The largest carved sapphire is a multi-coloured (blue, gold, grey) polished rock that weighs 80,500 carats (16.1 kg, 35.49 lb). The sapphire was displayed during the annual Unifour Gem & Mineral & Jewellery Show at the Hickory Metro Convention, NC, USA on March 19 2005. Sipe says he acquired the rock from a fellow gem-lover in North Carolina, it weighed 63 lb. He spent 3 years whittling it down with diamonds to carved the multi-coloured stone. Sipe, 78, has been digging for sapphires for half a century. According to him, no matter how much you polish a sapphire it has the potential to shine brighter. A stonemason by trade, he developed a passion for rooting around and finding stones so hard he would not break with an axe. He taught himself to carve sapphires and jade almost 30 years ago. On the outside, a sapphire looks just like a regular rock, but it's heavy, Sipe said.
