Quick answer
This is a visual index of the 39 stones the guides and tools on this site cover. Each entry gives you the four things that decide whether a stone works for you: how hard it is, whether it survives daily wear, whether it tolerates water, and what is most often sold in its place. Every illustration here is drawn from the stone's own data rather than photographed, and the page says so plainly further down.
What this page is for
Most stone references are written one stone at a time, which is the right shape for reading and the wrong shape for comparing. If you are standing in a shop holding two bracelets, you do not need a page about moonstone - you need to know that moonstone sits at Mohs 6 with two directions of cleavage, that a bracelet takes more abuse than a pendant, and that most "rainbow moonstone" on the market is white labradorite. Those are the facts this page puts in one grid.
The ratings come from the same file that drives the pairing checker, the fake diagnostic and the finder. Change a hardness value and every tool, this page and the guides all move together - which is the only way the numbers on a site like this stay consistent.
Tap any card for the full record: treatment notes, the forms each stone is normally sold in, price bands by form, and the caveats that hardness alone does not capture.
Showing 39 of 39 stones
No stone on this page matches that combination. Try loosening one filter - the hardest part of a search like this is usually the water rating.
What the ratings mean
| Rating | What it actually says |
|---|---|
| Everyday wear | Hard enough to share a hand or a pocket with keys, coins and a phone, and tough enough that a knock is not news. Quartz and the hard gems live here. |
| Careful wear | Fine on a wrist or at the neck, but it will pick up a scratch from harder neighbours and may chip at a thin edge. Store it apart from quartz. |
| Occasional | Wears well for a few hours and then should come off. Think soft stones with cleavage, or anything that dislikes repeated knocks. |
| Display only | Soft, soluble or brittle enough that wearing it is a way to lose it. Keep it on a shelf, a stand or in a closed box. |
| Water safe | Short contact with lukewarm water and mild soap does no harm. This is about cleaning, not about drinking the water. |
| Brief contact | Fine to rinse quickly and dry immediately. Do not soak, and do not leave it wet on a windowsill. |
| Keep dry | Water gets into the structure, dissolves it, or carries something you do not want on your skin. Clean it with a dry cloth instead. |
| Sealed container only | If you make crystal water at all, the stone goes in a closed bottle and must not sit in the water itself. |
| No known toxicity | No hazard from normal hand contact. It says nothing about swallowing a stone, and nothing about health effects of any kind. |
Hardness is Mohs, quoted as the published range for the species. Two caveats worth carrying around: hardness is not toughness (a diamond cleaves, jade does not), and a range means the softer end is the one you should plan around if the stone will be worn. Anything here that concerns a stone you intend to put in your mouth, on broken skin, or into a container of drinking water is a question for a mineralogist or a jeweller holding the actual piece - not for a table.
How the illustrations were made
Every picture on this page is a drawing, generated from the stone's own entry in the data file: its colours decide the palette, its typical forms decide whether you see a faceted gem, a cabochon, a rough specimen or a crystal point. Nothing here is a photograph, and nothing here was produced by an image model pretending to be one.
That is a deliberate choice, and it is the honest one for a site that publishes a guide to telling real stones from fakes. A page whose whole argument is that you should be able to check what you are being sold cannot then show you synthetic images as if they were specimens. An illustration that says it is an illustration costs you nothing and cannot mislead anyone about a stone's actual appearance.
If you want to see what a specific stone really looks like, the useful move is to read the guide for that stone and then look at photographs of pieces with a named locality, from a seller who will tell you the treatments. Colour, in particular, is the last thing to trust in any image - including a drawing.
Sources
- Mohs hardness values and species data cross-checked against Mindat, the mineral database of the Hudson Institute of Mineralogy.
- Treatment terminology follows the Gemological Institute of America gem-treatment guidance.
- Identification limits - hardness testing, specific gravity, refractive index - as described in the GIA Gem Encyclopedia.
Disclaimer
This is reference information for buying, wearing and cleaning stones. It is not a laboratory identification, and a given piece can behave differently from its species if it is treated, fractured or unusually thin. Nothing on this page is medical advice, and none of the ratings describe a health effect of any kind. For anything you intend to swallow, put on broken skin or steep in drinking water, treat an in-person assessment by a jeweller or mineralogist as the only reliable answer.
