What A Little Heat Can Do
We buy parcels of zircons and I usually pick out the darkest colors and let them collect until I feel like dealing with them. As one might imagine, there isn't much demand for dark brown zircon!
I spent last evening heating some of them and wanted to share the results
The pile on the left is before heating and the pile on the right is after I removed them from my kiln
The few that appear to have not turned color are most likely either garnet or chrysoberyl- I'll test them next
Heating is almost always done to improve color- sometimes, as is the case with sapphires, heating is also done to improve the clarity.
I spent last evening heating some of them and wanted to share the results
The pile on the left is before heating and the pile on the right is after I removed them from my kiln
The few that appear to have not turned color are most likely either garnet or chrysoberyl- I'll test them next
Heating is almost always done to improve color- sometimes, as is the case with sapphires, heating is also done to improve the clarity.