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Emerald Jewelry
Care and Cleaning
Emerald has come to define the color green and is a member of the beryl family. It is not as hard as the other precious gems, nor is it as tough, but it is still more durable than many of the other semi-precious gems. While I would be hesitant to recommend emerald for daily wear, we have customers who have successfully done just that. One of the main reasons that emeralds are more susceptible to being chipped is that most of them are heavily fractured. You should assume that all emeralds have been filled, which means these fractures have been filled to make them less visible. They used oil in the older stones, and are using glass-like substances in many of the newer stones.
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Do not put your emerald in an ultrasonic cleaner. It can remove the oil, which will make the fractures in your stone more visible. You should keep your emerald away from solvents for oil, like gasoline or lighter fluid. Detergents with heavy grease cutters can also be a problem. Like the sonic or ultrasonic cleaners, these items can also remove the oil that is in your emerald and should be avoided if possible. If you see a flaw in your emerald that you did not see previously, it is likely that the oil has been removed from a fracture. This does not happen frequently, but if it does, we can usually fix it by re-oiling the stone.
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Emeralds are about 8 on the Mohs scale. This is harder than average, but if you have your hands in abrasive material regularly, as you would while gardening, you are likely to find scratches on the stone as well as abrasions on the facet junctions.
- Heavy manual work does not mix well with emeralds. Avoid activities where your emerald is likely to be bumped or battered. Because they are often heavily fractured, they can chip more easily than many other gemstones.
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