How can I tell if I have a ruby or a garnet?

Question

How can I tell if I have a ruby or a garnet?

Answer 1

One difference between rubies and garnet is the rubies have a hardness of 9.0 where garnets have a  range of hardness  of about 6.5 to 7.5. on the Mohs Scale.

Rubies are usually pinkish to red in color. Garnets usually are a deeper red or purple like color. however in rare instances can be many colors.

A garnet is denser in clarity than a ruby, most rubies are clearer.

Also rubies are rarer than garnets therefore more expensive.

Answer 2

ruby is a red variety of corundum, used as a gem. igneous intrusive rock (crystallized at depth). Ruby, precious stone, the transparent red variety of corundum, found chiefly in Myanmar, Thailand, and Sri Lanka and classified among the most valuable of gems. It is harder than Garnet.  It ranks a 9 on the Moh's scale, whereas garnet is 6.0 - 7.5 on the Moh's scale.

garnet - any of a group of hard, vitreous minerals, silicates of calcium, magnesium, iron, or manganese with aluminum or iron, varying in color: a deep-red transparent variety is used as a gem and as an abrasive.  (metamorphic rock)

Garnet is a group of minerals that have been used since the Bronze Age as gemstones and abrasives.

Oh yes, Not all garnets are deep red.  You can also find them in green and orange as well (based on my research and rock collection) It is also my birth stone.  Ruby Chorundum also varies in color only recieves a different name.  Sapphire can range from blue, white, and pink.  

http://www.reference.com/

Answer 3

A quick way to tell the two apart is to use a polariscope. Don't panic - you can make a very cheap one from a pair of old polaroid sunglasses. Get a strip of stiff cardboard about 8in. long and 3in. wide and cut a hole at each end which is smaller than the glasses lens. Bend each end up so that you can look through one hole and see the other. Take the lenses out and, with tape, stick one lens over it at the other end hold the other lens and rotate it until it looks black when you look through and stick the second lens in place. Hold the stone between your finger tips and place it between the lenses and look through. A ruby will go light and dark four times as you rotate it between the lenses whereas the garnet will remain equally dark all the time.

Answer 4

well if the one i seen several years ago was real ruby,the color is pinkish red with lines or veins or interior cracks,they are not brilliant and seems a soft form of gem.the garnet is in deep red color and is harder than ruby and clear but due to its dark red color and even become darker at night it is translucent to opaque!though ruby is not so beautiful gem, it is more expensive than garnet.it is rare unlike garnet more available!

Answer 5

Visual identification of ruby and garnet is tough as both of the gemstones has similar appearance in case of color. Even the weight of both the stones are similar when compared to its size i.e., heft.

Scratch test (hardness testing) is one method (though not recommend by gemologist) by which you can identify gemstone at certain times without using any instrument or having any knowledge of gemstone. Ruby (corundum) has a hardness of 9 while garnet has a hardness range of 7 to 7.5. The rule is, the stone having higher hardness value can scratch lower hardness value stone. One have to take a sharp point of the stone, namely culet, and try to scratch on girdle or nearer area of another stone. Try same procedure on both of the stone. The stone which gets a scratch will be garnet. One can also use hardness pencil or hardness plates for this test.

Using any one of the instrument among spectroscope, refractometer, polariscope or dichroscope can separate ruby from garnet and spinel easily.

Gemstone refractometer (based on principle of refractive index) can identify more than 50% of stones accurately that comes in its range. This instrument which costs around $100 is must for those who deals in gemstones.

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I don't know if this is the best place but here it goes.

The "U.K. Exporter", in the above post mentioned how to make "tube-with-lens" which is known as dichroscope in gemology; even though I don't have as much of experience as he/she has but to the best of my knowledge I think it is quite wrong.

One cannot make a dichroscope or that "tube-with-lens" with simple lens, it requires lens with doubly refraction i.e., colorless variety of calcite known as Iceland Spar. Without fitting the "doubly refraction stone" (lens) in that tube it is impossible to separate ruby from garnet.

"Doubly refraction stone" is one in which when a ray of light enters is refracted into 2 different paths. Calcite is the best known doubly refraction stone.