Diamond is one of the most desired gemstone of the world. It is not just beautiful but also very precious. Sensing its craze among the people, the market is flooded with diamond lookalikes that consist of lab grown diamonds and also gems that are nothing but fakes. If you do not know how to identify a real diamond, you can be easily duped by people in the jewelry market. This article will make it easier for you identifying a real diamond from fakes by providing easy testing techniques.
Tests to identify a Real Diamond
Electricity test
This test can be conducted at a jewelry shop only as they have a machine to send electric current into the diamond. If the metallic needlepoint that touches the surface of the diamond sparks a flash of light, you have a real diamond. This is because diamonds are great con doctors of electricity while the fake ones and the lab grown ones are not.
Transparency test
Place your diamond upside down over text in a newspaper. If you can clearly see the txt, it is not a real diamond. However, there are some diamonds that are cut shallow and they fail this test as you can clearly read the text through them.
Fog test
Place the stone in front of your mouth and exhale like you do to clear your glasses. If the fog remains for more than 3-4 seconds, you have a fake diamond in your hands. Real diamonds are great conductors of heat and this fog would disappear instantly if you breathe on them.
Weight test
The most common fake diamonds are cubic zirconia. If you have two stones of the same shape and design and one is much heavier than the other, the heavier one is a fake as cubic zirconia weighs nearly 50% more than real diamond.
Scratch test
Try to scratch glass object with the edge of the stone. If you can scratch and create a line easily, it is a diamond. However, this is not a perfect way to tell a real diamond as there are some fakes that can scratch glass as well.
Ultra violet test
Diamonds, when placed under ultra violet light, give blue light while fakes ones do not. However, if your diamond is giving out blue light, it also means that it is worth less than high quality diamonds.
Heat test
Heat the stone using a lighter for 30 seconds and then drop it in a glass of cold water. Rapid heating will cause expansion and cooling will lead to contraction causing shattering if the stone is made of glass or quarts but nothing will happen to it if it is a real diamond. This is because the tensile strength of real diamond is very high.
Hope how to identify a real diamond becomes easy with all these tests.
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