jyotish gem unheated blue sapphire jyotishgem.com, Bill Kent G.G.

Vedic Blue Sapphire Clarity Grading:
Vedic astrology determines gem clarity grades with the unaided eye. Jyotish gems for Vedic astrology should always be examined with magnification before determining the clarity grade but clarity grades are assigned without magnification.

This is also the procedure at the major Gem Labs: first examine the gemstone with a gemological
microscope and then examine, and grade, the gem with the unaided "naked" eye.

This is different from diamond clarity grading where clarity grades are assigned at 10X magnification.

The highest clarity grade at the American Gemological Laboratory is "Free of Inclusion" and the highest grade at the Asian Institute of Gemological Sciences is "Flawless". According to the Gemological Institute of America's Revised Colored Stone Grading Lab Manual, the top clarity grade is "Eye Clean".

These grades: "Free of Inclusion Gem / Flawless Gem / Eye Clean Gem " are assigned when an experienced, fully-trained gem-grader is unable to see any inclusions in a gemstone examined under ideal lighting conditions and without magnification.

Naked-eye is the basis for all gemstone clarity grading, except for diamond.

10X is the basis for diamond clarity grading.

When examined with a gemological microscope, almost all gems show some natural inclusions. Even a sapphire graded "Flawless Sapphire " or "Free of Inclusion Sapphire " or "Eye-clean Sapphire " almost certainly contains inclusions visible at some level of magnification. (As do most Flawless diamonds.)

Some time ago, the Gemological Institute of America revised the GIA Colored Stones clarity grading system. The original system didn't take into account gems whose inclusions were so small as to be invisible to the unaided eye--the top clarity grade was VVS. The revised GIA system has added the category of "Eye Clean" and eliminated VVS and VS. But there are still some inadequacies in the GIA system so now I'm grading with the system that is probably the most widely-accepted gem clarity grading system. It starts with "Flawless / Eyeclean / Free of Inclusion" and goes through "Lightly Included, Moderately Included, Highly Included" and into the imperfect grades.

Flawless Blue Sapphires / Eye Clean Blue Sapphires / Free-of-Inclusion Blue Sapphires show no inclusions to the unaided eye when examined by a trained, experienced grader using an ideal light source.

The next clarity grade below Flawless / Eye Clean / Free of inclusion is Lightly Included 1 (LI1).
Lightly Included 1 describes a gem that has just the tiniest inclusion, barely visible to the unaided eye of a trained, experienced grader. LI2 is similar but with one or two more inclusions, of the same minute size.

LI1/LI2 inclusions are so small that most people cannot see them without magnification.

Moderately Included gems: MI1 and MI 2 inclusions are slightly more visible but don't affect beauty or durability. These inclusions are often not visible to the casual observer--inclusions in MI1/MI2 gems are so small that many people cannot see them without magnification.

HI1 (Highly Included) show fairly obvious inclusions and they are never acceptable for Vedic astrological Jyotish gems.

Unheated Vedic Blue Sapphires

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Natural Blue Spinel Gems