White Sapphire
White Sapphire – Gemstone Engagement Ring
White sapphires, or clear sapphires, have been used as diamond simulates since the early twentieth century. Unlike other imitation, fake or man-made diamonds, sapphire is a natural gemstone
Sapphire is a variety of the mineral corundum. The mineral is aluminum oxide – diamond is carbon – that crystallized under high pressure and heat at a great depth in Earth’s core.
Sapphires make good diamond simulates because their radiance and brilliance are close to that of natural diamonds, but are less expensive. Sapphires are the second hardest natural mineral on the Mohs scale, exceeded only by diamonds.
Natural sapphire comes in many different colors, from the rare colorless to blue, pink, green, and purple. In its purest form, corundum is colorless. Blue sapphire is corundum that is contaminated with iron or titanium. Other elements turn corundum into red, pink, blue, black, brown, orange, yellow, green, indigo, or violet sapphire. Sapphires that are colors other than blue are called fancy sapphires. Red sapphires are called rubies and not red sapphires.
Because white sapphires are rare in nature, natural gray to light yellow stones are treated to remove the color to make them clear – or white.
Some companies also grow their own stones, creating synthetic sapphires that have the same properties as the real thing. A synthetic white sapphire, like a synthetic diamond, is usually less expensive that natural stones because consumers think of lab-grown gems as inferior to the real thing. However, man-made stones are usually better quality due to the controlled growing conditions.
Sapphire prices range from a few dollars per carat to thousands of dollars per carat. Just like the price of a diamond, the price of a sapphire can be gauged based on the four C’s: color, clarity, cut, and carat.
A sapphire’s birthplace also figures into its price. The most priced and expensive sapphires are from Kashmir. Next priced sapphires are Burmese sapphires, and then comes sapphires from Ceylon.
Sapphires are mined in Ceylon, Thailand, India, Burma, Vietnam and Cambodia. Other areas of the world where sapphires are mines are in Brazil, Australia, Columbia, Kenya, Madagascar and Malawi. Sapphires are also found in Montana and Colorado in the western United States.
Other Diamond Simulants: cubic zirconia, Moissanite, Russian Brilliants, Diamond Nexus, white topaz
Simulated Diamonds
What are Simulated Diamonds?
Simulated diamonds, also called diamond simulants, imitation diamonds, or fake diamonds, are man-made stones that look like, or simulate the appearance of natural diamonds, but are made of material that is not carbon-based and do not have the same properties of natural diamonds. Some imitation diamonds currently on the market include cubic zirconia, Moissanite, Russian Brilliants, Diamond Nexus, white sapphire and white topaz.
Synthetics Diamonds
Synthetic diamonds, also called lab-grown diamonds, lab-created diamonds, manufactured diamonds and cultured diamonds, have been around for decades. General Electric has been producing synthetic diamonds for industrial purposes for years. But until recent technological developments, these industrial diamonds were well below gem-quality and were too small to be cut for use in jewelry. Twenty-first century technology made it possible to produce pure, colorless laboratory grown diamonds that are virtually indistinguishable from mined diamonds, but cost much less than natural diamonds of similar quality.
Synthetic diamonds has all the same physical, chemical and optical qualities of natural diamonds. The only difference is that natural diamonds are formed hundreds of miles below the surface of the Earth, under high temperature and pressure over millions of years, and synthetic diamonds are formed under the same temperature and pressure conditions in a laboratory in only days. High quality synthetic diamonds look so much like real diamonds that they can only be detected using infrared, ultraviolet, X-ray spectroscopy or other specialized testers.
Natural diamonds can be completely colorless and colored diamonds are actually rare. However, most synthetic diamonds will have a slightly yellowish hue to them and color synthetic diamonds are easier to make than colorless ones.
Synthetic gem-quality diamonds are created using one of two different methods, which will create slightly different types of man-made diamonds.
One method is High Pressure-High Temperature (HPHT), which simulate the conditions that create natural diamonds. The HPHT method uses large and heavy presses produce high pressures and high temperatures to compress carbon material to create diamonds. HPHT, pinoneered in the 1950’s by General Electric (GE), is the first method developed to produce synthetic diamonds and is still the most widely used method today due to its relative low cost.
The other method is the chemical vapor deposition (CVD) method, originally developed in the late 1980’s, uses a chemical reaction to rain carbon on top of a seed diamond to grow a real diamond layer by layer. The synthetic diamond is then separated from the seed.
Apollo Diamond, Tairus, Chatham, Adia Diamonds, Gemesis, New Age Diamonds and LifeGem are some of the laboratory grown synthetic diamonds currently available on the market. General Electric, Sumitomo Electric, and De Beers also make synthetic diamonds – but these diamonds are used for industrial purposes and not used for the jewelry business.
Here is an overview of these synthetic diamonds currently on the market: Apollo Diamond, Tairus, Chatham, Adia Diamonds, Gemesis, New Age Diamonds and LifeGem.
Find out about Diamond Simulants:
White Topaz
White Topaz – A Natural Diamond Substitute
Natural silver topaz, or commonly called white topaz, is colorless but it also occurs in a broad range of colors: yellow, blue, pink, peach, gold, green, red, and light to medium brown. White or colorless topaz is often irradiated and heat-treated to form blue topaz.
White Topaz has a Mohs hardness of 8 with visually much less brilliance and fire than natural diamonds. The stone’s hardness allows it to take an exceptional polish that gives it extra pop and luster.
Topaz are found in Russia, Siberia, Brazil, Sri Lanka, Africa and China, Japan, Pakistan, Myanmar, Nigeria, Australia, Mexico, and in the United States.
Take a look at this Sterling Silver 14K White Gold Plated Genuine Round White Topaz Engagement Ring
Read about other Diamond Simulants