Types of Tourmaline

Tourmaline gets its name from a Singhalese word 'touramalli' which means "mixed colored stones". This gem is 7 - 7.5 on the Mohs scale of hardness. Tourmaline is also of interest to many scientists because when it is heated, it changes its electrical charge. It becomes a polarized crystalline magnet and can attract small light objects. Before science could explain it, this property was noticed long ago and tourmalines were called as "aschentrekkers" in the Netherlands because they attracted ashes and could be used to clean pipes.

Tourmaline is available in a wide variety of colors from dark brown, medium brown, yellow, black to bluish black, lime to dark forest green, blue to neon blue, red and reddish purple, pink and colorless. Multicolored and bi-colored tourmalines may be pink at one end and green at the other, watermelon tourmaline is pink on the inside and green on the outside. Some stones are dichroic meaning that when they are viewed from different angles, they will appear in different color. Pink rubellite, green verdelite and blue indicolite are the most expensive tourmalines.

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Indicolite is a dark bluish black stone. The Rubellite is a deep reddish purple stone and Paraiba is a bright neon-blue. Chrome tourmaline is colored by chromium, it is often confused with tsavorite garnet or the emerald because of its beautiful green color. Cat's eye tourmaline exhibits "cat's eye" effect similar to those what you see in tiger's eye cabochons. Schorl is the name given to black tourmaline (the most commonly found tourmalines).

Many "rubies" used in the Russian Crown jewels from 17th Century are in fact tourmalines. The last Empress of the Ch'ing Dynasty loved these gems so much that she bought the stones in enormous quantities when a new mine opened in California. Almost every color of tourmaline can be found in Brazil, in Minas Gerais and Bahia especially. In addition to Brazil, tourmaline is also mined in Kenya, Tanzania, Madagascar, Sri Lanka, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Mozambique, Namibia, and California and Maine in the United States. American National Association of Jewelers adopted tourmaline gemstone as the official birthstone for October in 1912. It is also the lucky stone for the zodiac sign of Leo and the gem choosen for the 8th wedding anniversary.