Idaho Star Garnet

Description

Idaho Star Garnet
There are only two places in the world you can find Star Garnets - India and in the Idaho Panhandle National Forests! The garnets found in Idaho are called "star garnets" because of a unique property that causes some of them to display a reflection like a four or six pointed star. It is the official Idaho gemstone.
These almandite-spessartite garnets are from an alluvial deposit in Idaho. Some still retain evidence of their dodecahedral crystal form.
They are mostly deep red almandite and purplish red almandite-spessartite.
These purplish red almandite garnets contain fine rutile needles that produce four-ray stars or six-ray stars when the rough is properly oriented and cut into cabochons. Cutting the garnets to properly produce a star is not easy, and only highly skilled cutters are able to consistently produce them with a nicely centered star.