Almandine Garnet

Almandine Garnet possesses good toughness due to its lack of cleavage and compact crystal structure, enabling it to withstand everyday impacts without fracturing easily.

Almandine Garnet is considered stable for daily use due to its resistance to water, sunlight, and dry conditions. It requires caution with heat and strong chemicals but generally maintains its appearance well with regular wear and care.

Almandine occurs rather abundantly in the gem-gravels of Sri Lanka, whence it has sometimes been called Ceylon-ruby. When the color inclines to a violet tint, the stone is often called Syriam garnet, a name said to be taken from Syriam, an ancient town of Pegu (now part of Myanmar). Large deposits of fine almandine-garnets were found, some years ago, in the Northern Territory of Australia, and were at first taken for rubies and thus they were known in trade for some time afterwards as Australian rubies. Almandine is widely distributed. Fine rhombic dodecahedra occur in the schistose rocks of the Zillertal, in Tyrol, and are sometimes cut and polished. An almandine in which the ferrous oxide is replaced partly by magnesia is found at Luisenfeld in German East Africa. In the United States there are many localities which yield almandine. Fine crystals of almandine embedded in mica-schist occur near Wrangell in Alaska. The coarse varieties of almandine are often crushed for use as an abrasive agent.

Almandine Garnet is the hardest garnet, and so is used for abrasive applications, like sandpaper. The properties of this stone make it perfect for sanding wood. It is also used for sand-blasting, waterjet cutting, and filtration, since its fine grains can be used to keep out contaminated material.

Almandine Garnet is the state gemstone of Connecticut and the traditional birthstone for January babies. Almandine Garnet was worn as a stone for protection by the Crusaders and considered a defence against poison during ancient times. It was also believed that if a wise man dreamt of this stone, they would wake with the answers to all of their life's mysteries.

Almandine (/ˈælməndɪn/), also known as almandite, is a species of mineral belonging to the garnet group. The name is a corruption of alabandicus, which is the name applied by Pliny the Elder to a stone found or worked at Alabanda, a town in Caria in Asia Minor.