The Gem Vault

Yes, things are a mess in Nigeria. We didn’t need to see the footage of extra-judicial killings that spilled onto the internet recently in order to know that there are a lot of problems there. As part of the commitment that Tip Top Gem has made to source countries that produce stones that we sell, we have made loans to two Nigerian entrepreneurs on the Kiva.org site.

We are blessed with wonderful opportunities to live rich, full lives here in America and for a very small amount of money (we loaned $25 to each of the entrepreneurs shown below) you can make a serious impact on individual lives. Remember that hope is highly contagious. What is a small or modest amount of money to you can impact someone in Nigeria for a lifetime. You aren’t just loaning money, you are spreading hope to people who have precious little of that commodity to go around.

Tip Top Gem will continue to make these contributions because we feel that miners in source countries are not getting a fair share of the profits. Nigeria plays a major role in the availability of untreated collector stones like tourmaline and garnet. If you are able to help someone in a gemstone source country please do so via Kiva.org or the microfinance institution of your choice. The entrepreneurs that we have chosen have not yet received their full loan amount as of this writing so feel free to help out Nneka or Rashidat in Nigeria! This is not a handout- Africa is evidence that handouts are not the solution. This is empowering an entrepreneur to grow their business by giving them a basic tool that many business owners in the West take for granted. Financing is often the fire that sets a business alight with growth and this is an incredibly powerful tool for entrepreneurs in the third world who are struggling to keep their family fed with a simple business plan like buying and reselling food, soap, or grain.

The Tucson show was an incredible success for Tip Top Gem and we are extremely excited for today and for tomorrow. But at the same time we are acutely aware that pain and suffering are a part of daily life in gem-producing countries like Nigeria, Mali, Kenya, Tanzania, and Pakistan. We have helped finance entrepreneurs in those countries and will continue to help entrepreneurs in colored-stone source countries when their gems help us to make a profit.

This post could very well have been called “Why should I buy a hearts and arrows CZ” because that is precisely the question that I am going to answer. But I am also going to tell you why an aspiring gemologist should buy one of our premium-quality CZ’s. Or, even if you have no aspirations to be a gemologist but you want to learn more about stones this applies to you as well. If you want to be a better consumer of stones this is every bit as important.

First, to get this out of the way, we only sell one grade of CZ. This grade has different designations depending upon the manufacturer, but the tolerance is unmistakable. It is held to within 1/100th of a millimeter for most sizes. Some manufacturers call it AAAAAAA or 7A grade, while others call it hearts and arrows 5A. The bottom line is that it is the most precisely cut cubic zirconia that you can buy anywhere at any price.

But let’s get to the meat of this argument that you should buy one. Quick- is a stone dense or not? Huh? Uhhhhhh. Yeah, that’s what I thought. You don’t have a reference and that is why you don’t use this test. You need to heft a stone by bouncing it on your palm a few times- toss it and catch it. Get some air between your palm and your stone- at least 12 inches. Feel it hit your palm- always the same palm. Now look at your stone. Is it opal? Is it diamond? Is it CZ? Well, if you practice this test with a CZ that you buy from Tip Top Gem you will have a very good reference for what “dense” is. A CZ will feel heavy compared to a diamond of the same size and especially compared to an opal. Do you think you don’t need this test, or this reference? You’re wrong. It is fast, easy, and free. It is also very accurate if you practice it, and it can help you separate CZ from some other colorless stones. It can also help you separate yellow CZ from sphene, or yellow CZ from yellow sapphire. Get to know the density of CZ and you are well on your way to getting a feel for many other stones.

Answer quickly now- no peeking. What is the luster of stone “A”? Uhhhhhh. Yeah, again. Well, CZ is an excellent example of subadamantine luster. If you know that a model stone like CZ is subadamantine you will surely be able to separate vitreous luster from adamantine. I know that by now all of the CZ you have seen in my listings seems like a bargain, and you are kicking yourself for not buying any in the past. I forgive you. Go bid. Remember, diamond has adamantine luster- in fact, adamantine means “like a diamond”. That makes sense. But also remember this. Vitreous luster is the most common luster for gemstones to have, so if you can spot subadamantine luster with one hand tied behind your back you are well on your way in the Gem ID game. Remember very few stones have adamantine luster- diamond and zircon are perhaps the most common of these. Demantoid garnet can also display adamantine luster.

If you don’t have a lot of experience judging luster, or it is not clear in your mind, remember these basics. You have to look at the reflection of the light from a stone’s surface. There are varying degrees of “crispness” or “whiteness” of that reflection. Vitreous means “like glass” so you can expect the reflection to be a bit grayish and not perfectly bright and crisp when it is reflected from the surface of a gemstone that has vitreous luster. Adamantine luster is like a diamond, and it is the ultimate brightness or crispness and it has the least amount of grey. It is a clean, very white reflection. Subadamantine is less than this, but it is not as far down the scale as vitreous. It will be between vitreous and adamantine on the scale. It will not be as white and crisp and bright as the reflection of light from the surface of a demantoid garnet or a diamond or a zircon. But it will not fall down the scale to the point where it has a grey tinge like a vitreous stone shows. Remember that polish marks, burned facets, or any number of surface defects will affect luster. When we say a demantoid garnet has adamantine luster, that means that it is the highest luster that it can expect to achieve with good polish.

Please allow me another word on luster. Now that every idiot and his even less intelligent brother can sell online we are inundated with people talking about the luster of gemstones. Stop, people. Luster is NOT brilliance. Luster is a property that can be observed when viewing the reflection of light from a gemstone’s SURFACE. It is also constant- diamond is virtually always adamantine, CZ is virtually always subadamantine, and quartz is virtually always vitreous. There is some wiggle-room, of course, as luster can vary from specimen to specimen of the same variety. But let me be clear on this point: you can not recut a stone to give it better luster! A well-cut stone does not have better luster than one that is poorly cut- they are the same. You can re-polish a stone to give it a better luster. But you will not be able to change the pavilion angle to improve its luster because luster only deals with the reflection of light from a stone’s surface.

If you are interested in learning to judge brilliance, and anyone who wants to be a better gemologist or a better gemstone consumer should be, the hearts-and-arrows CZ is an excellent control stone. This can show you what is possible. If you expect a stone to be better than this, your expectations are too high. If you have never seen a stone with nearly 100% brilliance, you are in for a treat as well as a learning experience. Just like your CZ can serve as a barometer for density, it can also serve as a model for perfect brilliance.

In the colored stone world we know that we have to live with imperfection. Beauty and perfection are entirely different, and few would argue that how beautiful something is depends upon how close it comes to perfection. But the hearts-and-arrows CZ that we offer is a superb model for perfect polish. You are not likely to find any polish lines, those little parallel lines on facets that tell you that the cutter was not so diligent when he was creating a gleaming luster on the stone’s surface. Each facet of 7A grade CZ is polished to perfection. There are no scratches, polish marks or lines, in fact- there is nothing to interfere with the stone’s subadamantine luster. It is universally shiny from one edge of a facet to the other. If you need a model for polish or if you want to learn to judge polish accurately then buy one of these stones.

Another aspect of a stone’s character that you will be asked to assess when doing a basic ID is the stone’s dispersion. Here we get into another tussle with the online salesfolk. Fire has a very specific meaning in the world of gemology, and if you sell colored stones online you should know what that meaning is. The ability of a stone to break up white light into its component rainbow colors is called “fire” or “dispersion”. They mean the same things to gemologists and to qualified, knowledgeable salespeople. Fire is not brilliance. A stone cut from quartz may have a huge amount of brilliance, but it will not have any fire. When you look at it you can not see rainbow colors like you can with diamond or (to a greater degree) CZ. Remember that CZ has more dispersion, or rainbow-colored fire, than diamond. It has- some would say- too much. If you bounce a stone on your hand and it is too heavy for the size, and then you notice that it has a lot of dispersion- it might well be a CZ.

Are you still unconvinced? Well, for fun you could tell your friend (spouse?) that your 10mm hearts-and-arrows CZ is a world-class 3.66 carat diamond. Yes, unlike lesser CZ ours really does appear very transparent and is an equivalent to a “D” color diamond- which is totally colorless. There is not the slightest shade of yellow, nor are the stones “milky” as some CZ tends to be. And just to make my point about density- note that this 10mm stone looks like a 3.66 carat diamond. You could take a 3.66 carat round diamond out of its mount and put this stone in, no problem. But how much does this 10mm stone weigh? Well, hold on to your teeth Ethel- about 6 3/4 carats!!! Yes, CZ is heavy.

If you have any questions about Gem ID, or about our CZ, or about anything at all gem-related please feel free to send me a note. There is a contact form link in the margin over on the right side and your message will go straight to my inbox. I would be happy to help in any way that I can!

Here is a link to some new stones that are currently for sale…and you can ONLY find them on Gembusters.com!

http://z11.invisionfree.com/gembusters/index.php?showtopic=477

You get the same 31-day money-back guarantee that you get on eBay but you also get fabulous prices. There are no fees to list on Gembusters so I am putting some premium material there at low buy-it-now prices. Please take a look at the listings, and also look over to the right to see our Facebook and Twitter badges. These are great ways to keep tabs on us. When we have exciting new material we will broadcast it there.

Right now we have a nice lot of the fire agate from Calvillo, Aguascalientes, Mexico as well as some really beautiful Ethiopian chocolate opal including the most highly coveted leopard spot pattern. No other Ethiopian chocolate is so highly prized- this is stunning material that will engage your eyes and your heart!

Remember to bookmark this page- and also on the right margin you will see links to sign up for our newsletter. This is invaluable if you want to keep tabs on the market here, or if you want first chance at our premium stones of all varieties. Also note that we will be adding more and more stones to our BluJay store very soon so you may want to bookmark that as well:

http://tiptopgem.blujay.com

Thanks for coming by the blog- we appreciate you so much.

As many of you know, Melanie and I love the idea of micro finance. We target specific countries that produce the gemstones that we sell because often miners are getting a disproportionately small share of the end price. Since we buy from the wholesale market and sell to the consumer, who better than us to give something back to those folks? Here is a picture of our latest loan recipients who hail from the West African country of Mali- home to, of course, Mali garnet!

Apparently this group of women makes crafts to sell. I can’t read French so I don’t know for sure, but just being from Mali is good enough for us. We have loaned money to people in Pakistan, Tanzania, Kenya, and finally we have made our way around to Mali. If you have not clicked on the Kiva.org badge in my sidebar, please do that today and give them a try. If you would like, you can throw your hat in the ring for these women from Mali. They still need additional cash before their loan is totally funded and the money is distributed to them. Please join us on this quest!

In the coming holiday season we will make another loan to a gemstone-bearing country and we would be thrilled to have some of our readers follow. If you enjoy the gemstones that are coming to you from these places what could be a better way to give something back than by helping an entrepreneur earn their way to financial independence?

Here is a picture of some cut-offs from the 3,000 carat parcel of rough fire agate that is being cut as I type. Congratulations to the lucky eBayer that got the first beautiful 3-carat stone out of this parcel! Note the cutter’s ink is visible, revealing a bit of his planning.

Fire agate has a natural beauty that defies comparison. This is an exciting stone with a great future and it is a value when you consider the rarity, difficulty to cut, and the serious lack of quality cabochons on the current market. I am fortunate to have a true expert cabochon cutter here in Chanthaburi whose experience running a production shop in Singapore has given him the knowledge needed to cut this difficult material.

Don’t take my word for it when I say this stuff is hard to cut- just look at all of the tumble-polished pieces online! Part of the story is weight-retention as tumbling to finish and then polish the surface retains maximum weight. But these sellers know that their per-carat prices and their overall revenue and profit would increase if only they could cut it. If only! Many back-yard lapidaries have failed in this endeavor and even as Melanie and I move toward producing more finished stones from rough material I will keep my cutter for stones like this.

Part of the problem with fire agate is the structure. You have to know a little about how it is formed to get the picture so I will try to explain it. As hot water (heated by natural volcanic processes) rich in silica and iron is deposited in voids in rock, it leaves behind a small layer of quartz and iron oxides as it leaves the same void. A void fills and empties many times as a fire agate is formed, and each layer has similar chemistry. This is essentially chalcedony forming in layers through which light can pass. But as light passes through these layers, it is separated in much the same way that a prism separates the different colors of white light.

Here is the gink- the deal- the catch. The void is dry between fillings of this hot silica/iron liquid. It can fill with debris that is vaporized by subsequent hot fillings, and that vapor can be deposited between the layers of chalcedony. If you have pure water with only iron oxide and silica each and every time, and it fills that void at precise intervals and temperatures, and is safe from any impure intruder- then fire agate would be easier to cut. The layers would not want to separate and the rough would be much easier to predict. But nature is loaded with impurities and with variations in temperature, chemistry, and things do not happen to a set timetable. All of these factors reduce fire agate’s homogeneity, and increase the difficulty that lapidaries have with it. And remember often the cutter gets a touch to close to a gorgeous bubble of color only to find that it has disappeared in the next sanding! Could anything be more frustrating?

I will not know the final yield until this parcel is completely cut, but as expected it is very low. Some cutters try to keep 40% of their weight when they cut cabochons, the finished product be darned. I have my cutter take away everything that is not beautiful and yield be darned. I can see from the little that is finished that in spite of very low yield this material from Calvillo, Aguascalientes, Mexico lives up to its reputation for quality. These stones are absolutely stunning and the variety over such a small lot is incredible.

One of the rarest types of agate is sagenitic fire agate. It contains sprays of needles and also shows the interference colors that make fire agate so beautiful in an opal-esque way. It’s unreal that I did happen to get one of these cabochons out of the lot that I bought, but it is currently on offer to a dealer so I can not show a picture here. Let’s hope he turns it down, because my price was far too low!

Thank you for stopping by The Gem Vault for a visit. We appreciate you, and hope you will not hesitate to get in touch if you need something. Also note that the most interesting news is saved for the newsletter. If you have not yet signed up, look to your right and find one of the links. You will get a much closer view of our lives here in Chanthaburi if you are on my list.

It is hard to believe, I know- but even more changes are coming to Tip Top Gem and you will have to keep your ear to the ground or come to see me in Tucson, because I am not about to tell you here.

Let me say that when I told you about the last huge change- moving to Thailand so that I could bring you a greater variety of stones and higher quality at better prices- I was surely not kidding. Sit tight for now. This next change might surprise you. Of course subscribers to the newsletter (look to your right for the link to sign up) always get information first!

Take good care,

Let me give you the warmest welcome to the brand new Gem Vault blog!  We at Tip Top Gem are thrilled to have a chance to start anew with fresh ideas, a new approach, and even more energy than the last blog added to the colored stone world.  I am extremely happy to have you back here at The Gem Vault and I promise that you won’t get bored here.  We have a lot of ideas and will bring you fresh, exciting content on colored stones.

The survey just went out so if you are on my newsletter you are in good shape and will have some input into how the company moves forward from this point.  If you are not yet on my list, feel free to sign up via the form.  All you have to do is look over to your right and you will see “Newsletter Sign-up” which takes you to a very simple form. You can sign up in ten seconds- really!  I publish this newsletter every month for collector and dealer alike.  There is no other monthly publication like it in terms of content, insider information, and a common-sense view of the industry and the hobby of gemstones.

If you returned the recent survey and gave your telephone number and requested a call-back time you can be sure that I will give you a call.  It may take a little time as the response was fabulous, but I will call and ask you about the issues and stones that are on your mind.  This will guide me in my blog posts, my show inventory for Tucson, and my newsletter content.  I am confident that communicating directly with the clients who want to provide input is the most efficient way to hand-craft the business.

If you are new here, you may not be aware that I am extremely receptive to new ideas, criticisms, and to any client or potential client who wants to contact me for information or service.  It could be a very long time before Tip Top Gem is so big that I can’t keep in touch with the core people who give direction to our efforts.  Likely that day will never come.  You will notice a “contact me” form on this page that is a very direct line to my email inbox.  And if you would rather, just dial toll-free 800-607-1425.  We recently had some additional capacity added to the line as well as rerouting because a number of customers got busy signals when the line was available, and the sound quality was not what it should have been.  Please bear in mind that it is still an international phone line, but if you want to talk just pick up the phone and dial! The quality is much improved now.

I can’t say thank you enough.  Thank you for being here at the new blog, and for taking time to contact me or do the survey or for bidding on the eBay auctions.  I am very grateful to be doing something that I love to do, and when you support Tip Top Gem you are helping me to stick with what I love more than anything.  I appreciate you.

Take good care,