The Gemstone Detective

  Have you ever walked into a Goodwill store and seen all the jewelry for sale?  Most of the jewelry will be of two varieties: junk, which is to say Mardi Gras beads and other manmade material or pieces that are no longer consider trendy or in style.    Some bargains are to be had for sure, especially for jewelry designers who are seeking raw materials to remake into new pieces.  Just the other day, my studio partner found some beautiful glass Czechoslovakian beads that have been reinvented into beautiful earrings with sterling silver accents that will soon have new...

What will scratch a diamond? Well, only another diamond. Diamonds are the hardest of all gemstones registering a 10 on the Moh’s Scale of Hardness. What can a diamond scratch? Well, only another diamond plus all the other gemstones in the mineral world. What is the Moh’s Scale of Hardness and what do gemologists mean when we say a gemstone’s hardness?The Moh’s scale of hardness was developed in 1822 by Frederich Mohs. This scale is a chart of relative hardness of the various minerals with 1 being the softest up to 10, the hardest. Succinctly put, Moh’s scale is a...