Ruby vs Garnet - What are the differences?

While ruby & garnet can be of a similar red colour & sometimes even confused for each other, garnet includes a large variety of other colours whereas ruby is only ever found in a red colour because other corundum colours are called sapphire. 

 

(Photo above shows three red garnet stones) 

 

(Photo above shows a ruby gemstone with good clarity & few inclusions) 

DIFFERENCE #1 

Ruby is a harder gemstone than garnet with a Mohs rating of 9 whereas garnet has a hardness between 6.5-7.5. This means that if you rubbed a garnet against a ruby, the ruby would not get scratched but the garnet would be able to be scratched by the ruby. 

DIFFERENCE #2 

The chemical composition of ruby & garnet is very different. Ruby being aluminium oxide with tiny amounts of the trace element chromium which give it its red colour. Garnet is a silicate & also gets its colour from traces of chromium but sometimes the red colour comes from iron too. 

DIFFERENCE #3 

Rubies have a vibrant red colour often with pink or purple undertones. Whereas garnets often present a wine red colour or brownish red colour & usually have a darker & deeper colour than rubies especially in low lighting. Rubies are often said to have an internal glow due to their higher refractive index than garnet & rubies have fluorescence under sunlight or UV light. 

DIFFERENCE #4

Rubies are significantly more expensive than garnet. Pyrope and Almandine are the two most typical types of red garnet & neither of them will cost much more than £100 per carat whereas Ruby may cost into the thousands per carat especially for higher quality stones. To a large extent this is due to the rarity of ruby gemstone & relative abundance of garnet. 

DIFFERENCE #5 

Rubies almost always display some visible inclusions whereas garnets usually have better clarity & are eye clean (especially red garnets such as pyrope & almandine). 

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Shop Lucy Jurado ruby rings & Lucy Jurado red garnet rings.