Ruby Or Garnet How To Tell

Pyrope almandine and andradite are the most common red garnets.

Ruby or garnet how to tell.

Real rubies glow with a deep vivid almost stoplight red. Holding up a garnet to the light can assist you in determining whether or not you are looking at a garnet or a ruby. 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. If it is a real ruby however know that darker stones are usually worth more than lighter stones.

Tell by the color and the shine. Perform a hardness test. 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.

This simply means that a ruby is a more durable mineral than the garnet. The rainbow image you see within a garnet will be much more clear due to its singly refractive property. A ruby is a doubly refractive stone so it refracts light in a much different way than a garnet which is singly refractive. 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.

Garnets can be be found in a variety of colors. Garnets are a 7 7 5 on the mohs scale. Since the most common color of garnet is red it is important to know how to spot the difference of ruby and garnet. 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.

Ruby is one of the four most precious stones in the world along with diamond sapphires and emerald. View the garnet in both natural and artificial light. Now look at the rainbow or spectrum and if there are yellow and green bands then your stone is likely not a ruby. Fake gems are often dull.

If you are holding a ruby the rainbow image you see will be blurred and appear almost as one rainbow on top of another. To do this hold your stone up to a bright light source and move it around until the stone creates a rainbow. Another way to determine if your stone is a ruby or a garnet is to examine the spectrum. A real garnets will change colors in both lights.