Beryllium Heated Blue Sapphire, Gorgeous

 

Beryllium Heated Blue Sapphires - Disclosure

Sapphires and rubies have been treated to enhance their appearance for at least a century, heat treatment where the gems were put into an oven and heated for long hours was the first form of treatment. Kaisilver prefers to refer to this as the 'conventional heat' treatment. It becomes necessary to differentiate gem enhancement procedures as, newer methods used to tried sapphires involve heating as a part of the process. Conventional heat treatment of blue sapphire gems is accepted by gem experts and many sellers, do not care to disclose the use of heat treatment. A couple of decades ago, it would be fine to presume that all sapphires are heated until a lab certificate from a reputed gem testing facility, proved otherwise. We now have an array of gemstone treatments applied to blue sapphires, some of them overlap in certain steps but, the entire process is distinctly different. 

So what are beryllium heated blue sapphires, are the gems sturdy are they expensive. If we had to rate gemstone treatments from the view point of stability, effects and durability of the sapphire after the treatment, we would put untreated sapphires on top, followed by blue sapphires that have been conventionally heated and then, blue sapphires treated by the beryllium process. While beryllium treated blue sapphire gems are put through a heating phase, this heating is done along with the addition of beryllium compounds added to the oven. The processed blue sapphires can look gorgeous or very ordinary, most of the stone end up looking ordinary or a tiny bit better than that. 


As an example, review the SPBY01 beryllium heated blue sapphire gems in the image. These are what we would consider the A to AAA quality, and from our experience about 2-3 gems make it to the AAA quality. At Kaisilver it is the A+ to AAA and above that we pick, price is not cheap but our clients always give emphasis to quality and we are here, because of our esteemed clients. When the goods are taken out of the oven and you bid for the best pieces, you pay a premium price but, you also get the cream of the treated blue sapphire gemstones - a privilege that few gem lovers can experience. 

The color range of beryllium treated blue sapphire gemstones, follow a similar pattern to what you would see in conventionally heated blue sapphires. The best stones have the Ceylon blue sapphire color and are what you can see in the image. Before we talk about the pricing for blue sapphire gems treated in this way, let us set up some parameters for the comparison. As a general idea we would say that price of beryllium heated blue sapphire gems depends on color, clarity and size. When we  make a comparison we need to understand that all these gems are natural blue sapphires and not lab created. Our comparison of of the gems presumes that all the gems have a broadly similar appearance in terms of, color, clarity and size, shape and cut - the term similar in appearance is very critical to our  price comparison. If you were talking about a 10x8mm oval faceted beryllium heated blue sapphire gem that is priced at around 500 U.S$ to 700 U.S$ per carat, expect a similar 'looking'' gem that is conventionally heat treated to be priced around 1,000 U.S$ to 1,500 U.S$ per carat. Untreated blue sapphire gems with a similar appearance, would be priced at around 1,500 U.S$ per carat to 2,200 U.S$ per carat. Remember that we are talking about retail prices from the source in Thailand, the gem cutting and treatment center of the world. And if anyone tells you that Jaipur in India does higher cutting volumes, let us tell you that much of the treated rough or preformed gems are sourced in Thailand and cut in China and India. If you happen to be located in the U.S.A, Europe, Australia, New Zealand or Japan, you could pay around 40% to 100% more than the above quoted prices. Tell you local sellers that we are aware of their "x1.5", "x2" and "x2.5" pricing logistics, it simply means multiplying their cost by the factor mentioned after the "x" - a hefty margin in deed. 

We have tried to keep the information as non-technical as possible, the idea is to make it more useful to consumers rather than, to gem experts and sellers. Kaisilver has always kept the interest of gem and jewelry lovers in mind, unfortunately this brings us quite a few grumbles from selling groups. However there are some (confusing) terms that gem professionals might use related to beryllium heated sapphires, so let us briefly talk about them here. The beryllium heat treatment is often referred to as the 'bulk diffusion' or 'lattice diffusion' process, they mean one and the same thing as far as treatment of blue sapphire gems is concerned. You need to differentiate between, surface diffused and lattice diffused gems. Surface diffused blue sapphires go through a treatment that, coats only the surface of the stone with a nice color. What this means is that any re-polish or re-cutting done on the stone will take off some (depending on the extent) of the color. This is not the case with beryllium heated blue sapphire gemstones where, the color penetrates deep into the gem.

Disclosure: Beryllium heated sapphires offer good value for money ONLY IF, the seller is aware of what is being sold to him or her. Sellers are supposed to make a clear disclosure of the treatment used when they sell the gem but, many do not. The reason is that, the similarity between conventionally heated and beryllium heated blue sapphire gems is high, and prices of conventionally heated can be 50% to 70% more. It takes multiple inspections by gem experts and at times, multiple certifications by independent labs to confirm that a gem is (or is not) treated with the beryllium process. This is the meticulous process that Kai Silver follows to select every gem so the task poses no extra challenges for us. 

Kaisilver: The world's leading online custom made jewelry provider from Thailand. We custom make all types of jewellery in gold or 925 sterling silver. You can choose the design and gems for your jewellery and need not be restricted by what you see on our website. We do offer beryllium heated sapphires for all your jewellery requirements but, prefer not to present it as a standard option. When selling such gems and even gemstones that are lab created, we wish to make sure that the buyer understands what he or she is getting. So if you have any specific requirement for such gemstones, email us and we will ensure, that the price and details are disclosed to you before, the buying decision is made. The complete report on Kaisilver Sapphire Gem Disclosures will give you more information related to beryllium heat blue sapphire gems. 

Email our experts at sales@kaisilver.com with any requirements that you might have. The team is drawn from experts in all aspects of gems and jewelry including production, so do not expect any sleek sales talk from them. Basically we prefer to equip you with all the essential information and allow you to make your own buying decision.