Gems and Jewels: A Dazzling Discussion

Hi i'm kevin hi i'm jack this is good company wait that's all wrong. Music.

She can't help it, the girl can't help it She can't help it, the girl can't help it As she walks by, the mean folks getting broke all right are you ready i guess this is how we start okay things that are precious to me Uh-oh. A well-struck golf shot. Okay. They're so rare. They mean a lot to me when I finally get. Right. When I go fishing, and I'm fishing for rockfish, and I catch a rockfish, like a nice one, right? Okay. I climb into a duck blind with Joe Talbot.

We're hoping, fingers crossed, that we're going to get some mallards, and we get some mallards. Okay. Rarely happens. When it does, it's extremely fulfilling.

Those are precious things to me. you know what's very precious to you uh-oh i don't oh i don't like the way this is going jewelry diamonds. Music. The Diamond Engagement Ring. How else could two months' salary last forever? A diamond is forever. De Beers.

Precious stones i want to talk about your love of precious stones and what those are all about because you think diamonds are fabulous and i just don't get it i don't like this no not at all because diamonds are most people you know diamonds are historically across civilizations precious stones right are considered are a big deal and i i i got a smirk on my face people Well, gemstones were always a bit of a mystery to me. Right.

I didn't understand them. Okay. And I had only the most superficial understanding of what they were. Okay. Now, the one thing that was right that I had right was there's diamonds, rubies, emeralds, sapphires. I think I knew that early on. Those are the four true precious gemstones. Yeah. And everything else is considered semi-precious, right? Right. So that's your garnets. Right. And your amethysts. Right. Right? Yes. Citrines, peridot. Citrines. And then there's the Mohs scale,

which is that diamonds are the hardest natural substance, right? Right. And they are a 10. The Mohs scale is a 1 to 10 scale. A 10 is a diamond. In theory, nothing can scratch a diamond. Right. Anything below a diamond, a diamond can scratch. So a diamond can scratch a topaz. A topaz can scratch a quartz. A quartz can scratch an appetite. Oh, I always have an appetite. Padubatch. Ah, APA, do you know what that is? No A-P-A-T-I-T No You don't know it? No Oh, wow Anyway Is it pretty?

Does it catch the light? No Does it make me feel good? No, it doesn't really It's kind of funky looking. So, the Mohs scale, a one on the Mohs scale is talc, That's a mineral. Like the kind you put on your tushy? Yeah, the kind you put on your tushy. There's a stone called a talc? Talc. Talc is a stone. Ground up talc is talc powder. No, but I mean, have you... I have, yeah, yeah, yeah. There's a talc ring? No, there's a talc. No, no, no. It's so soft, it can't be made into anything.

So talc is a one. Talc is the softest. Yes. Quartz is a seven. Diamond is a ten. I got quartz rings. I've got diamond rings. Now, I had, so gemstones are more complicated than I ever realized, and the diamond is the hardest-known substance on Earth. It's not only popular for its shine and sparkle, it's well-known for its unbeatable durability, and they use diamond chips to, like, for drill heads when they're drilling and, like, making, like, when they drill the tunnel, it was all that. Right.

So... And I believe diamonds and gold are used in space travel for the components of rockets There are certain qualities of gold. Now, the emerald is a gemstone of the beryl family, which I think also includes the sapphires. Right, and green and brilliant beryl is an emerald. Bright green, yeah, real deep dark green. 7.5 to 8 on the Mohs scale. So on the Mohs scale, between 1 to 10, an emerald is an 8. Now, the ruby is a 9. A ruby can scratch an emerald. A diamond can scratch a ruby.

So rubies are, by gemstone, the most expensive gem there is. Oh, good. Rubies are, yes. And then sapphire is a nine as well. So sapphires and rubies are both nines. They can both scratch emeralds. Emeralds are popular because the barrel family, the green emerald is very rare.

Rubies and sapphires, I personally think... Emeralds are the prettiest precious gemstone i can't convince you to like anything other than a diamond no i like them all but i mean if you're just going to point blank go okay what stone do you like the diamonds of course i'm going to like diamonds okay now now yeah i feel like i have to defend myself you do okay so any jewelry or anything that you're using like that to make you feel good, to make you feel attractive, to make you stand out.

It doesn't matter if it's real or not. It doesn't matter if it's a real diamond or not, as long as it makes you happy. Now, having said that, I have been around people who are trying to be snotty and they've said, do you like my ruby ring? And I'm like, it's pink. And they're like, no, it's a ruby.

Rubies are blood red they're supposed to be blood red if they're not blood red they're not good rubies now that makes me sound very snotty but i'm only being snotty because that person was like oh look at what i mean now i'm not like that i don't i i am i'm i wear good jewelry and i enjoy it and i like it because it makes me feel good and i want to wear it and i and that's why i wear but i have stuff that's not real that i wear that makes me feel good too because

i like that too men and women equally wear jewelry you know the talia mafiosos with a pinky ring women with you know jewelry is popular across all sexes it's funny there was a quote by about costume jewelry it's it's not jewelry is supposed to make you feel pretty it doesn't have the jewelry yeah it's coco chanel coco chanel say that this is costume jewelry is supposed to make you feel good yeah or something that's like that, something like that.

It doesn't matter if it's real or not. It makes you feel pretty, right? It makes you feel good, yeah. Or whatever, you're having fun with it. Because you can only work with what you got. You know, when I put all my, you know, I've shaved and plucked and potioned and motioned and I got everything sucked in and tucked in and put where it's supposed to be and I, you know, want to look nice and I got, you know, cologne on and my head's shiny.

And you're playing your Get Down Tonight. And I'm playing my Get Down Tonight CDs to get in the mood. To go out in public, you know, and I put on my, it's to make me feel good. I'm not doing it. I am not, I, me, am not doing it to be like, look what I've got. That is not what I'm doing. You're having fun with it. Right. And, you know, and then there's people like, I don't wear, I don't wear my really good stuff all the time. There's a couple of things that I've.

You know you you wear jewelry sometimes and then you take it on put it on take it off but other stuff i don't i don't have time to change earrings i got nice earrings i'm not putting them in taking them out every day because i'm scared i'll lose them right i went through a i went.

Four or five months ago i lost like four earrings right in a row and i'm like some of our recent episodes we've talked about the jewelry chase i mean the earring chase yeah so you know yeah so so yeah i it's you know if you're yeah all right well getting back to ruby is a nine Sapphire is another nine. What do you think of sapphires? I feel like you don't value them that much. No, a deep midnight blue sapphire, they're gorgeous. I love them.

I would love to have some, but you know, I can't afford to go out and buy that stuff. So when I get it, I want to make sure it's good stuff. That's all. But a sapphire, a really good sapphire versus a diamond. You're always going to go with a diamond? No, I'm normally caught by what the ring looks, what the piece of jewelry looks like. Ooh, you've been with me. You've heard me go, ooh, because that's like, oh, it hit something. And I've got a lot of semi-precious stones that aren't worth crap,

but I really think they're beautiful, beautiful pieces of jewelry. Right. And I love them. All right. So aquamarines. I love aquamarines. They're in the same family as emeralds. Yes, and they're the beautiful teal color. An aquamarine is pretty much a blue emerald. Is all that is. Isn't that weird? Okay. It's a blue emerald. And peridot is the stone for August, so I've got lots of peridot stuff. Tourmaline is another one. Tourmaline, I've got one or two pieces of tourmaline.

Garnet. I love garnets. I have lots of garnet. Garnet is the poor man's ruby. I don't like that description, but yes, I can accept that. And what do you like about garnet? They're pretty. Because they look like rubies. But I'm not one of those people. Like if someone says, is that a ruby? No, it's a garnet. No, I am not going to be like, oh, look at my ruby. And it's not a, no, I don't do that. Have you ever gone down to see the Hope Diamond? Yes.

Do you know about the Hope Diamond curse? I tried to break the case open. No. Do you know about the curse of the Hope Diamond? Yes, I know about the curse of the Hope Diamond. Of course I do. What is it? And it's blue. The Hope Diamond is blue. The Hope Diamond is blue, but what is the curse? The curse is that I'm not sure where it originated from, but basically anybody who owned it would bring them sorrow and death.

So it went through several families, and the last woman that owned it, she was the only one I think that it didn't hurt anybody, and that's when she donated it to the Smithsonian. Right. Okay, and so this month is, what did I tell you what the stone for this month? It was citrine. Citrine. So there's all those other also ran gem. Yeah, remember we were at the Elks and I had on a really cool citrine ring, this big cushion set, and I was wearing it.

And Peggy Lanihan, what's that? I go, it's a citrine. What's a citrine? Oh, we can't all afford diamonds, Peggy Lanihan. Pardon me. That reminded me of Downton Abbey when Maggie's character, they talked about, well, we'll just take care of this weekend. And she's like, what is this weekend you're speaking of? Peggy. Thanks a lot, Peggy. It was very funny.

What do you think of amethyst? I like amethysts. What color is it? It's mostly found in Brazil. Amethysts are green. They're bluish. They're kind of blue. An amethyst. Wait, wait, wait. An amethyst is purple. Once considered a cardinal gemstone, it's now considered semi-precious. And the one I'm looking at is kind of blue. Well, amethyst is a shade of purple because I have amethyst glass. Okay, yeah. I don't think I have any amethysts.

You don't? The two things, the two pieces of jewelry that I really, really, really want that I don't have that I've got to get a hold of, and I'll figure out how to do that, is I don't have a solitaire diamond that's a big carat weight. Or a pearl. Or a pearl. Or a pearl. Yeah. I like a nice pearl ring. My sister said I can have mom's pearls. Because, you know, pearls are very popular with guys now. And, you know, if you go clubbing and you're trying to represent.

Nobody says that anymore. I don't know. So I asked Christy, I go, Christy, you wear mommy's pearls? She's like, no. And I'm like, can I have? Sure. All right. So as we pointed out, Aquamarine is a member of the same family as Emeralds. It's pretty much a blue Emerald. Are you going to get to Spinales? We're going to get there. Okay. We're at Peridot. Peridot, that's great. Yellow green? Yes. What do you think? It's a soft, minty green. Yes, it is. I have lots of Peridot pieces.

I just said it's the thing of August. It's the stone of August. So I have several Peridot pieces. We talked about Garnet. Garnets don't always have to be red. No, they do not. But all the garnets I have are that deep blood red. What about lapis lazuli? Lapis, I love. Lapis is that really pretty blue. Yeah. I love it. It's really, really pretty. I got some pieces of lapis for my mama. I think Christy has them now. One of the biggest players of the non-precious gems is topaz.

Topaz. It can be found in many colors. Red, orange, yellow, brown, blue, and colorless. That's a B-52 song. Oh, yeah. It looks 3D, doesn't it? It does. Yeah. Do you like it? Yeah, it's fine. I don't have any topaz. Oh, all right. So we've got amethyst, we've got turquoise, blue topaz, peridot.

What are your feelings on jade? Oh, I love jade. I've got a bunch of jade pieces. I've got jade. There's jade and there's jadeite. Yeah, I've got some jade pendants for like, you put them on silk rope necklaces. They look really nice. And I've got some jade beads that- Real jade? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Wow. And I've got coral too. And I need to have them strung. I bought them at, at, there were necklaces and they're old.

So the strings are the holdings of it. And I'm going to have them made into bracelets because I have a humongous neck and it's really hard to get necklaces to fit my neck. So I'm going to have them made into bracelets. Cause I like bracelets. I like rings. I have some pins and then I like pendants for necklaces, but I don't wear necklaces very often because for some weird reason, even if it's really long, it feels like it's choking me.

So it has to be comfortable on me or I can't wear it. Rose quartz. Pam Rubin loves her Rose quartz. It's just a pinky It's a pink Yeah, it's pretty. And you have a quartz Ring, right? I have a yellow Quartz ring, yes. Alright, tanzanite? Tanzanite's pretty. What color is it? I don't have any tanzanite. It's like a purpley blue. What do you think of opals? Opals are pretty, but that's not something I would ever wear. I like them on other people. I've seen beautiful opal pieces.

Some women have had some beautiful opal earrings and necklaces and stuff, and it's really pretty. And so if they like it, it's good for them. So pearls are organic. They're made by it. And there are black pearls that they make in Tahiti, I think. Yeah.

They say it's black, but it's a gray. It's a gray pearl. tahitian pearl ring that's on my wish list okay i'll have to sell a kidney to get that but but you know yeah but quartz in general we talked about that but you like quartz yeah sure tiger's eye when i think of tiger's eye i think of 70s open shirts and disco fevery feathered hair kai karate i don't particularly i don't particularly like tiger's eye oh i don't even know what it looks like. It looks like Tiger's Eye. Oh, okay.

Alright, so if we had to, just to close out our little chat about.

Gems yes i want you to rate them your favorite all right we're gonna start out with diamonds diamonds emeralds and then rubies sapphires and cubic zirconia oh oh no no no no no no no i don't wear fake i don't wear fake no no no no no no no no no no no so it's i i'm gonna let me guess okay diamonds rubies emeralds sapphires cubic zirconia okay that's an accurate thing now i asked you several times to bring up spinels and you didn't bring up

spinels i didn't bring up spinels at all i have several spinels oh it's right here the thing that i like about spinels are it's a it's i don't even think it's semi-precious but spinels are this weird stone that can be any color and there have actually been numerous cases in the past where people thought they had a giant ruby and it was a spinel or they thought they had a giant sapphire and it was a spinel and it went on like this is a million dollar piece of

jewelry and then later someone said this isn't a sapphire this is a spinel and that's happened numerous numerous times i'm looking at it on wikipedia as we speak yeah it looks like a ruby but it can be any color i have i have several spinel rings my favorite it's a baby blue stone in it it's very vintage and i really really like it and that's a whole group of minerals the spinels are a group of minerals and when they're red they look like They can be easily mistaken.

You have to really know your shit to know the difference between a spinel and a ruby. From Wikipedia, it may be colorless, but is usually various shades of red, lavender, blue, green, brown, black, or yellow. Some spinels are among the most famous gemstones. Right. Among them are the Black Prince's Ruby and the Timur Ruby and the British Crown Jewels and the Cote de Britannia, formerly the French Crown Jewels. The Sumerian Spinel is the largest known spinel in the world,

weighing 500 carats. Right. And like I said, there's been numerous cases where someone's thought they've had this million-dollar piece of jewelry, and it's like, well, it's worth the weight of the gold that it's set in. They're called spinel rubies. Yeah, yeah. In the past, before the arrival of modern science, spinels and rubies were equally known as rubies. Yep. After the 18th century, the word ruby was only used for the red gem variety of the mineral corundum.

That's great. I'm going to go out and get some spinels and tell people they're rubies.

So garnets rubies and spinels are all popular gemstones can be easily mistaken for each other yeah right correct so the ruby is the only precious one right garnet and spinel i feel like garnet is more expensive than spinel i i honestly do not know i don't think you really find spinel in jewelry stores so much anymore i think that they're going with the regular stones because they can charge the most money for it.

I've seen stuff in, they keep coming out with new stones. Oh, this is a lubber-dober-dober-dite. And I'm like, what the hell is that? But it's a pretty ring, so a pretty piece of jewelry, so it really doesn't matter. So it's just a matter of taste for what looks good on a person. All right. Like onyx. I don't particularly care for onyx, but I've seen onyx on people and I'm like, that looks really good. Is that a black one? It's the solid black, yeah. You look good in black. I don't like black.

I know you don't. You like color. It's depressing. Elizabeth Taylor. What was her first perfume called? Passion. And what was the one that was diamonds? She had the diamonds and she had the series with the commercial. And she's, oh, Colonel Visa brought me luck. And she takes off this gigantic diamond eerie and gives it to him to use. Yeah. Music. Have a race. Not so fast, all right. These boys brought me up. A man. White Diamonds, the intriguing fragrance from Elizabeth Taylor.

I don't think she would have ever worn a spinel. She probably didn't have to. No, she didn't have to. All righty. Well, anyway, that was just a little walk down memory lane.

Not memory lane, but just gemstone lane because Jack likes his gems. I like my fish. there you go and you're both anyway yeah thanks for listening thank you or more of it absolutely. Music.