At 04:09 PM 11/28/96 -0400, you wrote:
Mark - is there any advantage to heat treating the beryl from Brazil
- will the aqua or morganite turn darker?
Mark.
You know that green Beryl heats to Blue,no? Also if it’s grayish can heat
to Blue.Easy to do 450C buried in a heat sink material.(sand)I use powdered
Alumina polishing powder.Seems to work better.Fills the pores I think.
Forgot the Yellows,They often heat to Blue.Specially yellow green.
There exists a natural Green Beryl.That won’t heat.How do you tell??
Use a polaroid.You can buy a Dichroscope from the GIA for too much or can
go down to your local Camera shop and for $.50 can buy a cut square of
polaroid.
If you keep it in one of those Zip Lock Bags it won’t get scratched up.But
even if it’s scratched,it still works.
Hold the stone under a direct light,and the polaroid out of the
light,but just on the edge of it.Turn the polaroid in a circle.You will see
the color change.But don’t get excited.Because with the polaroid it looks
darker than it actually comes out.An illusion.No change?It’s a Green Beryl
won’t heat.I am talking roughs,if it’s a cut stone,and won’t change,can be
anything. Glass,Spinel???
You know enough to bring it up to temperature as slow as you can.And down.
You can actually heat Beryl with some modest inclusion.As long as you are
up slow and down slow.If you"can’t program your own
Computer"(Kraftworks,circa 1970) Than you must stand in front of the
furnace 100C at a time in the beginning until you hit like 300 then 50 or
even less increments of rise to 450C.
Ha,Ha,Can I fool you??I bet I can.Do you know what a Machise is? There
exists a White Beryl or even light Aquamarine,that you can bombard with
Colbolt 60 and it comes out like the finest Aquamarine you’ve ever
seen.Tatu or Col Multa mine.Looks like those.Looks like it needs a little
heating.But you better keep him in the dark.Just strong sunlight,like we
get on the beach in Rio will revert him back to white.Then you will cry,for
the $300/gm you paid.
Morganite,comes out Orange,mostly.But can come almost any color and
still we call him Morganite.Like Gray,Bi-color.One time Brazil hit tonnage
of a Morganite that came out well formed Crystals 20-30%grayish Aqua,and
the center dark Orange.Watermelons!Make a carver’s heart go
pitty-pat.Because they were big.5-10 kilo in a single Crystal was no problem.
OK.You asked me how to heat him.It’s really hard.Put it on the window sill
for one to two weeks.Depends how strong your sun is.Goes from all those
strange colors to Pink.
There’s more,but then we get into irradiations,or irradiations coupled with
heating.Long subject.But I will tell you one trick to stimulate your
imagination.Try with a lot of materials heating them white,in the case of
Beryl over 500C,THEN zap them.You get a lot of different effects once you
burn out the color zone.
I am going to post this too.Because I think it is profound.And I
promised Clive I would author.Any good Clive? Somewhat useful no?
Oh,Oh,mais uma coisa.You asked me if they went darker.They seem to.But
it’s another illusion.They just change color.The intensity of color stays
the same.
Beryl is a funny stone.It seems like it changes color just held in your hand.
Try this.Take a light Aquamarine.Or one you think is light.Put him on a
white background.Stare at him.Whoa,he got darker did’nt he?Put next to him
a Goshenite,and on the other side a Morganite you think is light.Wow.The
color rises up like the sun in the morning.Does anyone want to hear the
story of Idar-Oberstein and the Color suite Beryl? Nuff’said.
Mark Liccini
LICCINI
Gemstone Rough Dealers since 1970 U.S.MAIL
E-Mail: @Mark_Liccini1 224 7th St.#2B
http://www.LICCINI.com Jersey City,N.J.07302
Voice Mail/Fax: 201-795-1115