KYANITE
Kyanite is an odd connoisseur gemstone formed from Aluminum Silicate.  Generally the material is not found in facetable form, so a faceted Kyanite is considered a rare gem. The colors can be as good as any top sapphire or emerald, but the material is brittle and "challenging" to cut.  The material has  a perfect cleavage plane parallel to the wide flatfish side of these crystals, and cutting is done parallel to this plane.  Interestingly, the cleavage plane offers a hardness of 7-7.5, so this is perfect for the table, but the variable hardness will drive you crazy cutting the rest of the gem.  While cutting is a chore, fortunately the material polishes fairly easily.

Please see our top color facetable Kyanite bellow!

See what this stuff looks like after some tedious faceting:
(CLiCK here to see a faceted sample. <--> CLiCK here to see another sample)

 KYANITE (Tanzania) - Sea-Green Color:
This material is hard to get these days...some large select collector's stones:

Select Kyanites (Tanzania) <-- CLiCK to see picture of these stones
I have two very large select stones and amazingly "clean" (at least as Kyanite goes anyway...these have needles in the planes but generally eye-clean). These are a light/pastel sea-green color. Facet grade, but as with any Kyanite it is going to be tough to facet them.

25.6cts squarish chunk 20mmX11mmX6.2mm,
@ $2.50/ct = $64.00

62.5cts rectangular chunk 34.8mmX14mmX8.5mm,
@ 2.50/ct = $156.25

SUPER TEAL KYANITE  <-- CLiCK to see sample picture of these stones

The color of this material is an incredible vivid Teal color.  Note that this color won't display properly on the screen - the true color is more greenish-blue (Teal!) than the picture shows. This rare color material is from a new find discovered this year ('99).

All pieces have facetable clear areas that can be cut. The "Grade A" has excellent clarity that is rarely seen in Kyanite; these pieces are generally totally eye-clean.  "Grade B" has facetable areas with more cleavage fractures to worry about/cut away...hence lower price.  Very good price for this rare color facetable Kyanite!  NOTE: these can also make nice jewelry as is / natural wrap/new-age jewelry.

Super Teal Kyanite "Grade A"  @ $7.00/ct