Gemstone Clarity – Finding a flawless gemstone

Clarity refers to the presence, or rather, the absence of internal (inclusions) or external (blemishes) flaws. Flawless colored stones are probably harder to find than flawless diamonds, but flawlessness is not fussed about as much in the case of colored stones as diamonds simply because flaws don’t show themselves as much in the former. And this is a continual attribute, meaning that the lighter the stone, the more the clarity required.
Again, having or not having flaws is not all. What kinds of flaws are present and where they are present is also an important issue. For example, if an Emerald has a feather, or a crack, drawn up right to its table, then its value may be greatly reduced for two reasons – first that this affects the life of the gem, and second that it also reduces its beauty immensely in that when viewed from the top, the gem does not have visual continuity. But having flaws in inconspicuous locations is not much of a problem. In fact, they increase the price of certain gems, such as the Burmese Rubies, if they give indications of the origin of the gem.

So what one needs to do is to shop around, take a peep at different gems and examine their clarity, and train oneself to differentiate the acceptable from the unacceptable ones.

Remember – flaws are not all bad, they actually help gemologists identify them. However, a special note for people interested in flawless gems – these babies are some of the rarest things in the world, so the price is much more than you would normally expect. So, more money means more caution – get all the facts straight. Many synthetics are being sold in the name of flawless Rubies and Sapphires – synthetics can be made flawless very easily.