Gemmology

Written by Karen Gauci | 12 July 2010
Posted in News - Inside View

 Being this is my first "blog" entry I thought I would talk about my favourite subject, gemmology.

Gemmology, to me, is the most interesting of all the earth sciences. Most people see a Gemmologist as just a person who does jewellery appraisals, like a jeweller does, but there is a real science behind Gemmology that jewellers never acquire.

The study of Gemmology is a combination of chemistry, physics and mathematics. It took me five years of hard work to earn my two degrees. To this day I still continue to educate myself on new materials, cutting techniques, manmade gemstones, and so much more every day. At my laboratory I can do complex tests that will tell me the specific chemical composition of any gemstone, test all the physical attributes from specific gravity to refractive index, and that's far beyond what a jeweller can do for an appraisal. The most exotic piece of equipment in my lab has to be the Fourier transform Infra-Red Spectrophotometer, say that five times fast. Gemmologists are specially trained and have the tools that make their appraisals more definitive and authoritative. In my case I am proud of the fact that I have the best equipped independent laboratory in North America. No jeweller is willing to purchase this class of gemmological equipment to do appraisals, it is not where they make their money. Likewise I'm not buying a micro laser welder in the near future.  

If I come across as being full of myself I'm not, but I am very proud of my achievements in the field of Gemmology, and really dislike being compared to jewellers just because I do appraisals. We both have specialized training that can parallel and overlap in some cases. Still you would never confuse a cat with a dolphin, but they are both mammals.