Gemstone Enhancement

Ways we enhance gemstones.

Most stones on the market today are treated in some way. It’s safe to assume that your stone is treated somehow unless you have a certificate verifying otherwise. It’s so common that it’s not really a big deal.

A vast majority of stones are heat treated to alter or improve the color of the stone. Sometimes these changes are noticeable under high power magnification. Many times it’s undetectable and permanent, and often it is just assumed.

Other types of treatments are not so permanent or unnoticeable. Dying is usually noticeable in little cracks or feathers of a stone, or by an unnatural color. Irradiation can change color. Irradiation is sometimes natural and sometimes a man-made change. Waxing or impregnation involves just the surface of a stone and may be etched away by chemicals or wear.

Perhaps the most controversial treatment is fracture filling. This is extremely common in Emeralds, and to a lesser degree in diamonds.

This is how it works: a liquid, like oil or resin with a similar refractive index to the stone is pressurized around the stone, making the stone accept the treatment into its surface reaching fractures. Now when light hits the stone, the liquid refracts at the same or similar angle as the rest of the stone, causing the flaw to be much less noticeable. The problem of course, is that the fracture still exists, lowering the value of the stone below the “apparent clarity”. Also, heat, an ultrasonic cleaner or a steamer may clean out the oil or resin leaving the stone looking, well, not like you thought it did, but what was actually lurking in the stone unbeknownst to you. Smart jewelers make the assumption that any natural Emerald has been treated this way.

Diamonds are harder to discern and can go unnoticed if the stone is set and the filled fracture is on the bottom of the stone. Fracture filling in diamonds should ethically be disclosed at the time of sale and you should always inform your jeweler if that is the case. GIA will not grade diamonds that are fracture filled because they cannot see what the stone actually looks like in its natural state.

There are stones however, that no known treatments exist for. Garnets, for one, are never treated. They don’t need it. This is helpful if you are looking for a green gemstone Garnet comes in at least three shades of green that has not been treated like Emerald has.