Can gemstone be identified only with photos?We often receive emails and photos in which it is asked to identify the stones. We try to do what we can but truly speaking even the world’s best gemologist cannot definitely recognize a gemstone by just looking at its photograph. Sometimes, even visual inspection of a real gemstone is not considered adequate.

The systematic study of gemstones had started at the time when people began to believe any attractive red stone as ruby. Now there is a wide range of different gemstones (According to an estimate there are more than 200 different varieties of gemstones) that a gemologist has to identify. In past identifying gemstones was an art but now it has become somewhat like a science. Without any careful measurement and method gemstone identification is just guesswork and nothing else.

Physical and optical properties of gemstone

There are some distinctive physical and optical properties in every type of gemstone including color and gleam, specific gravity, density and hardness. In many types of gemstones there is similar sort of particular gravity or the similar sort of refractive index but still each type has a different unique profile when we consider results of all the basic tests. Mind it, if you try to identify a gem just with refractive index, you can be very easily misled.

Different gemological tools

It is not very hard to learn how different gemological tools are used. The refractometer is used to measure refractive index; polariscope is to recognize single and double refractive gems, to measure particular gravity an accurate scale to the 1/100th of a carat is used while a 10x loupe is often seen as a powerful tool in an expert’s hand.

Binocular microscope

Another increasingly important tool is binocular microscope .Binocular microscope is a reliable tool to spot fracture filling and signs of heat treatment. It requires wide-ranging skill and experience to detect all this and some kinds of treatment needs specialized and expensive equipment to be detected. Gamma ray spectroscopy is required to detect radiation treatment while a procedure known as LASER INDUCED BREAKDOWN SPECTROSCOPY is used to detect beryllium treatment of sapphire. However, one must keep in mind that these tools are not easy to access and you are not likely to get these tools from your next to door gemologist.

How reliable the results are

You can get a lot of information about some specific gemstone from an expert gemologist who has vast experience in some specific kind of gemstone. Sometimes you can get detailed information even about the origin of this specific kind. However, this type of informed judgment about origins that gives way to ultimate conclusion about specific kind of gemstone is needed to be distinguished from quantities tests. Different gemology labs reflect the same on their issued certificates. These labs can convincingly declare the identified material as ruby because it has similar characteristics as the material that is mined in Madagascar or in Pakistan. No doubt gemology has become an absolute science but still it has some art in itself.

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The author writes articles on gem stones. For more information about minerals, visit gemstones