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Fine Jewelry University Articles matching: “crystal”
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Fine Jewelry University
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Gem in the Spotlight: Jade
…are silicates which basically just means that they are rocks. These particular rocks are made up of silicon and oxygen as the primary components, but the other elements are what make them special. The arrangement of these atoms in its crystal structure is what gives jade its extraordinary toughness. At this point, it’s important to discuss the technical meaning of “toughness”. Toughness is a material’s resistance to fracturing, whereas hardness is its resistance to …
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Gem in the Spotlight: Ruby
… one of the hardest gems commonly used in jewelry second only to diamond (which has a Moh’s hardness of 10) and moissanite (which is in between). Rubies only occur in the color red which comes from trace amounts of chromium in the crystal structure. If they are too purple or too pink, they are called purple sapphires or pink sapphires, respectively. Since sapphires and rubies are the same gem material, they also share a refractive index of 1.762-1.770 and a specific …
