What are /r/Gemology's favorite Products & Services?

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Possibly unpolished nongemmy sapphire or lapis lazuli...

my gut says lapis lazuli, it was very valuble in the past, and would explain the gold trim, or fake gold trim... assuming actual gold.

https://www.bing.com/images/search?q=lapis+lazuli+unpolished&FORM=HDRSC2

Mkddle eastern in origin, most likely near the mediterranean. Id like to say it was an homage to jewelry of antiquity, maybe late greco-roman. (Styled after late greco-roman... not actual late greco-roman...)

Of course ive been horribly wrong before... but we dont talk about that.

My two faves:

Gem Identification Made Easy

Gemstones of the World

My Jeweler has both of these books in his library.

Thanks for the course rec! Elisabeth Strack's <em>Pearls</em> is often recommended but seems to be better for SW than FW due to the enormous changes in FW cultivation and markets since its publication.

There's many things they could be. Quartz is likely but feldspar family is another.

You really need the proper equipment to test and ID and evaluate them. Microscope is very important with darkfield lighting and an immersion cell. Spectroscope is extremely useful. Polariscope, dichroscope, and Chelsea Filter are extremely useful as well. A good scale so you can set up a Hydrostatic Specific Gravity setup. And of course for rough stones a Moh's Hardness kit and streak plate.

If you just want to learn the basics and make your own tools I suggest

Guide to Affordale Gemology https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01GSL7R7S/ref=cm_sw_r_apan_glt_fabc_9BH5BR2DZCWQ67KZTJX1

Because all the tools in the World are useless if you don't have the education and knowledge to use them properly and interpret the results correctly.

Took your advice and finally gave in. Ended up getting a nice BelOMO triplet 10x loupe with anti-reflective coating and color correct view. I had something similar but I realized that neither my microscope I own (very cheap $50 video-screen microscope, mainly for cataloguing) nor what I use as a loupe (single 10x eyepiece) have triple lenses, anti reflective coating, and color correct. Got even deeper in debt, $40 after tax doesn't seem like much but when you are overdrawing an already maxed card and you have no job, ooof it gets to you.

Really? Any idea about how any of the other cheaper RI liquids work? Just not as well? How so- lower RI? not as clear results? what does that mean? I was looking at: Gem Refractive Index Liquid 1.79 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B074F22Z3G/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_d5KqEbH0C54JK

but its less than $20 cheaper than a bottle of the good stuff you mentioned from Amazon so...