to be a correlation between the effect and the quality or value of the individual quartz crystal.
Im a fellow subscriber. Love the show. I make Music on my Channel.
Hello. I like your show.
Thanks very much - I'm glad.
Hi
Well hello~
Hi Peter I have sent you an email would you please look in to it
Did you send it via gemshepherd.com?