| Well, in summary, Akoyas are bead-nucleated, and stay in the water for nacre deposition typically 2 years or, in many cases, much less time. The nacre thickness for top of the line Akoyas, known as Hanadamas is only slightly above 0.4mm. They are shiny because of the shell variety, and post harvesting treatment, which also adds the rose overtones that are deemed attractive to most.
Now, with gem quality freshwaters, they remain tissue nucleated, which means they are all nacre once the tissue nuke decomposes. The new harvests are giving metallic lusters across the board for freshwaters, and quality is only improving for now. There is a picture of a freshadama strand next to a hanadama strand, and most people got it wrong as to which was which.
Freshwaters are definitely the way to go for luster, surface, roundness, and value for money. Of course, you may still be bent on Akoyas, which boils down to personal preference. I was going to buy Akoyas myself, until the AUD went into freefall. I'd stick with freshwaters for now.
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Currently obsessed about citrus. Really want yuzu seeds.
Last edited by Raisondetre; 10-10-2008 at 04:31 AM.
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