The Thais – spurred by poverty, a large population and determination – burn gemstones better that anyone else but the Japanese and the Americans could overtake Thailand’s secret expertise within five years, says Santi Srimaneerungroj of C. Mee Gems Ltd., Part.
“It would take no more than five years for others, the Japanese and the Americans, to catch up because they are subsidized by their governments, which is not the case in Thailand,” said Santi, a gem merchant and cutter whose experience in the trade spans four decades. “We’re going to have to better ourselves, and that is for each one of us to ponder since our techniques differ among ourselves.”
Some 20 years ago, a fire broke out at a municipal gem marker in Thailand’s eastern province of Chanthaburi, Santi recounts the accident that revolutionized Thailand’s hest treatment.” Traders waited for the fire to be put out, then hurried to their tables where their properties were kept inside drawers. That was how it all began.”
Santi, better known as Lim Ah Cee, is known for his early experiments with stone-burning, which goes back to some 30 years ago and which include Ceylon and Australian sapphires. Two years ago, the Asian Institute of gemological Sciences identified some of his treated blue sapphires as “surface diffused,” which Santi repeatedly denies.
“No color is added to C. Mee’s heat-treated gems,” Santi said in an emotional interview at his office. Of 10 such stones which share similarities to the so-called “surface diffused sapphires,” not one buyer returns them to C. Mee Gems, he noted. “No one rejects them, except Mr. (W.K) Ho,” chair man of the Ho Group of Companies and also chairman of the Asian Institute of Gemological Sciences.
Santi would only say that he has introduced new techniques to his overall heat treatment processes. “Mine are certainly not coated sapphires. I reject that term. Imagine a volcanic eruption. What I do is feed enough fire (to the stones), and feed them correctly.”