Ruby Or Garnet How To Tell

Pyrope almandine and andradite are the most common red garnets.

Ruby or garnet how to tell. Perform a hardness test. This is because a ruby s makeup is such that it absorbs yellow and green and will not reflect them in that. They are light but not bright if the gem is more of a dark red then it may be garnet instead of a ruby. In terms of their colors while a garnet has a wide variety of colors other than red such as green brown and orange a ruby is usually red.

Real rubies glow with a deep vivid almost stoplight red. If the light reflects a rainbow of colors including bands of yellow and green the odds are you are looking at a garnet. Holding up a garnet to the light can assist you in determining whether or not you are looking at a garnet or a ruby. A real garnets will change colors in both lights.

Starting with their toughness a garnet has only been given 6 5 to 7 5 on the mohs scale while a ruby has been given a solid 9 0. This simply means that a ruby is a more durable mineral than the garnet. If you are holding a ruby the rainbow image you see will be blurred and appear almost as one rainbow on top of another. The rainbow image you see within a garnet will be much more clear due to its singly refractive property.

Now look at the rainbow or spectrum and if there are yellow and green bands then your stone is likely not a ruby. Another way to determine if your stone is a ruby or a garnet is to examine the spectrum. If you are mistaking a ruby for a red garnet this is an easy way to distinguish between the two as rubies will not display green or yellow bands. Ruby is one of the four most precious stones in the world along with diamond sapphires and emerald.

Garnets can be be found in a variety of colors. Even though garnet is also a gemstone it is a semiprecious gemstone with a significantly low value compared to ruby. A ruby is a doubly refractive stone so it refracts light in a much different way than a garnet which is singly refractive. To do this hold your stone up to a bright light source and move it around until the stone creates a rainbow.

View the garnet in both natural and artificial light. Rubies red corundums that contains aluminum oxide and chromium generally are more valuable than red garnets so it is important to be able to tell the difference between them when buying gemstones. Fake gems are often dull. Tell by the color and the shine.