Two ridiculously large lab grown rubies grown by the FLAME FUSION PROCESS!!! The boules were cut perpendicular to the “C” axis! The strain reduced version of the least expensive corundum growing process has arrived! Sorry Czochralski sellers, but your material can now be challenged for pennies on the dollar!
An interesting 36.05ct flux grown emerald from the days when Chatham actually grew cutting edge technology crystals. The morphology is what makes it truly unique.
This charming little 29.5ct cluster of rubies was grown by the late John Chatham and is rather unusual. It’s been round-cut and is ready for mounting. It is also studded with little flecks of platinum that you only see in flux gems. I think I’ll add either an emerald crystal as a bail or a cut cabochon ruby. Everything you see from my Chatham collections is vintage flux grown. Today, dirtbag Tom Chatham sells subcontracted PULLED rough from all over Southeast Asia and allows his customers to believe they are receiving the flux gems John Chatham once produced. If you want to see what Tom Chatham really thinks of the pulled ruby or sapphire he sells now, just watch the following video from 15 years ago:
https://youtu.be/a0N4JYN9lFI?si=pNlJXPE3RVZdQIwV
Tom fired that entire lab staff and his brother John and never announced that the superior flux (even to mined ruby) process was lost forever. A little company called Ramura developed an even superior method to John’s, but they couldn’t make the sales/vs cost numbers work. Flux ruby requires huge energy budgets that must run to five nines because ANY interruption of the crystal run ruins the batch.
This crystal grown ENTIRELY by John Chatham shows his ability to carefully manipulate his growing crystals with superb precision. This jewel was manipulated so that its final morphology would resemble an old swashbuckling sword. It is a pure “one of a kind that displays not only the sword shape and symbolism, but also shows the perfection possible with the flux process which Tom and his company abandoned due to their inability to manage and understand its intricacies once Tom had dismissed the entire crystal growth team and had instead moved all of Chatham except for a marketing “stub” to the far east.
Do NOT confuse this with material that Tom Chatham claims to have made. Tom has NO material sciences background and couldn’t bake a Pillsbury cinnamon roll! John created this stone in his own custom created solid platinum crucible and the entire “flux growth” process took nearly a year. Chatham hasn’t used this process in decades but instead FARMS OUT virtually all of its gem growth processes. Today Chatham uses cheap “pulled” material that has none of the crystal morphology of John’s groundbreaking “flux methodology.”