Dyeing is adding a colored substance to a gem's fractures or pores to change its color.
In more detail
It is used on ruby, emerald and quartz, among others. Solvents such as acetone or alcohol can remove many dyes, and sunlight can fade some. When a colored stone has a colored filler in its fissures, LMHC wording calls it a colored filler.
On a grading report
'Dyed' when a colored filler creates the color of a near-colorless stone. Otherwise 'colored filler in fissures', with its amount.
Related terms
- Treatment: A treatment is any process, other than cutting and polishing, that changes a gem's color or apparent clarity. Anyone who sells a treated gem must disclose the treatment.
- Clarity enhancement: Clarity enhancement is filling surface-reaching fissures with a filler such as oil, resin, wax or glass, so they show less.
- Stability: Stability is a gem's resistance to damage from heat, light and chemicals.
- Disclosure: Disclosure is telling the buyer, before the sale, that a gem is treated, laboratory-grown or an imitation.