Heat treating aquamarines is an unpredictable process. You can cut beautiful gems out of untreated aquamarines. I personally have better luck with unusual stones and generally can get more money per carat for them. Untreated aquamarines have an underserved market. You’ll do better if you’re not competing with commercial sellers, at least color wise. On the other hand, if you cut natural, untreated aquamarine, you’ll have something out of the ordinary. You most likely won’t have the volume to compete with them successfully. (Editor’s note: Beware of stones sold as “white aquamarines,” which aren’t aquamarines but colorless beryls).Įven if you find unheated rough and successfully heat it blue, you’ll be competing with commercial sellers of blue stones. The reason the rough is still blueish green may be because it can’t be heated successfully. If someone tries to sell you blueish green rough cheaply and assures you it will “heat blue,” buyer beware. Nevertheless, the cost of heated and unheated rough is the same. Rough dealers and miners routinely heat aquamarine before it enters the general market. I would call this “sea foam color” rather than “aquamarine color.”īlue aquamarine. Its color is definitely a little on the green side. This is a nice, unheated, natural aquamarine crystal. Aquamarine Color: Before and After Heat Treatment You’re taking a chance when you heat unknown rough. If you choose to heat treat aquamarine yourself, it’s important to know the source of the rough. Even if you only see a hint of a flaw, that may indicate there are problems in the stone you can’t see. Heating an aquamarine with a flaw, bubble, or inclusion will usually make the problem worse.Stones from some locations retain some green color even when heated successfully. Seeing green in rough beryl doesn’t necessarily mean you have an unheated stone.Since most aquamarine isn’t that big around, yields and stone sizes will decrease dramatically when it cracks. In general, aquamarine is usually under stress along the length of the crystal at about a third to the middle of its thickness.
#Aquamarine blue crack#
Stones from some sources will crack and break apart during treatment and thus aren’t normally heated. Not all aquamarine can be heated successfully.This applies to finished stones as well as rough. They can even be treated at the mine before they reach the market. Most commercially available aquamarines are already heated.Although aquamarine is generally easier to heat than most other materials, the results may not be what you want. I strongly recommend that you leave aquamarine heat treatments to the experts.
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