Contents
Gemstone Information
This guide is about Kyanite meanings and properties. It is an aluminium silicate, is a metamorphic mineral that occurs in schists and granite pegmatites. Other similar gemstones with the same polymorphic family are: Andalusite and Sillimanite, both Anisotropic gemstones, but with different crystal structure.
Its name derives from the Greek word “kyanos” which means blue alluding to the typical color of this gemstone.
Blue Kyanite is the most popular and appreciated variety of this stone, but it can occurs also with other color like: orange, green, grey, yellow and colorless.
Gemstones from this mineral family are allochromatic, they usually display some color zone with white stripes. The hardness of this stone can vary from 4-4.5 on the Mohs mineral hardness scale to an hardness of 6-7 based of the cut direction (perpendicular or parallel to its long axis).
It is considered a meditation stone, it’s able to enhance communication, combat negative energy. Not associated with any zodiac sign or a considered a particular birthstone, it is good stone often used to purify other gemstones.
Treatment
Usually found on the gem market natural and untreated stones, sometimes can be treated with oil or other impregnating substance to enhance its clarity and luster, in fact it usually present evident inclusions and translucent clarity, but this kind of treatment are not common and usually the stones that hits the market are untreated.
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Origin and gemstone source
Recently Nepal is considered the main source for high quality gemstones, but this stone can also be mined in Burma (Myanmar), Brazil, India, Africa (Kenya, Tanzania, Zimbabwe), Russia, Cambodia, United States.
Optical Effect
Some rare variety of this stone can be cut into cabochon and display a nice cat’s eye effect, this optical effect is called chatoyancy. In this case they are called Cat’s eye Kyanite.
Star Kyanite gemstones with a very well defined evidence of Asterism optical effect are very rare to find.
Images and Photos
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Uses
The best gemstone quality variety of this mineral family, that present nice clarity and luster with transparency is usually faceted into the most popular shape like: round, emerald step cut, oval and pear, some stones if present visible inclusions or translucent clarity are shaped into cabochon or polished and sold for crystal therapy.
Other common shapes for this stone are beads, briolette, rondelle and chips for the lowest quality.
Duo to its low hardness, this gemstone is usually used in jewelry like: earrings and pendants, instead of rings and bracelets.
Care and Cleaning
Considered a durable stone, this beautiful gemstone deserve some little precaution when cleaned and worn, because it is a little fragile, so would be better set a Kyanite into a pendant instead of a ring, because it has perfect cleavage and can chip easily if hit.
Avoid chemical products and ultrasonic cleaner to clean your stone, instead use soapy water and soft cloth to dry it.
This gemstone variety is not a really hard stone so it can be scratched easily by other harder material like topaz, sapphire, diamonds and so on, we suggest you to store your Kyanite separately from other gemstones.
Scam and Fraud
This is a beauty gemstone usually untreated and offered at affordable price. No synthetics are available and usually easily recognizable, so it is considered a safe stone to purchase.
This stone, especially the blue variety, resemble some valuable gemstone like Spinel, Sapphire and Tanzanite, sometimes it can be sold by scammer for Sapphire at higher price, this is the major scam fraud attempt that interests this stone. Sometimes it is sold also for Tanzanite.
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Typical Internal Inclusions
Observing at microscope, this stone display some typical inclusions, like: color zone with lighter area, parallels needles inclusions and liquid feathers inclusions.
Gemological Info
- Mineral family: Kyanite
- Crystal: Triclinic
- Density: 3.5 – 3.7
- Hardness: 4 to 4.5 – 6 to 7
- Refractive index: 1.710 – 1.734
- Optic Character: Biaxial negative
- Color: Blue, green, orange, colorless, grey
- Cause of color: Iron and Titanium for the Blue (Vanadium for the green variety, Iron and Manganese for the orange)
- Luster: Vitreous
- Clarity: Transparent to Translucent (Type 3)
- Fluorescent: Weak
- Fracture: Uneven
- Cleavage: Perfect
- Durability: Medium
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