Featured What kind of garnet am I?

I went whole-hog on this at the thrift store spent $25. The garnet is incredibly sparkly and unlike any others I have (and I have a few.) Marked 925 and the maker's mark looks likecan 8, but it's not a size 8. Any thoughts?

 

Not a garnet I'm familiar with, although rubelite tourmaline might be a possibility. Pyrope garnets come that dark.

 

Hmmm....will check that out, thanks!

 

I will take a pic in the sun tomorrow (hopefully it will finally come out.)

 

Stunner color...luscious!

 

It could be almandine garnet,they can be dark like your photo.

 

This beautiful Mozambique garnet gemstone has dark red natural color; it is unheated and untreated. This dark red garnet gemstone appears almost black under some lights, with deep red flashes in its depths.

.... red garnet...

kinda looks like yours

 

It looks like an umbalite garnet to me. Umbalites are found in Kenya and Tanzania.

 

It might be a Mozambique or umbalite..I have never had or seen a garnet that sparkles like this. It's like a diamond flashing. Here's a pic in the sun.

 

Very likely! It does look like a black diamond when the light doesn't hit it directly.

 

What does UV do for it?

 

It is very pretty!

 

will check tonight

 

luv the fire it throws........ special !!!

 

I have a chunky silver ring with an extremely sparkly stone that is purple with hot pink glints. I have assumed it is CZ. How did you determine this stone is garnet?

 

Could it be spinel?
I have a very dark red spinel that sparkles like crazy.
It's very hard to capture the sparkles in a photo.

 

It tests as garnet on my Presidium.

 

As with acid testing of metals, I'm still trying to understand what readings on a Presidium gem tester can mean. From some quick Googling, what is measured is not hardness or refractive index but thermal conductivity. Diamonds are extremely good conductors of heat, and most of what comes up at the top of the search results concerns the Presidium tester's ability to distinguish diamond from everything else.

For lesser gems, some of the ranges, particularly the garnet group, are very wide; only the most common precious & semiprecious gem names are used as range labels; and, other than glass, the names of man made materials are not used in range labels, so it's not clear how a CZ would read.

The properties of CZ seem a bit paradoxical to me, as there does generally seem to be a degree of correlation between hardness & thermal conductivity. But, while CZ has about the same hardness as garnet, its thermal conductivity is relatively low. All in all, it looks to me like a CZ would register at best at the low end of the garnet range.

My gem book describes almandine garnet as being 'red with a violet tint'; pyrope is 'red with brown tint'. The refractive index, the measure of sparkle, is higher for almandine garnet. I don't know whether yttrium aluminum garnet (YAG) comes in colors, but it has a refractive index a little higher than that of almandine garnets.

While poking around, came across this chart on Presidium's site. I imagine it probably comes with the gadget, but have attached the file for the rest of us.

 

I'm down with that..... not used to seeing such big ones here....

 

Thank you! I am going to join a rock/gem club soon. Maybe they will have some ideas....garnets are one of my favorite gemstones because it was my dad's birthstone. And my maternal grandmother's birthstone. I especially love garnet and pearl jewelry because my 3 siblings and I were born in June.