Spinels: Heated, Unheated Natural, & Synthetic

[PinkDiamond]

Distinguishing Heated Spinels from Unheated Natural Spinels and from Synthetic Spinels
A short review of on‐going research
Sudarat Saeseaw, Wuyi Wang and Kenneth Scarratt
GIA Laboratories, Bangkok and New York

John L. Emmett and Troy R. Douthit
Crystal Chemistry, Brush Prairie, Washington

Updated May 25, 2009
http://www.giathai.net/pdf/Heated_spine ... 5_2009.pdf

[Gemjunkie]

Great! Now there's a Raman Spectroscope on my wish list, fat chance.

[PinkDiamond]

LOL! Good luck with that one Gemjunkie!!

Here's another great article on spinel from Richard Hughes:

Spinel Compounds: Background & Historical Perspective

"In 1998, the American Ceramic Society held a special meeting in Cincinnati devoted to spinel and spinel-type compounds. Such compounds are of increasing interest to solid-state scientists, since one can play mix-and-match with ions, creating new properties while retaining others.

Kurt Sickafus of Los Alamos National Laboratory was aware that spinel was of interest not simply to scientists, but also had a long history as a gemstone and thought it might be fun to present another aspect of the subject to the conference attendees. Thus Edward Boehm of Joeb Enterprises and myself were invited to talk on the gem aspects of spinel...."

http://ruby-sapphire.com/spinel.htm

[PinkDiamond]

This is an excellent article.

Spinel: Resurrection of a Classic
By Vincent Pardieu, with Richard W. Hughes and Edward Boehm

"Spinel is rising. Like a phoenix, a gem that for centuries was associated with power, fire, beauty and life, is back again.

Over the past several years, interest in spinel has grown and I am delighted to see the newfound fame for classic gem. I first became interested in gemology while studying the history of the 100 Years’ War between France and England. Who could forget the Black Prince’s Ruby, a stone given by the Spanish king to the Black Prince of England as payment for his military support in the civil war of 1366. Later, in 1415, the stone was said to have saved the life of King Henry V of England at the battle of Agincourt. Henry, who had placed the large red orb on his helmet, was struck by the battle axe of the French Duke of Alencon. Sword hit stone; both the ruby and Henry survived..."

http://www.ruby-sapphire.com/spinel-res ... lassic.htm

[Gemjunkie]

You hit a 170ct red spinel of mine with an axe, you'd better run.

[PinkDiamond]

Cartoon feet, don't fail me now!

[opalfireinfo]

Phil, it wasn't his fault. He thought it was a ruby.
mk

[Gemjunkie]

You hit a 170ct ruby of mine with an axe, you'd best flee the planet!

[PinkDiamond]

Spinel - A Misunderstood Jewel

"Have you seen her all in gold
Like a queen in days of old
She shoots colors all around
Like a sunset going down
Have you seen the lady fairer…..

She's like a rainbow
Coming colors in the air
Oh, everywhere
She comes in colors “
Jagger/Richards

"A completely misunderstood gem...in ancient days Spinel was thought to be Ruby...Boomers tend to remember it as a synthetic stone for class rings....in today's terms, we need to work on this stone's "brand"."...

http://dailyjewel.blogspot.com/2010/03/ ... jewel.html


Separating Spinel

"The science of separating one gem mineral from another is relatively recent in context to the many millennia that man has been collecting pretty stones.

Spinel (a magnesium aluminum oxide) forms in the same placer deposits as ruby in places like Burma where top ruby is found. So it's understandable that ancient spinel stones set in important jewelry were mistakenly called ruby."...


http://color-n-ice.blogspot.com/2010/01 ... pinel.html