Black Onyx Bracelets

Over the last few years black onyx has become a popular gemstone for casual jewelry. It is durable, matches well with both sterling silver and gold, and is relatively inexpensive.
Onyx is a mineral similar to quartz. It's translucent to opaque black color comes from carbon inclusions.
Originally, the term onyx referred to a stone with lighter and darker bands of color, but the term has been extend to include the same mineral in single colors, i.e. black onyx, blue onyx.

Are the Gemstones Real?

There are many descriptive terms used to differentiate between natural and man-made gemstones. For this discussion, we can divide gemstones into four groups, imitation, synthetic, treated and natural.

As the name implies, natural minerals are not treated in any way to alter color, hardness, etc. Natural gemstones are usually cut and polished to best display their natural beauty.

Imitation refers to materials that are not gemstones at all. Materials such as plastic and glass are colored to mimic a real stone.

Synthetic materials are man-made minerals created to mimic natural gemstones. Some are nearly identical to the gemstone to be duplicated, some are not.

Treated gemstones are natural minerals that are altered to enhance the color, hardness or other quality of the final product.

Naturally occuring gem quality black onyx is very rare. All material purchased should be considered to be color treated. Carbon is infused into clear onyx to make it black. This treatment is permanent. Since the stone is chemically exactly like natural black onyx, no test can determine that it has been color treated.