This is a page from Jewellery News Asia March 1998.
Briefly, the outcome of the World Emerald Congress was to outlaw the resin called 'Palm Oil' and to encourage the study of new hardening resins like Groom/Gematrat and Permasafe as an alternative to cedarwood oil. Until a new and modern fissure-filler is proved and accepted by the emerald industry, the use of cedarwood oil was deemed to remain as the standard of the industry. More cedarwood info can be found HERE.
Emerald Congress
Notes: At my GIA Alumni Association lecture in San Francisco the group really seemed to appreciate the point that there is a direct relationship between the number of facets on and emerald that have surface reaching fissures and the degree of enhancement. If an emerald has 41 facets and 4 have fissures visible in reflected light then you could assume a 4/41 or 10% degree of enhancement. [Click Here for a complete report on this]
They also appreciated the story of the manufacturer in Bogotá who exported 36,000 emerald jewelery pieces per year in 1995 and 1996. This man's main criteria for buying was 'no cracks on the crown' and he hired a young person with good eyes to do only this type of quality control. The rate of returned stones as a result of this policy was 1/2 of 1% for two years in a row and many of those returns were from mistreatment such as re-sizing a ring with the stone in it! This is the lowest rate of returned stones in the industry and is a good vindication of the above buying method.
The Groom/Gematrat lab is the only lab I know of actively researching fissure filling. Rather than using the same process they seem to be changing and improving it over time. I told Arthur Groom that their New York Lab will become a success if only from fixing all the problems from six years of palm oil usage in emeralds! Groom and I both lamented the use of the word 'Opticon' over and over during the Druker lecture at Vegas. It has been shown conclusively now that opticon has never been used in Bogotá by emerald treaters; they used a synthetic resin called palm oil which had an R.I. of 1.57 (same as Opticon). Neither Opticon or palm oil have been accepted by the trade. Other than that, Druker is a coherent individual and gave a useful speech with good slides.
Letter to Modern Jeweler
This got published in June 1998
I agree with the point in the 'Dumb and Dumber' editorial that the tradition of using cedarwood oil shouldn't be continued just because of tradition. Another dumb reason would be just because it is a 'natural oil'. However, the reason that cedarwood oil should be upheld as a treatment alternative is that it works - that's why it has been the emerald enhancement in Colombia for so long. Because of the R.I. of cedarwood oil it's easier for an experienced buyer to tell what he's getting when buying an emerald. Another predictable behavior of cedarwood oil that people outside the trade don't understand is that in the first few weeks, some cedarwood oil leaks out of the largest fractures while remaining quite stable in the smaller fissures. Many of us appreciate this quality of "automatic disclosure" of the largest fractures; we like to see what we are getting. Reputable dealers do not re-treat or 'refresh' their stones after that, choosing to serve their customers with a product that they know will not change on them and cause disfavor. This is how billions of dollars worth of emeralds treated with cedarwood oil have been sold over the decades. The outrage of the industry has been the use of the resin called palm oil that often dries out leaving a whitish residue. It's high R.I. made it easy to not disclose to the final buyer who often never knew what he was getting. No one ever complained about cedarwood oil until palma came out.
The Colombians, finally awakened and organized, have not stopped at tossing out palm oil. They have looked into new experimental oils and resins and soon hope to offer a hi-tech filler to those who demand it. In the meantime they have stuck with cedarwood oil based on the 25 year track record of market acceptance, reasonable stability and ease of use. At the Feb. 23, 1998 World Emerald Congress, held at Bogotá's World Trade Center Feb. 23-26 they generated government support for the industry, educated locals in the industry, and prepared a coherent and understandable treatment policy that will hopefully bring back confidence in their product.
On high-end stones above $3000 per carat wholesale I feel that high R.I. hardening resins like Groom/Gematrat treatment will be popular (higher end stones are more likely to have certs and proper disclosure) while commercial and top commercial goods up to that price(where some visible inclusions are more tolerated) cedarwood oil will be the norm. In europe, however, buyers still insist on cedarwood oil and many emeralds are sent to the SSEF lab for verification of enhancement by oil rather than resins.
At the First World Emerald Congress, the Trade chose to renounce completely the use of Palm Oil and make cedarwood oil the standard; not forever, but during the interim while hi-tech resins are investigated and developed as to their usefulness, stability and demand from the market. I think that was a wise decision.
NEW ENHANCEMENT
The most reputable laboratory in Colombia is the CCIE (Centro Colombiano para la Investigacion de la Esmeralda) founded by Gemologists Rodrigo Giraldo and Jimmy Rotlewicz. They have made available to the public an enhancement they have been using privately for over five years - a hardening resin not unlike the Groom/Gematrat product but with some other refinements. It's called PermaSafe (R.I. 1.556-1.57) and is removeable, colorless and very resistant to heat, light intensity, and solvents.
Their laboratory is in the Emerald Trade Building in downtown Bogotá and the reaction of the trade has been very favorable.
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