At a recent gem and mineral show, I discovered a cache of cabochon cut Cavansite gems. They had a good polish and a deep royal blue coloration. This struck me as quite unique as I always considered this mineral to be too acicular and unconsolidated to be cut en cabochon. Apparently some brave cutters in India have succeeded in cutting solid cabs of this , and in some there is a vague chatoyancy but not oriented in any way. They are probably nodules that popped out of matrix while trimming, as this is a brittle mineral that isn't that well bonded to it's matrix in many cases. In any event, I think we need to add this unsusual, and might I say, relatively rare cut gem, to the lists of known cut gems on Gemdat.org, so that other collectors of unusual gems can be aware of this possibility. As of this time, I can be contacted by interested parties and I can probably access more cabochons of this mineral for their collections. It was priced at $25 U.S a carat, which is not out of line for an unusual gem material.

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