Do pearls burn? It is honestly a question I have never thought about. Maybe it is the woman in me? I imagine my sons might wonder about this but it has personally never crossed my mind until I came across this video of a man burning a pearl.
Here we see a man applying a homemade blowtorch to a pearl. The pearl’s layers of calcium carbonate do, in fact, burn. They burn and flake off in layers similar to the way they were formed.
Pearls are formed with layers and layers of pearl nacre applied by the mollusk. When pearls burn those layers upon layers are slowly charred.
This is a tissue nucleated or natural pearl without a bead nucleus in the center of the pearl so the blowtorch man is actually able to burn the entire pearl.
For more tales of pearl destruction, visit my post Does A Pearl Dissolve in Vinegar?
I am a modern day treasure hunter who travels the world for gorgeous pearls and amazing adventures. I own a pearl jewelry and jewelry repair business, ThePearlGirls.com, with a cute retail store in Athens, GA. I also have a Pearl Travel business and travel blog at TheWorldofPearl.com.
