GEM CUTS

Imitation gems can be made of any material as long as that material imitates or closely resembles the natural gem, at least to the casual observer. As noted above, glass was the first material exploited to imitate gems. Today, plastic may also be used.Assembled or composite stones are part natural or genuine stone and part some other material. There are two kinds.

*A doublet has a genuine crown cemented or affixed to an artificial bottom. For example, the top may be ruby and the bottom red glass; or the crown may be colorless beryl, which is the same species of mineral as emerald, and the bottom green glass, giving the appearance of an emerald. Opal doublets are assembled for another reason than to substitute for a real gem. Precious opal is not common gem and it often occurs in thin seams. If the layer a precious opal with the necessary opalescence is too thin, the thinlayer may be cemented to a backing material to make it usable Assembled or composite stones can easily be detected under magnification because the joint or joining will show-as long as the stoned is unmounted. When it is mounted, the mounting hides the joint

*A triplet has three layers. For example, the bottom and to:, may be clear beryl, with the beryl layers cemented to a middle layer of green glass, thus giving the appearance of an emerald. Opal tripleconsist of a top layer of quartz, a middle layer of opal, and a backing layer, with the quartz giving strength to the fragile opal and protecing

A reconstructed stone is a stone in which genuine fragments : a gem have been heated at high enough temperatures to form a sol mass that could then be cut. So far, the only gem that has been successfully reconstructed this way is the ruby, although amber can created through the same process.