Ruby Treatments and Synthetics

Historically Treated and Imitated

When buying rubies, ruby jewelry or any type of gemstones or gemstone jewelry it is important to know of a gemstone’s possible treatments, synthetics and imitations. Ruby and sapphire are commonly heat treated to improve their color. Heat treating ruby and sapphire is so common that most people have never seen a ruby or sapphire that has not been heat treated.  Heat treating rubies can make rubies have a more vibrant and valuable red color, remove some brown coloring from certain rubies and even improve the clarity of some rubies. Synthetic rubies are rubies that have been grown in a lab as opposed to growing in nature. Synthetic rubies have the same chemical composition and physical properties as a natural ruby and can’t be identified as synthetic with the naked eye. There are several methods used to grow synthetic rubies. Some methods produce rubies in a matter of hours that are normally easy for a gemologist to separate from natural ruby. Other methods can take several months to produce synthetic rubies and can be much more difficult to separate from natural ruby. Often it requires a well trained eye to separate flux grown synthetic ruby from natural ruby. When you buy ruby any treatments or synthetics must be disclosed by the seller. 

Ruby and Color               
Ruby Sources
Ruby Treatments and Synthetics


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