Treatments applied on Sapphire

by Premium Sapphire Gemstone dealer

The exquisiteness of a sapphire cannot be undermined. Looking at these gemstones is a feast for the eyes. Just like an emerald gemstone is a thing of beauty, so is a yellow sapphire gemstone and other sapphires.

In case you often wonder how the clarity, color, and value of a sapphire gemstone is improved, then you are at the right place.

There are various sapphire treatments that are performed to improve sapphires.

Let’s take a look at some of them:

Unheated. Natural, unheated yellow, blue sapphire gemstone or any other colored sapphire is rarely found. This is the reason why such a stone is quite expensive too. An unheated sapphire only gets cut and polished and goes through no other process.

Simple Heat Treatment.

Under this treatment, only the rutile is removed or converted. No other chemical process is conducted during a simple heat treatment. The treated sapphire, in such a case, is clarified permanently.

Multiple Heat Treatments.

When inclusions in a sapphire are too many to be removed easily through a single heat treatment process, multiple heat treatments are done to improve its clarity and color and to make it more valuable than what it is otherwise.

Beryllium Treatment.

Sometimes a sapphire is treated with Beryllium to produce yellow, golden, orange, and similar colors from lower quality sapphires. The beryllium penetrates the stone to provide color and brightness. Gemstone suppliers need to disclose beryllium-treated sapphires as they no longer remain natural.

Surface Diffusion.

In this treatment, titanium is used to coat the sapphire with color. Such a stone which has undergone surface diffusion treatment may lose the color after frequent polishes. Titanium treated sapphires also require full disclosures by the sellers.

Filled Cavities or Fissures.

A sapphire gemstone that has fissures and cracks that reach the surface could be filled with a cobalt-rich form of glass. While the cobalt will provide a brilliant blue color to the sapphire, the glass will fill the cracks, giving a much clearer and beautiful stone. Such sapphires also need full disclosure from the seller.