White Sapphire Vs. Diamond
When most people think of sapphires they imagine a deep blue. But sapphires can also be white and they can compete with diamonds on many levels. Some can even be mined in the same general location. Rare gems always have a market, and diamonds and white sapphires top that list.
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Misconceptions
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Sapphires are corundum in any color other than red; a red corundum stone is a ruby, and corundum is available in so many colors because of trace elements in the stone. Gemstone white sapphires are pure, clear corundum, which is even rarer than gemstone diamonds. The finest white diamonds are actually less expensive than fine white sapphires.
Occurrence
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Very old Indian mines have yielded some of the most famous diamonds, like the Koh-i-nor and Jehangir. The best gemstone and industrial diamonds are found in Brazil and South Africa, though they are also mined in Australia, Borneo, Botswana, China, Ghana, Guyana, Russia, Tanzania, Venezuela, Zaire, Zimbabwe and the United States. Sapphires are mined in Australia, Brazil, Burma, Cambodia, Kashmir, Kenya, Malawi, New South Wales, Queensland, Sri Lanka, Tanzania, Thailand and Zimbabwe.
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Crystal System
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Diamonds, with their isometric (cubic: three axes at right angles) crystal system, can break perfectly while sapphires cleave unevenly and have a trigonal crystal system (four axes, with three at 60 degrees and the fourth perpendicular to them, with three planes of symmetry). Diamond is transparent and white sapphires are transparent to opaque. Their specific gravity (weight of the mineral in relation to weight of an equal volume of water) are: sapphire 4.00; and diamond 3.47-4.15.
Hardness
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Friedrich Mohs developed a scale to measure the hardness of minerals; he placed 10 stones in order of how scratchable they were. Each mineral further down the list can scratch the mineral above it, but not be scratched by the one above it. Sapphire (corundum) rates a nine and easily scratches topaz, while diamond rates a 10 on the Mohs scale and can scratch sapphire. Diamond is the hardest known substance and cannot be scratched at all.
History and Use
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Before cubic zirconia was developed, white sapphire was substituted for diamonds in jewelry and glass was substituted for sapphires. But synthetics have since been created for both diamonds and white sapphires. Diamonds are typically cut into brilliantly cut stones, and sapphires are cut in mixed styles or as cabochons. In addition to gemstones, both diamonds and sapphires are mined for industrial uses such as abrasives.
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