Tourmalines Buying Guide for Beginners: Understanding Color, Clarity, Cut, and Overall Quality.
What Makes the Best Quality Tourmaline? Important Factors to Consider
Basically, like most Gemstones, there are 4 C’s types of Tourmaline Color, Clarity, Cut, and Carat Weight. Let’s Look at These Factors in Detail.
Tourmaline comes with a lot of types of color as it is a large topic, however, Tourmaline cannot be covered in this article individually as it is available in various types of colours. It is unnecessary to cover every color in detail, as Tourmaline Stone quality can be understandable by judging using universal rules that govern color grading standards. GIA (Gemological Institute of America’s) will be used to color here. Hue, Tone and Saturation are the 3 types which are approached by the GIA.
You should consider these 3 components when you are judging color in Tourmaline. Starting with Hue first.
Hue is the component that hugely elaborates the color sensation that the human eye notices, it has a less impact in quality. Tourmaline gemstone colors are purely caused by the way how our eyes perceive light passing through the stone.
Indicolite are Blue Tourmalines, Verdelite are Greens and pinks are called Rubellite.
Tone represents how light or dark the overall color appears when evaluating color in gemstones. It is a key component in assessing colour quality in tourmaline as with all gemstones. In simple terms, tone reflects how light or dark a gemstone looks. The image shows green Tourmaline can exhibit a range of tones: light, medium or dark tone.
You want to look for a nice medium tone, not too dark, not too light whatever the color of Tourmaline.
When analyzing the quality of color in Tourmaline, this is the very crucial of the 3 components. It refers to how strong or muted the gemstone’s color is.
THE T-SHIRT ANALOGY: Imagine a brand-new red T-shirt bought from the store. When you first bought it, the color was intense red. Until it turns a pale version of its former self after a number of washes, the color desaturates. At first, the shirt was deeply saturated, but it became desaturated with each wash.
When analyzing best quality tourmaline the more intense/vivid the color saturation, the more valuable the stone.
The color of a gemstone can be viewed distinctly as per the light source, so before buying it is a good idea to examine Tourmalines under various light sources. Under incandescent lighting, red and pink gemstones look more vibrant and cooler tones like green and blue tend to appear more vibrant in natural daylight or white light.
Without looking at dichroism, the study of color tourmaline would not be finished. Tourmaline is a powerful dichroic gemstone as such, the optic axis and the perpendicular axis can show different colors.
This effect can produce stunning face-up colors, especially when viewed under different lighting sources, as displayed by this remarkable tourmaline where blue and green are clearly visible. Under different lights, tourmaline can always be checked for a “mood change”.
Gemstone usually build internal imperfections during their growth process, since it is formed naturally. These can appear in several forms, like pressure induced cracks, internal crystals of the same or different mineral species, needles, and liquid filled fractures called “Fingerprints”. These imperfections affect a Tourmaline’s clarity grade, so, when assessing its clarity, it is key to know what to look for.
Affect on its quality: How to judge
Tourmaline gemstone colors you are looking for depend on it. The GIA classifies gemstones into different Types based on how likely they are to contain inclusions. Gems that hardly contain inclusions in nature are Type 1, those that often contain inclusions are Type 2, those that are almost always included are type 3.
Type 3 gemstomes are Rubellite and Pink Tourmaline, which means they are always viewed as eye visible inclusions, whereas all other Tourmaline colors fall under Type 2.
We are not discussing the real shape of Tourmaline when we discuss cuts. Whether a Tourmaline is cut as an oval or a round, for example, has no bearing on its quality. The thing that matters is the quality of its cut. This area of the 4C’s is not examined to the same standard unlike diamonds. The image will give you an idea of what to look for and what not to look for.
Observe the bulging pavilion on the native-cut stone on the left, as well as its asymmetry when compared to the more precisely cut gem on the right.
When evaluating Tourmaline use common sense. Choose stones with symmetrical cut, nicely placed facets and powerful light return. Avoid gemstones with bulging pavilions or uneven, asymmetrical shapes.
Tourmaline is hardly larger in size as with all gem types. For a gemstone to grow big in nature, it needs constant heat and pressure for many hundreds of millions of years.
While you can perhaps search Tourmalines of any color in any size, every color is difficult to obtain in all sizes. Rubellites (red Tourmalines) and Chrome Tourmalines are not easy to find over 5 carats, which are usually common under 2 carats. Indocolites are hardly found in sizes over 2 carats and so are Paraiba, while yellow or golden Tourmaline can get with ease in sizes over 10 carats.
Tourmaline can be available at most of the place in the world
The main sources of Tourmaline are:
Clearly, buying tourmaline gemstones directly is an advantage since you are able to eliminate several markups inherent in the chain of distribution.
Rates of Tourmaline are dependent on the color you are purchasing. The most costly variety of Tourmaline: Parabiba Tourmaline can get $10,000 per carat and more based on size and color saturation while smaller yellows may fetch only $50 per carat.
According to the type of source, tourmaline is extracted using several mining methods in different parts of the world. Some sources are primary, meaning the crystals are mined directly from the vein or pegmatite where they originally formed. Other sources are alluvial, meaning the Tourmaline crystals have been moved from their original location by natural processes like weathering and erosion.
According to the type of source, tourmaline is extracted using several mining methods in different parts of the world. Some sources are primary, meaning the crystals are mined directly from the vein or pegmatite where they originally formed. Other sources are alluvial, meaning the Tourmaline crystals have been moved from their original location by natural processes like weathering and erosion.
Tourmaline from primary sources may still retain its natural “crystal habit”. They are in their original shape they formed in nature. Tourmaline grows in a hexagonal pencil and all gemstones have a crystal system and a crystal habit in which they grow.
Tourmaline can be processed or strengthened to improve its quality. Heating is the most routinely used treatment for Tourmaline. When a tourmaline is too dark in tone when this treatment is used and turns into a lighter and more eye-catching color.
Especially, in Rubellite, other treatments include irradiation and oiling to hide fractures.
Tourmaline is not successfully synthesized. This means it doesn’t grow in a lab, you don’t have to be worried about this as there are multiple imitations on the market, that includes many natural gemstones like Apatite, Topaz and andalusite and commons glass.
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