Smoky Quartz
Smoky Quartz
Can smoky quartz be dangerous ?
I've bought a smoky quartz about 25 years ago. A friend told me it could have been irradiated to get its dark colour and could still be a little bit dangerous for health. Is it possible ? I bought it in Canada, don't know its exact origin.
Thank you.
The smoky color of quartz is commonly the result of gamma ray bombardment form nearby uranium mineralization (or sometimes potassium or thorium), over millions or even billions of years. The quartz itself does not become radioactive from this process, its crystal structure is merely altered to give it the smoky color.
When you go for a chest xray or a dental xray, your body doesn't become an xray emitter, its the same process for gamma radiation. The object that is being irradiated does not become radioactive.
If you've got ceramic toilets, gypsum wallboard, or granite countertops in your home, those will emit more gamma rays then the smoky quartz ever will. You have nothing to worry about.
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Rutilated Quartz Gems
We have always been fascinated by rutilated quartz, clear or smoky quartz with inclusions of rutile titanium dioxide (). The needles of rutile form beautiful patterns like miniature sculptures. Each stone is unique - some have fine hair like needles intersect, others have dense clusters of needles thick.
We buy large parcels of rutilated quartz whenever we can find them and sell them at very attractive prices, usually for less than $ 3 per carat. So we were interested to read a recent report in Modern Jeweler magazine around the world about the growing demand for this precious stone and asked prices in major markets like New York.
According to Modern Jeweler, demand for quartz Rutilated by designers of jewelry is so strong that nice cabochons are selling as much as $ 20 or more per carat in the U.S.. One dealer explained this way: "When you think of what this gem offers in terms of visual appeal and artistic potential to consumers hungry for things that are new and different rutilated quartz would still be a bargain at twice the price. "
Our first thought when reading this was not, as you might think, we must raise the price in our rutile quartz . Our business model is to sell at a fair price, based on prices we pay for our gems. Rather, it made us think about how much the supply chain that determines the retail prices of precious stones, and how large the difference in prices may be near the mining of origin.
We do our shopping in one of the world's main trade centers of colored stones, Chanthaburi Thailand. Prices here in most gemstones are probably as low as they are anywhere in the world. Most of the jewelry purchased by wholesale here are passed through many hands before being sold to someone who will put them in jewelry. This is how rutilated quartz becomes $ 20 per carat in New York.
Our model is different. We buy as close to the source as possible and sell through the Internet directly to collectors, designers Jewelry and consumers. We know that our prices are significantly lower as a result, but we see that as an opportunity to be competitive in the free market, not an opportunity for price manipulation.
It is important that the miners and gem cutters get a fair price for their work and the value added to the field. It The same goes for people who design and manufacture of jewelry with these precious stones. But all the intermediaries in the supply chain profit with no added value not help those who are worthless, in fact brokers inflate prices and reduce the revenue should go to the miners, cutters and designers gemstones jewelry.
About the Author
GemSelect is a leading online dealer in fine gemstones, with more than 115 different varieties in stock. Gemstone Meanings.