What is Moissanite?

Moissanaite was first discovered in 1893 by Dr. Henri Moissan, a Nobel Prize winner, when he was taking a look at meteor samples from a crater in Arizona. At first, when he saw it, he thought he had found diamonds. Only after a few years the “diamonds” were tested in a laboratory the samples pointed at an undiscovered type of gemstone. The gems were eventually named after it’s first founder, Dr. Henri Moissan.

With the discovery of such a spectacular gem, people started searching all over the world to find more of these gems. During the 1950’s more samples were discovered in Russian mines and rock formations of Wyoming. However, because the rocks only occurred naturally they were still very scarce.

Recognizing the potential these gems had, scientists during the 1990’s found a way to create them in the laboratory. From then on we have had an astonishing stone that is better than diamonds and can be made at a cheaper cost.

MOISSANITE AS JEWELRY

Moissanite has some wonderful properties that make it perfect for jewelry. It is so brilliant and sparkles more than diamond. Diamonds consist of imperfections that must be measured but moissanite is created perfectly with no cloudiness, no inclusions and no problems. This explains why when choosing a diamond you have to properly examine it so you will be aware of any imperfections it has but with a moissanite you do not have to such examination as you are rest assured that it is perfect and flawless.

HOW IS MOISSANITE MADE

Moissanite is manufactured and this leaves people wondering why it should be rare and scarce, especially when its component (silicon carbide) is a very common abrasive. It is true that abrasive formed of silicon powder, is not expensive to manufacture, but large samples of silicon crystal silicon carbide are still very hard to produce.

Single-crystal mossanite is made and manufactured via a patented thermal growing process. The process is extremely hard and difficult to perform and is done by only one company in the world.

The first company to sell and produce moissanite for jewelry is Charles & Colvard and they have the United States and International proprietary and patent rights for moissanite jewels.

HOW IS MOISSANITE GRADED

Moissanite is a lovely and beautiful jewel and is not graded on the GIA color scale. It can be found in a near colorless form that is highly dispersive and brilliant. For clarity grading purposes every jewel is examined using a 10x loupe for damage or inclusions that may affect its optical performance.

Other characteristics of moissanite are that larger stones tend to show more color than smaller stones, because moissanite has some level of color saturation. Besides that, the unique cut of moissanite made by Charles & Colvard is particularly designed to maximize the higher grade properties of moissanite, such as brilliance, luster and fire.