Do you know what corundum is? In the masses, this stone was called sapphire or ruby. Such a division depends on its characteristics. If you have a colorless or any other stone (excluding red shades), then this is a typical color of sapphires. The cost of sapphires often depends on the cut: the more facets a crystal has, the more expensive it is.
Rubies are dark red and contain chromium. These stones are often found in jewelry. The color of sapphires can have reddish or pinkish hues, such a stone is called pink sapphires. It will be easy for an ordinary user to confuse such sapphires with rubies, the color transition is negligible. Almost transparent uncolored sapphires are called leucosapphires. The condition for their sale is the obligatory possession of a trade license.
The main features of leucosapphire:
- The stone contains only two elements - oxygen and aluminum.
- There is a great resemblance to a diamond.
- There is a strong luster, but the sapphire is not able to play in the light.
The most eye-catching property of sapphire is its ability to play. The process is the ability of sapphire to break light into sparks. Light, like a fan, comes from the core of thestone and swings open around it. In jewelry, the shade of the stone and the brightness of its color are always appreciated.
Classification of sapphires depending on color:
- The color of the sapphire stone can be blue. During the experiments, it was found that the composition of the stone includes titanium. It gives the stone a bluish tint.
- The color of sapphires may have yellowish tints. Iron oxide can turn the stone yellow.
- Many other variations refer to multicolor sapphires.
The reaction of the stone in different conditions
In the process of heating, the stone tends to lighten. If the sapphire had a pale color, then after heating it will turn pale at all. Violet saturated colors will gradually turn into pinkish.
If you expose the sapphire to X-rays, the degree of color intensity will increase, the color will become deep. What color are sapphires? It is impossible to answer such a question in one word. Corundums of yellow, green, orange, pink shades are also referred to as sapphires.
Very often in nature you can find opaque sapphires. The color of sapphires can vary from blue to gray-blue and eventually to gray-yellow. It is these stones that are most often found in nature. The process of intrusion of granitic magma into crystalline limestones is capable of generating corundums. These deposits are called skarns. When mining a stone, uneven coloring is often encountered, this factor affects the price in the direction of its decrease.
Costsapphires are kept in line with diamonds. An interesting fact is that until the 19th century, all blue stones were called sapphires. The brightest and most colorful corundums are now considered to be stones with sky-blue hues (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, blue sapphires.
