So What Is Moissanite?

So what exactly is moissanite? Many have heard of it as the worlds newest jewelry material but not so many know exactly what it is.

Moissanite is a naturally occurring crystal.It was discovered in 1893 by Henri Moissan in a meteorite which had fallen to earth some 50000 years ago and landed in the Arizona desert. Dr Moissan started studying small fragments from this meteorite and made an astonishing discovery. There were tiny amounts of a new unknown crystal in it that excited him. He had discovered a new natural occurring crystal.

And it isn't just in meteorites. It occurrs on earth as well. But unfortunately it occurrs in such small quantities as to be unviable commercially.

However it's applications as a new jewelry stone were immediately obvious. It had fantastic jewelry properties and would be perfect as a jewelry stone. But if it was available in only small quantities then it wouldn't be much use.

So, scientists being scientists, they decide to try and duplicate it artificially.

This has, of course, been attempted with diamonds, to varying degrees of success. But they managed, and now all moissanite is artificially created.

The process of making it is very new. It has only been commercially available in jewelry since 1998, so is only a few years old on the jewelry market.

It is exceedingly hard to make and the process to do so is kept very secret. It is only made in very small quantities so it quite rare, even though it is man made. In 1999 the US imported 23.4 million carats (karats) of diamond and only .07 million carats of Moissanite. It is very rare.

Jewels are popular because of their properties. They look great in jewelry because of such properties as their beauty, colour, brilliance, fire and luster, durability and rarity.

The brilliance of a jewel is created by the cut. A diamond in it's natural state for instance is pretty unimpressive. Give it a proper design and use the diamonds natural refraction of light and it is beautiful. It is the cut that does this, however it is the qualities of the jewel which produce the brilliance once it has been cut. Brilliance can be measured by the amount of light which enters a jewel compared with the amount which comes back when put under a light source.

Fire refers to the ability of the stone to refract light back out in colours. The light rays break up into their original spectrum colours and that is what gives the jewel its special character.

Luster is the amount of light reflected back from the surface of the jewel.

Durability is the toughness, the resistance to scratching, chipping, or splitting. This is detemined by its hardness, and it is also the hardness which determines the brilliance.

Rarity is just the availability. Is it very common or is it very hard to get? Does everyone has it?

The temptation is to compare moissanite to diamonds. It is not a product created to compete with diamonds in the market. It is, as we have said, actually a naturally occurring crystal.

However notwithstanding, it is still compared to diamonds. Particularly as it performs admirably compared to diamonds on all of the criteria mentioned above, and is much cheaper.

In particular it has superior brilliance, fire and luster. The only category in which it doesn't outperform diamonds is hardness. It is slightly softer than diamond, but only very slightly, and is harder than all other stones.

Many jewelers cannot tell the difference between the 2. As a result of the fact that it is most difficult to tell the difference between the two a new instrument has been designed to help people tell moissanite from diamond.

Moissanite will not scratch or become cloudy with wear.

There are other diamond substitutes available such as cubic zirconia or even glass. Moissanite outperforms all these admirably.

If you are looking for jewelry there are many fantastic stones to choose from, not just moissanite or diamonds. However, particularly for women choosing engagement rings, diamonds are very popular. Unfortunately they are also very expensive. For some that doesn't matter, for many reasons.

For others the cost of a diamond is prohibitive and they cannot justify that cost compared to other things that they can do with that money. For them moissanite must be considered. It looks as good, and is cheaper. Many claim, in fact, that it looks better. It is certainly becoming very fashionable amongst many who could afford to buy diamonds.

It is popular with the stars.

Kim Cattrall's character, Samantha Jones, wore a brilliant white gold ring featuring Moissanite in an episode during the last season of the TV hit Sex and the City.

Kiko Ellsworth, one of Hollywood's "Hot" young stars wore a brilliant pair of 2 ½ ct. Moissanite "Martini Stud" earrings to the premiere of Bad Boys II, on July 9th in Los Angeles.

It is fast becoming the new fashion in jewelry. More and more the young and upcoming are being seen wearing moissanite.

Moissanite is the newest and certainly one of the best jewelry stones available. Moissanite is here to stay.