What is Treated Turquoise?
What is treated turquoise? This is turquoise that has been treated with a substance or oil or wax ect. that is probably not stabile. This is a category that will not include stabilized as that treatment is of course stabile all though stabilized is still treated turquoise, but deserves its own description. Treated turquoise will include the other treatments that have been used over the years that are not permanent and will not last. Some of these treatments go back several hundred years and were used back when turquoise was first discovered. The earliest treatments were from using fat from animals, sheep fat was one of the first used. This practice goes back to probably the beginnings of turquoise being found and used. They found the lighter stones when rubbed with this animal fat would darken and increase the color in the stone. As the darker stones were more desirable, this was a common practice. As years went by other animal fats were found and used. Whale fat was probably the best fat used over the years. Whale fat had a higher melting temp and would hold in the stones better. As we come into the 20th century many fats and oils are available to us today. Mineral oil is the most widely used today.
Paraffin is a much better choice as it is heated to liquefy it, and it does not leak out at room temperature as the oils do. Both mineral oil and paraffin are basically colorless and odor free .All the treatments that are used today are endless. As turquoise does come from many countries, there are many local treatments that are used. The American treatments are basically the mineral oil and the paraffin. There are also many treatments using water glass. Water glass treatments are another process and can get involved. I do know of a good treater that claims to use water glass and does have good results. But these processes are highly guarded and the use of water glass maybe a term to throw us off track of what they really use. I have seen water glass in a few articles and have seen turquoise treated with it. I have yet to use water glass successfully myself. As for dyed turquoise and color enhanced I will discuss those under that title.
There is also a treatment that when first developed was called the Zachary enhancement .Today this treatment is still used and is a highly technical and guarded treatment. They do not disclose what the treatment is and how it is done. I have seen much of the stone that was enhanced and this is a great treatment and appears to be permanent and long lasting. From what I understand this treatment increases the amount of silica that Mother Nature did not provide in the stone .Silica is what the stone is formed from anyway and this treatment just adds what Mother Nature did not. The enhancement treatment does not add plastic, oil, paraffin or polymers.
Another recent treatment is a product named Opticom. This product is a two part formula and was developed to fill cracks in stones after they are finished. This product goes on the stone after it is fully finished and polished. The mixture is applied and cured in the oven at a set temperature. This is only a surface treatment and again is permanent. It fills the pours on the surface and in this increases the color also. This product when applied is colorless and has little odor when finished.
Copyright 2010 @ James Saunders
