01
BE. Stone Buying Checklist
How to read a crystal bracelet before you buy it: ten checks, in order, with the reasoning behind each. A4 PDF included.
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Journal
Field notes for understanding materials, comparing stones, choosing size, and caring for what you wear.
Published records
13 records
01
01
Hematoid Quartz vs Garnet: Two Reds from Two Different Causes
Hematoid quartz is quartz with iron-oxide particles inside; garnet is red through its own chemistry. Hardness, weight, light, fakes and matching, compared.
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02
Real vs Fake Garnet: How to Check Without Damaging the Stone
A material-first guide to screening garnet without damage: what colour, bubbles, UV and magnet response can suggest, where each clue fails, and how a gem laboratory confirms identity.
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03
Why Uvarovite Usually Appears as Small Green Crystals—and What the Faceted Exception Changes
Uvarovite usually forms as small green crystals along mineralised surfaces, yet rare larger and faceted mixed-composition examples keep “never cut” from being accurate.
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04
Almandine Garnet: Formation, Identification & Care
Almandine is the common Fe–Al garnet. Learn how it forms, how testing separates mixed red garnets, what to look for in jewellery, and how to care for it.
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05
Andradite Fire: Why High Dispersion Does Not Guarantee Visible Fire
Andradite has high optical dispersion, but the visible fire of an individual stone still depends on transparency, colour, cut, polish, lighting and viewing geometry.
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06
Green Grossular or Tsavorite? What Colour Cannot Prove
Tsavorite is a green variety name within grossular, but colour alone cannot establish the species, the naming threshold, origin, treatment or colouring elements.
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07
Spessartine Garnet: What Orange Tells You, and What “Mandarin” Does Not
Spessartine is defined by composition, while orange colour and the trade label “Mandarin” remain observations and market language rather than proof of species, origin or treatment.
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08
Pyrope Garnet: When a Red Stone Becomes a Geological Clue
Pyrope is a magnesium–aluminium garnet whose composition and field context can support geological exploration, but neither red colour nor an isolated grain proves identity, origin or diamonds.
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09
Why Geologists Use Garnet: Rock Histories and Diamond Clues
How measured garnet zoning helps reconstruct part of a rock's history — and why some mantle-derived garnets guide diamond exploration without proving diamonds are present.
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10
Garnet Through History: Ancient Egypt, Rome and Bohemian Jewellery
A material-first history of garnet, from a documented necklace in Tomb CC 24 at Thebes to Roman carved ring stones, medieval elite use and the nineteenth-century Bohemian pyrope...
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11
Garnet vs Ruby: How to Tell Them Apart and Choose
Garnet is a silicate mineral group; ruby is red corundum. Compare identity, hardness, visual overlap and what to ask before buying.
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12
Amethyst vs Garnet: Two Dark Stones, Different Stories
Amethyst and garnet both make deep-toned bracelets, but one is quartz and one a silicate group. Colour, hardness, care and price compared.
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