I am suspicious of the material myself, but getting enough monetary interest to do the full on investigation of potential enhancements is not easy with a material this soft (so not as useful in jewelry) and also that isn't widespread yet in the market.
(Just to clarify, I don't buy or sell this material myself, I started looking into it since a jeweler client asked about it and I had never heard of it.)
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I bought one from GemRockAuctions to play around with it - with whatever limited tools I have. I have also seen it sold in only one stall at Gemworld Munich this year, pity it was near closing time so I did not stop to ask the dealers about it.
The RI is 1.63, couldn't calculate birefringence cos I have a crappy cheap refractometer. DR on Polariscope. Distinct orange fluorescence under LW-UV, similar to Kunzite. Very clean stone for an Apatite compared to my neon blue ones, despite a fairly big size. Very weak pleochroism, violet-red and violet blue. Yellowish green under Chelsea filter.
I am a newbie so if there are suggestions on how to test it with basic equipment or any ideas based on this info, I am interested to hear.
Yes, I like the color quite a bit, and there aren't a lot of red color stones out there. I am ok with pretty much any kind of treatment except fracture filling and dye, so I bought this for the price that in my mind is reasonable for something I assume is treated. Would be interesting to know what exactly they did to it though and if the color is stable. Keeping it out of the sun and daylight for now just in case.
I'd guess irradiation is the only possibility. I believe it's known to enhance the color of pink apatite anyway, which does fade in sunlight. But there's no guarantee this is the same color mechanism anyway. Quite a beautiful stone!
I would also think irradiated for now, so will keep it in the dark. It's too soft to mount in a ring anyway and I only ever wear rings for jewellery.
I wonder why I am not seeing much of it offered for sale. The vendor I bought from gets 2-5 stones listed every few months, and they get sold very fast. Seen it in one stall at Munich Gemworld - also just a few stones offered. You'd think they could zap as much material as they want? People buy irradiated green Kunzite even though it's unstable, I bet they'd have plenty customers who'd buy irradiated Apatite as well.
It would have to be very special feedstock with unusual chemistry even if it's treated. It's not like apatite doesn't get irradiated sometimes, this isn't the usual result.
I am beginning to see more of that red apatite being sold online. Majority of listings claim it's from Madagascar, some say it was discovered in 1995. None is ruby red, everything is reddish-brown, similar to the color my stone is.
This is the first time I am seeing tumbles. Which are so patchy that I wonder if it's dyed.
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