What is Stabilized Turquoise
Stabilized is turquoise that has been run through a very highly specialized process that only professional stabilizers know how to do. I am not sure how many of these still exist today but the number is very small .I would estimate that there are less than 12 people or company’s that know how to do this properly. I after 36 years in the Turquiose business know of only about 10 that know how to do this properly, and 4 of them are gone. The word stabilized has the root word stabile in it which does as it says, it means something that is stabile and will not change. There are other treatments that I will go into later that are in the category that I will call treated which may or may not be stabile and long-term.
Stabilized turquoise
is turquoise that was pourus and these pours were filled with a polymer that replaced the air that is in the stones. Most turquoise fits this classification of needing stabilized. Some turquoise that is cut is hard enough to cut a cabochon from but over time from wearing this turquoise these pours will fill up with hand soap or lotions oil from our skin or many other things. Most of what is called natural is from this category.
Stabilized turquoise is less than Gem grade turquoise that a polymer has been added to the turquoise and replaces the porosity that is in the stone. This highly guarded process uses a drying process to remove the moisture in the stone. Then the stone is put under vacuum to remove the air and the polymer is injected into the stone while still under vacuum. The end result is a stone that will wear very well and last for many years. There are many grades of this stabilized turquoise and the price for the rough can run$50.00 into almost a $1000.00 a pound for high grade. Stabilized turquoise is a very good choice for making into beads as they are up against the skin and soak up our skin oils. Most beads and nuggets are made from stabilized turquoise. Stabilized is also a very good choice for jewelry that you will be wearing continually as it is much stronger and will wear well. Rings made from stabilized will wear for many years and hold up well .Indians like to use stabilized in most of what they wear as it hold up very well. The pieces of jewelry that have many small matched stones are good to make from stabilized as the stones will not change color over the years.
Stabilized block turquoise
is turquoise that is pressed into a block under the same conditions as the stabilization process. Usually this material is made from small pieces or nuggets of turquoise that would be to small for most uses and are then under high pressure are pressed into blocks while going through the stabilization process .This material in the rough is sold in these blocks and slices from these blocks. I think this material looks a little unnatural in larger stones. You can see when looking at it if you look closely all the small pieces that are stuck together. The finest grade of this process will match the color and matrix of all these little pieces of turquoise. The lower grades will show color differences of all these little pieces of turquoise. This material will run from $35.00 to $100.00 a pound.
Copyright 2010 @ James Saunders
