One of the most sought after gemstones for jewellery setting, the colour of passion and love, is a Ruby. Here is a concise buying guide to this mysterious beauty.

The Corundum Family

Corundum is an aluminium oxide whose crystal prisms are hexagonal with tapering or flat ends. Corundum is a tough mineral and its hardness is next to diamonds. Ruby is gem-quality corundum.

Colour

Colour of a ruby is huge factor in deriving its price. Rubies can be a varied shade of red, from pinkish to purplish to brownish red. The colour depends on the amount of chromium and iron in the gem. The most desirable colour of a ruby depends on its hue, tone and saturation. The ideal stone colour is ‘pigeon’s blood’. This slightly purplish red hue has colour grades, ‘vivid red to deep red’ and ‘intense red to vivid red’. The ideal ‘Pigeon blood’  hue stone would have high fluorescence; that means it would have an intense glow, and would have a vivid red colour.  The finest ‘pigeon blood’ rubies come from Burma. A ruby with a light tone that appears pink is a pink sapphire.

Clarity

All natural rubies have inclusions or imperfections. Stones in which inclusions do not affect the transparency or brightness are ideal. Most rubies go through heat treatments to enhance the colour. Gemmologists get the idea of the treatment and the gem’s origin by studying the inclusions.

Rutile inclusions, called silk in the jewellery trade are needle like imperfections in the stone. These weave-like inclusions need high heat treatment. Some rutile inclusions give a ‘star effect’ when the light reflects from the stone. Such stones are highly coveted. An inclusion-free ruby is a sign that it could be a synthetic or a lab-made stone.

Cut

Many factors come to play while cutting a stone. Cutter have to consider the final weight of the stone, durability, colour, depth, inclusions, shapes. The main consideration is to reduce the wastage of the rough material while cutting the stone. The reason being, the weight of the gemstone on cutting is more at the bottom of the stone. Some popular shapes are oval and cushion. A round cut is another sought-after choice but it increases wastage. Fancy cuts in large stones are rarer.

Carat

As a ruby increases in size, so does its price. Rubies are high in demand and the price jumps after one carat. One can compare the carat of ruby and diamond. A ruby of the same carat would appear much smaller than a diamond because ruby is denser.  In other words,  a 1 carat diamond will look bigger than a 1 carat ruby

Unlike diamonds, gemstones do not have a standardised technical chart of estimating value. Each laboratory has its own way of classification. Therefore, it is very important to seek expertise from a trusted and certified source if you wish to invest in gemstones.

We, at Kahn High Jewellery, ethically procure our diamonds, pearls and gemstones from the choicest origins. All our stones are certified and of the highest quality. Do get in touch with us if you have any further queries.