surface diffusion treatments.6, sapphire, corundum, Thailand, gems

Pssst. pssst. Want a hot tip? Hit the library and dredge up a gem treatment, preferably one developed years ago, so that most have forgotten it. Spice it up a bit, give it a jazzier name. Then throw a piece into a parcel of naturals and take it round to a lab on… say… New Year's Eve. Did the lab muff the identification? Great! Call in the trade media to roll out the product (and don't forget to show them the natural report). Now promote the bejesus out of it by telling people that it's virtually unidentifiable.Sound crazy? It shouldn't. It should sound familiar, like deep surface diffusion. Most in the gem trade have now heard of the deep surface diffusion-treated sapphires. But few know how to spot them. And fewer still realize that surface diffusion is nothing new. But good treatments are a bit like vampires. No matter how often you kill them they always come back to haunt you.