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Magazine 58F
Garnet, stone of the month of January
Garnet, red and much more on a vintage jewel
Garnet is often synonymous with red stone and its name is inspired by the pomegranate, a bright red fruit. Throughout history, ruby, spinel (another stone that can take on this color) and garnet could be confused, before crystallography differentiated them with certainty.
In fact, garnet covers a large family of gems, ranging from deep red to purplish like rhodolite. Some are very popular in other shades, such as the orange-colored spessartite garnet, known as mandarin, or the green tsavorite or demantoid garnets. There are even so-called “change color” garnets which take on different shades depending on the type of light (like alexandrite). In short, garnet ultimately has many possible colors!
This stone has been used since Antiquity, it is found in jewelry from all eras. Its characteristics make it a very beautiful jewelry stone, with a hardness between 7 and 7.5 on the Mohs scale, good resistance, easy to wear on a daily basis, with the usual precautions, such as avoiding violent shocks or intense temperatures.
Features :
Garnet family: pyrope, almandine, spessartite, grossular and andradite
Hardness: 7 to 7.5
Shock resistance: good
Density: 3.5 to 4.15 depending on type