November 20, 2007

New Highly Doctored Emeralds Raise the Question: Where’s the Beef?

By David Federman, Colored Stone Editor-in-Chief

This six-stone ‘suite’ of emeralds was a single 7-carat oval until cleaning by New York’s Clarity Enhancement Lab removed the ‘super-glue’ that kept the stone in one piece. Photo courtesy of Clarity Enhancement Laboratory LLC.

Just when you thought it was safe to go back into emeralds, there comes news of a new treatment scandal involving stones being exported from Colombia.

Treaters there are infusing highly fractured, flimsy rough with polymers that act as a glue, then letting these otherwise unworkable stones be cut in sizes far larger than they would have ever been without the use of these adhesives. That’s why many U.S. dealers bring them to the state-of-the-art Clarity Enhancement Laboratory LLC in New York for cleaning.

However, the lab is refusing all such stones. “I am seeing 10 carat emeralds that should never have been more than two carats,” says Fernando Garzon, the lab’s co-owner, along with Arthur Groom of Eternity Natural Emerald.. “If I cleaned them, they would break into four or fives stones. So I turn them away. I don’t want the guilt or the liability.”

When Garzon confronts dealers about clarity enhancement of rough and pre-forms, they usually offer implausible excuses. Some tell him that the polymer is used only as a sealant to lock in normal oils used to hide fractures. Others tell him the polymer is used to keep diamond dust out of stones when they are put on the wheel. “In all cases I tell them the filler isn’t a sealant but a glue used to hold stones together,” he says. “Furthermore, the substance cannot be removed without damaging the stone.”

Should these ‘glued’ emeralds be sent to labs for identification, which is rarely the case, some in the trade think they should be classified as “composite” or “assembled” stones to warn prospective buyers of their highly fragile nature.
One such dealer is New York-based fine gem specialist and jewelry designer Jeffrey Bilgore, who argues: “These low-end stones are not what they appear. They are sausage not steak. And like sausage, it is insufficient to call these emeralds ‘enhanced,’ ‘treated’ or ‘modified.’ In reality, they are a fabricated gem product in the same way sausage is a fabricated meat product. A synthetic emerald has more integrity.”

Garzon agrees with Bilgore on all but one point. “I have seen emeralds which cost $100,000 subjected to this treatment,” he says. “So every class of emerald is fair game for ‘gluing.’”

Surely, one would think, these luxury-priced polymer-filled stones must go to gem labs for identification. So it is worthwhile to ask them what they should be called.

Once cleaned, Perma-filled emeralds return to being ugly ducklings. Photo courtesy of Clarity Enhancement Laboratory, LLC.

As things stand, most filled emeralds can easily be spotted by labs. The trouble is that in the past their notations on gem identification reports did not reflect the gravity of what they observed. Saying, for instance, that a composite emerald shows evidence of clarity enhancement is, at best, an understatement. Bilgore says the labs should say more—much more. “A line has been crossed,” he says. “And we need a new language to describe the highly doctored stones we are seeing.”

Will that clearer, more explicit language come in time to stop consumers from making uninformed holiday season buying decisions about emerald? It is already in use with equally troubling glass-filled ruby. On Wednesday, American Gemological Laboratories in New York announced it would henceforth call all glass-filled rubies composite stones. And Tom Moses, senior vice president of GIA Laboratories and Research, informs us that the Laboratory Harmonization Committee agreed some weeks ago to call rubies held together with glass “composites constructed from ruby and glass.” Talk about candor! “Finally,” says Bilgore, “the gem labs have made collective candor a common cause.”

The question remains: with Christmas 30-some shopping days away, can we expect similar lab candor for ‘glued’ emeralds?

According to AGL’s president Cap Beesley, terms like “composite” and “assembled” would have to be reserved for stones where the filler actually serves as a binding agent. “Just because a fracture-filling agent is a polymer doesn’t mean that it is holding a stone together,” he explains. “Labs have to identify specific substances used for that purpose before they can begin classifying stones as ‘composites.’” For Beesley, only one polymer, a Colombian-origin product called Perma (also known as Gematrat) is used as glue. “But we have to make absolutely sure that Perma is what we’re encountering,” he adds.

Toward this end, AGL has applied for two technology patents that allow for rapid readings of a gem’s entire chemical profile—both intrinsic and added elements. Once a person sees specific identification of a filler as Perma or Gematrat and examines the details of the fracture system in the stone, they will be able to draw conclusions about the highly treated nature of the stone. Beesley says he should be offering substance-specific identifications by the fall of next year.

In the mean time, Beesley says current AGL nomenclature can alert dealers and jewelers to problematic emeralds since the lab has long identified emerald fillers by general type, including oil, wax and polymers—as well as amount in nine categories from “none” to “prominent.” “If you see a statement that an emerald shows strong-to-prominent presence of a polymer filler, you should already be on guard about that stone.”

Moses wants nothing left to inference. “We would imagine a similar wording [i.e., “composite”] could be applied to ‘constructed’ emeralds.”

Underneath the ‘gunk’ lurks an emerald that been clarity-enhanced in Colombia with a fracture filler called both “Perma” and “Gematrat.” Photo courtesy of Clarity Enhancement Laboratory, LLC.

To be fair to the gem trade, it is caught in a congestion of crises—starting with the growing proliferation of beryllium-colored corundum, then the more recent influx of low-grade glass-filled Madagascar ruby. Dealers tell us there is a glut of this ‘reconstituted’ ruby.

Given this glut of composite ruby, ‘glued’ emerald is just one more predicament to deal with.

Fortunately, we’re seeing forceful trade pressure on labs to come to terms—both literally and figuratively—with lead-glass filling of rubies. The New York Gem Dealers Association has actively lobbied labs to create a separate category for these stones that makes it obvious to consumers that they are buying an assembled, or composite, stone. But the group has yet to ask for action on what one gemologist wryly calls “Perma-pressed emeralds.”

One thing for sure, many in the gem trade now feel the market is so flooded with tampered goods that resistance is better than reticence. One main ingredient of that resistance is new gemological nomenclature that segregates these stones from bona fide gems in the way classifications such as “synthetic” do. With AGL’s decision to use the word “composite” to describe assembled gems, and the LMHC’s concurrent adoption of identical wording, the gemological community has taken a giant step forward in crisis management.

Now that gem labs have addressed the ruby crisis, will they take up the emerald crisis—or pause for breath? The possibility of a double standard for aggregate ruby and emerald is not one the gemological community is likely to tolerate. Expect swift action.

As of this moment, however, no lab or gemological group has officially announced new nomenclature for composite emeralds. However, one Philadelphia jeweler who had stopped buying ruby and emerald is satisfied that the gem labs have taken a bold, pre-emptive first step. “One down, one to go,” he quips. “Since I sell no ruby or emerald without a gem identification report, I think I’m going to have a safe selling season.”

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