Rubies

Rubies have such a significance with all the pieces of jewellery they have been used in and have been in jewellery for many years and are still one of the most popular stones around. So I thought it would be nice to share little bit of background information with you about this true beauty.

This wonderful gemstone is a fantastic choice to include in any piece of jewellery. As well as the richness of its colour it also has a hardness of 9 making it one of the hardest coloured gemstones alongside sapphire, which comes in just one below diamond on the MOH’s scale. This means it’s a perfect choice for an engagement ring. The ruby is in the corundum group, which sapphire also falls under, and is referred to the ‘red corundum’. This red corundum can be found in a huge variety of shades ranging from the rich deep red shown in the above image to the more pink/purple to the more brownish reds. These colours will all depend on the amount of Chromium and iron content evident within the stone.

A few examples of the ranging tones rubies can be found are below, examples of previous commission using this stone.

You will find that when they are mined in large specimens they are expected to be a particularly deep rich red in colour. The more pinky tones from the corundum family are known as a pink sapphire. The corundum family have a long history of heat enhanced stones which is done under a high temperature and a controlled cooling process. The benefit to this particular treatment is that they can help clarify and improve the stone and striations within the ruby. This process will not decrease the value of the stone by a great amount. This is why natural rubies are extremely rare and valuable.

The value of rubies are dictated by many things, for example the size, colour, clarity and particular cut can increase or decrease the value quite considerably. The large, finer and deeper rubies are more rare therefore tend to be the more valuable stones to purchase. Due to their rarity it is said that in such a large size, they can be a lot more valuable than a comparable size of a diamond.

All rubies will be mined and cut with natural imperfections within the stone, which can include a colour striation or small inclusions of rutile needles known as silk. These imperfections will be what defines them as a naturally mined gemstone, if there are no traces of this within the stone then we can presume that most of the time this gemstone will have gone through a form of heat treatment where the temperatures reach approximately 3000 degrees during this process. Rubies can occasionally show asterism when they proceed through the cutting process and the stone is cut into a cabochon, this is often referred to as a star ruby. The value of these particular stones can sometimes be more valuable due to the asterism found within the stones being very rare.

The majority of rubies are mined in countries such as Africa, Asia, Australia, and Greenland. Although, they can be found in Myanmar, Sri Lanka, Kenya, Madagascar, Thailand, and have also been mined in parts of America. Some of the finest rubies that have been mined to date have been found in the Mogok Valley. In some of these areas there are sometimes small traces of Spinel that are evident when rubies are mined, this similar geographical formations can be mistaken for these very valuable rubies, however these fine red spinels are said to approach the average ruby in value.

The world largest ruby is the Rajaratna Ruby, which weighs 2,475cts (495g) because Rajaranta shows asterism; it is also the largest star ruby. The world’s biggest double-star ruby (with a 12 pointed star) is the Neelanjaliu Ruby, weighing 1,370 cts (274g).