Unakite
Gemstone Quality Standard
About Unakite
Unakite is a metamorphic rock that is altered granite composed of pink orthoclase feldspar, green epidote, and quartz.
Unakite can be found as pebbles and cobbles from glacial drift all across the US Midwest. It also occurs in Virginia where it is found in the river valleys after being washed down from the Blue Ridge Mountains. First found in the United States, Unakite has a worldwide distribution, having also been reported in South Africa, Sierra Leone, Brazil, China, India, and Australia.
Unakite from USA
Is a mix of Epidote (green), pink orthoclase, and clear quartz.
Peruvian Unakite
Very similar to Unakite from the USA. The most important difference is that in Peru the quartz part is milky quartz, not clear quartz.
South African Unakite
Southafrican Unakite displays a very different fibrous looking color pattern.
Chinese Unakite
Chinese Unakite has a color pattern that is not adequate for high-quality jewelry. It has an ugly washy look with lots of brown tones and very week reds and greens. Our advice is to stay away from this material if you want to have nice jewelry.
Rarity
We don’t know how big the natural reserve of Unakite in Peru is.
Availability
It is readily available for decor products and jewelry. We sell rough rock, preselected slabs for jewelry, decor products, cabochons, and jewelry with unakite.
Color
Pistachio-green Epidote mixed with pink orthoclase feldspar and sometimes milky quartz.
Jewelry-grade color:
About 25 % of the rough material comes in jewelry-grade color. According to our standard jewelry-grade material should have a mix of at least 30% of one color and 70% of the other (better 50/50). If milky quartz is present the previous ratio does not apply. The color contrast must be good. We discard all material that shows only one color, weak contrast, or contains black impurities.
Polishable
Unakite is polishable to glass-finish.
Cutting Quality
Advantages:
Unakite does not tend to break or chip. Experienced cutters therefore can obtain very sharp unchipped edges between the backside and bezel as well as between the bezel and dome.
Top-cutting-quality is characterized by:
- a polished backside
- a sharp unchipped edge between the backside and the bezel
- a very straight and even highly polished bezel
- a sharp unchipped edge between the bezel and the dome
- a well-shaped dome, not showing any deformation
- Top-quality polish
Be aware of wrongful quality grading
It’s commonplace in the crystal industry to cut cheap cabochons from any kind of Unakite without applying any kind of grading for high-quality material. Frequently you can find cabochons made from completely unsuitable material. Unscrupulous dealers take advantage of the lack of knowledge of crystal shops, jewelers, and final clients and market such low-grade and even trashy material as Tripple A (=AAA) top-grade material.
Pricing
Adequate pricing must take into account the cost factors to obtain top-quality cabochons:
- Acquisition of top-grade Unakite with strong color in the mine.
- Selection of material without impurities and discarding more than 75 percent of the rough rock as unsuitable for jewelry.
- A usual material loss of approximately 90 % of the selected material during the cutting and shaping process.
- The level of experience required by a cutter to produce a flawlessly shaped and highly polished cabochon.
- Market research
- Our Jewelry Grade (A)
- Our Top-Quality Jewelry Grade (AA)
- Our Premium Jewelry Grade (AAA)
The data in this sheet has been compiled by reviewing a great number of websites and sales platforms.
Material quality:
We can find all kinds of material qualities being used for cabochons without any objective grading being applied. Ugly and cheap Chinese Unakite is flooding the market, mostly being used for beads and to a lesser degree for cabochons. Indian wholesalers work mostly with USA Unakite and have it cut in India, where an artisan gem cutter works for 1 USD per day in very precarious home-based workshops. Given those abusive labor conditions, Indian wholesalers can flood the market with cheaply cut USA material. South African material is rare on the internet and little known. Peruvian Unakite seems to be new to the market too, but comes closest to the USA material in its color patterns.
Cutting quality:
The vast majority of “cabochons” on offer show very low cutting quality. it appears that nobody cares to cut a bezel anymore and nearly all the cabs show rounded-off low-quality edges, which are easier and faster to cut (and therefore cheaper to produce). The polish-quality is often very low too. In other words: 90% of offered cabochons would need to be graded below the Gemrock Jewelry Grade (A)
Quality Grading
Most cabochons were offered as AA or AAA quality, which obviously does not represent the reality. Given the fact that there is no commonly accepted grading standard AA and AAA gradings are used as a marketing strategy without reflecting a real criteria of quality. This type of marketing must be viewed as misleading.
Pricing
The following pricing data is based exclusively on data for USA Unakite (which comes closest to Peruvian Unakite). Given the lack of standards, every seller puts whatever price on his cabs that he considers OK. We can see a huge range of Retail Prices reaching from as little as 0.11 cents per carat to a whopping 3.33 USD per carat. These huge price differences, however, do not correspond to any visual difference in material or cutting quality. It’s all the same material and cutting. The average pricing for Unakite cabochons is 1.11 USD per carat.
Jewelry Grade Material:
At least either 30 % of Epidote or pink Orthoclase with the remaining 70% being the other material (with or without quartz). A 50/50 ratio is preferred. Material with only one color or material with a weak color contrast is to be excluded from jewelry-grade material.
Cutting Quality:
- Straight bezel (minor irregularities possible), 3 mm high
- Perfect dome (3-5 mm high)
- Edges between bezel and dome, as well as bezel and backside: sharp and crispy, minor chips on lower edge possible
- Backside flat at 280 grit, unpolished
Pricing:
Recommended Retail Price (A): 0.69 USD per carat
Jewelry Grade Material:
At least either 30 % of Epidote or pink Orthoclase with the remaining 70% being the other material (with or without quartz). A 50/50 ratio is preferred. Material with only one color or material with a weak color contrast is to be excluded from jewelry-grade material.
Cutting Quality:
- Straight bezel, 3 mm high
- Flat and perfect dome (3 mm high)
- Edges between bezel and dome, as well as bezel and backside: sharp and crispy, minor chips on lower edge possible but very rare.
- Backside flat, at 280 grit
Additional Quality (AA+): Backside polished to 3000 grit
Pricing:
Recommended Retail Price (AA): 0.99 USD per carat
AA+: 1.09 USD/c
Jewelry Grade Material:
At least either 30 % of Epidote or pink Orthoclase with the remaining 70% being the other material (with or without quartz). A 50/50 ratio is preferred. Material with only one color or material with a weak color contrast is to be excluded from jewelry-grade material.
Cutting Quality:
- Only cut by our best master cutters
- Straight bezel, 3 mm high
- Flat and perfect dome (1-3 mm high)
- The edges between the bezel and dome, as well as the bezel and backside: sharp and crispy, no chips on lower edge.
Additional Quality (AAA+): Backside polished to 3000 grit
Pricing:
Recommended Retail Price (AAA): 1.29 USD per carat
AAA+: 1.39 USD/c
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Cutting services
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Get in Touch
+51 994104206
gemrockinternational@gmail.com