Sapphire - September Birthstone
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What colour of Sapphire would you choose? (not all are blue!)
When most people think of sapphires they think of blue, but in fact sapphires are available in a rainbow of colours. Pretty much everything except for a pinkish, purpleish, red. If it's this colour then it's a ruby!
Sapphire is a precious gemstone that is a variety of the mineral corundum. Corrundum is one of the hardest minerals which is why it is a popular choice for jewellery and indeed engagement rings. On the Mohs scale of hardness a sapphire is a 9 – the only other gemstone that is harder is a diamond.
A sapphires colour is is influenced by trace amounts of elements such as iron, titanium, chromium, vanadium, or magnesium within each of it's crystals. For example, titanium within these tiny crystal elements reflect and refract to make a sapphire blue.
The name sapphire is derived from the Latin "saphirus" and the Greek "sapheiros", both of which mean blue.
It is common practice to heat natural sapphires to improve or enhance their appearance. This is done by heating the sapphires in furnaces to temperatures between 800 and 1,800 °C Evidence of sapphire and other gemstones being subjected to heating goes back at least to Roman times and generally applies to most sapphires – in fact an untreated sapphires are quite rare and one of high quality would be of high value.
Birthstone - September
Cut - As cabochons or as faceted gemstones
Found - Myanmar (Burma), Sri Lanka, Australia
Care Tip - A hard gemstone that can appear cloudy when needing cleaned. Clean with mild liquid soap, warm water and an old soft bristled toothbrush