"Silverite" ... Yet Again

I get a lot of emails regarding gemstones ("Is this real?" etc.) or positive comments about a particular blog post, suggestions, and other questions, and it's always nice to hear from people.  I'm always very happy to help if I can!

Occasionally I will get a comment left here on blogger that's really ridiculous, or argumentative, or just plain weird.  These people must have nothing else to do!?  I usually just ignore these types of comments.

I got this comment awhile back:

I have a couple of things to say.

First, it's from an anonymous user so that's red flag #1.

Second, they "spoke with" a supposedly "well known" jeweler "in town" but don't bother to mention who it is, what town, nothing.  Red flag #2.

Third, the idea that mixing "moonstone powder" with powdered sapphire is incredibly... well, dumb!  Moonstone's glow (adularescence) is caused by light scattering between microscopic layers of feldspar.  So crushing it will not give you ANY type of glowing properties!  There's no such thing as "reconstituted moonstone."  And any jeweler would know that.  So that's a big red flag #3.

Fourth, reconstituted stones, which are minerals that are crushed into a powder and then mixed with plastics and dyes, has been around for a long time.  It's not a "new technology".  Sapphires can be re-assembled in a variety of ways (see the link at the bottom).  Reconstituted gemstones are mostly made of plastics and resins plus dyes, and have to be disclosed as such.  Reconstituted turquoise is one example----it's sold in blocks and isn't considered genuine turquoise at all---it's virtually all dyed plastic.  On the right is a chart from a manufacturer of  "block turquoise" which is not genuine turquoise.  So that's red flag #4.

Fifth, I've already written about so-called "Silverite" many times, have spoken with gemologists, sent samples of this material to be analyzed at my expense, and have written about the results.  There is NO sapphire in it, none, zero, nada. It's not a coated sapphire, or topaz, or any other gemstone.  The ones I bought were analyzed as glass, just glass, or sometimes coated glass.  But sometimes this material can be a mineral---sillimanite, that is mined in India and often dyed to represent emeralds, rubies and sapphires, or left natural and sold as "silverite."

Which leads to the final point---I also heard directly from the main distributor of this "silverite" material in India who explained to me that it is, in fact, a mineral called sillimanite and that they sell this to US customers primarily (and Etsy in particular) and have just chosen the name "silverite" to market their beads.  These are mined sillimanite beads which are natural in color.  So if you buy "silverite" you are either getting glass, or mined sillimanite.  Therefore, as far as I'm concerned, case closed on the whole "silverite" thing.  There is NO such gemstone---it's just a trade name that the manufacturer in India gave this sillimanite product.

If you are interested in reading about the history of Reconstituted, Reconstructed, and Recrystalized gemstones like rubies and emeralds, and how they're made, here is a fantastic article:

https://www.jckonline.com/magazine-article/reconstituted-reconstructed-recrystallized-regrown-again/