When you are on the lookout for diamond jewelry, it’s essential to know what you’re getting. There are natural diamonds and lab-grown ones. And then there are the real ones and the fake diamonds. As much as possible, you wouldn’t want to be purchasing fake diamonds for more than what they’re worth. With that, we’re going to teach you how to determine whether a diamond is real or fake.
Table of Contents
At-Home Tests
There are several at-home tests you can do if perhaps you’ve inherited diamond jewelry, or your family has bought you one. These are easy to do, and you wouldn’t need to call a professional gemologist to take a look.
1. Look through a loupe.
A loupe is a type of magnifying glass that you can buy from the local jewelry shop. It allows you to take a closer look at the stone. You can also check the setting as it can help you.
When looking through the loupe, you’ll want to check for imperfections. In this case, you’ll want to see flaws in your stone.
Natural diamonds should have imperfections in the carbon, while fake diamonds are absolutely perfect. However, be extra careful since lab-grown diamonds tend to have a perfect look as well.
Additionally, you’ll want to check the edges of the diamond. Real ones have sharp edges, while fake ones have rounded corners.
According to experts, you can also check the setting and see what type of material has been used. Cheap materials that are gold or silver plated might mean your diamond is not real; otherwise, why would jewelers use a cheap material for a valuable stone?
2. Rub the diamond on sandpaper.
Diamonds are the hardest stones, so sanding them should not work. If it’s real, it should remain perfect. Meanwhile, fake diamonds will have scratches once the test is done.
3. Do the Fog Test.
The idea here is that diamonds do not retain heat. So, what you do is blow hot air to the stone in question as if you were fogging up a mirror.
If the stone is fake, it will fog up for a short period. If it’s a real diamond, it shouldn’t do that as they can’t retain the heat.
4. Do the Newspaper Test.
If you have a bigger diamond, then you can do this test pretty well. However, it won’t work on smaller diamonds that are less than half-carat.
What you need to do is simple. Put the diamond on top of the newspaper and try to read the words through it. If it’s a real diamond, you shouldn’t be able to see the words, much less read it. That’s because diamond refracts light intensely.
Conclusion
With just a few simple tests, you can determine whether you have a real and valuable diamond at hand. But of course, the best way to know is through the help of a professional.
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