Gemstones are mysterious and difficult to get knowledge of it. Ruby is a precious Gemstone and one has to know about it before buying. It takes a lot of time, training and experience to get skills to  identify and evaluate ruby.

Here are some tips to understand ruby. I am describing here from customers’ perspectives. A layman can understand these tips before buying a ruby. You need not to be an expert of ruby to buy it.

Ruby is a color stone also referred as colored gemstone. It belongs to corundum group of gemstones. Corundum is chemically aluminum oxide. It is found naturally in the nature. Aluminum oxide, when added with coloring agent(s) gets red color and becomes corundum. Coloring agent is also a metallic oxide found and added naturally.

Corundum is the second hardest stone found in the nature. Only diamond is harder than corundum.

Physical properties of ruby:

Corundum are opaque, translucent and transparent. Corundum with coloring agent red with translucence or transparency is called ruby. Specific gravity of ruby is four and its hardness in Moh’s scale is measured at nine.

Origins of ruby:

Burma (Myanmar), Ceylon, Thailand (Siam), Cambodia, Vietnam, Tanzania, Madagascar, Kenya and India are major sources of ruby. However, Burmese rubies are considered as the best. Origin or mine of ruby plays a major role in determining its valuation. It is therefore, advised to know about origin before buying a ruby.

Astrological Views:

Ruby is a precious stone belonging to Navratna family according to Indian astrology. Red color of ruby resembles the sun among planets. Hence it is prescribed for the planet sun. Ruby is the birth stone for month July according to western astrology and palmistry.

Like any other gemstone four “C”s play major role in determining value of ruby. These four “C”s are Cut, Clarity, Color and Carat weight. It is better to know about four “C”s before buying a ruby.

Cut: There are various types of cuts in ruby gemstone. These are cut, cabochons, beads, drops etc. Cut stones are the costliest followed by cabochons and beads. Cut stones are faceted but cabochons are plain. Beads and drops are manufactured both in faceted and plain quality.

There are various shapes in both cut and cabochons such as Oval, Octagon, Pear, Heart, Marquise, Square and Round.

Clarity: Clean ruby is rare of the rarest. Gemstone ruby often has many inclusions. Black spot, yellow and brown spots, cracks, milky, are main inclusions of ruby.

More inclusions means lesser clarity (purity). Clean is rare and fetches highest price. Ruby with better purity has more price and with lesser purity has lower price.

Color shades: Color of ruby varies between light pink to deep red.Sometimes it has blue, yellow or black tints. A ruby is generally referred as Pink sapphire if the color is pink. Light color fetches lesser price than deeper color. However, over color rubies fetch lower price. Generally bright red is the costliest. Blue, yellow and black tints present in ruby lower the price of a ruby gemstone.

Burmese ruby has the most pleasant bright pink to red color. Ceylon ruby is normally of pink color and Thai ruby has black tints. Bright color and transparency of Burmese ruby fetches maximum price. Hence, you can stress on Burmese origin while buying a ruby.

Carat weight: Bigger the size more the price. It is true for good quality rubies. Fine quality rubies of bigger sizes are rare. Generally fine quality Burmese rubies above 3- 4 carats are rare. Sizes between two to four carats for a fine quality Burmese ruby is considered as very good.

Treatments: Natural rubies are also treated to enhance its color, clarity and transparency. Most popular treatment is heat treatment. Natural rubies are costlier than treated rubies. There are some other treatments such as glass filling and led filling. Glass filling enhances clarity of rubies and led filling enhances both clarity and color. However, led filling is injurious to health. There are some other types of treatments and I will discuss them elsewhere in future.

Buy from a trustworthy Jeweler: Evaluating and buying rubies are tricky thing. Even experts vary in their opinion. Evaluating ruby is a difficult thing. It is almost impossible for a layman or a buyer to evaluate it correctly. Hence the best way is to go to a trustworthy jeweler and gemstone dealer. You can also ask a certificate before buying a ruby. There are many certification agencies. Gublin (Switzerland) is the most renowned in certifying rubies and other color stones followed by Gemological institute of America. There are many other certification agencies you can rely on.

I have given some tips to evaluate and buy ruby gemstone. It will help you in identifying and evaluating ruby. However, it is advised to consult an approved valuer or trustworthy jeweler before going to buy a ruby gemston