When you buy jewelry, it can be tricky to tell the difference between a fake and a real diamond. While fakes are often difficult to spot, the most important difference is the sparkle and refraction of light in a real diamond. A real diamond will not sparkle in rainbow colors, but rather in white and gray. The brilliance of a diamond depends on the cut and facets of the stone. A diamond’s brilliance is dependent on its cut, clarity, and color. A stone that reflects light elegantly is a true gem, but fakes can be difficult to distinguish. For the easiest test, try breathing on the stone and comparing the reflection. A fake will be very cloudy and have an uneven surface, while a real diamond will sparkle like a star in the dark. A real diamond’s brilliance is only enhanced by a high-quality cut.
If you’re unfamiliar with the structure and components of a diamond, you can be misled to believe that a gemstone is a diamond when it’s cubic zirconia or moissanite. As a result, knowing how to recognize a fake diamond is critical.
Even though this guide is instructive and practical, no one at-home test should be considered definitive. A diamond specialist has the necessary skills and technology to determine if a diamond is genuine or not.
How To Recognize A Fake Diamond When You’re Shopping?
You won’t be able to do all of these tests if you’re looking for a diamond. Rather, buy from a reliable dealer with a favorable return policy. If the gem doesn’t have a gem laboratory-grade report, ask if they’ll send it to the lab on your behalf. This should not be a concern if the diamond is genuine and the seller is trustworthy.
If you’re not sure where to buy, consider James Allen and the Blue Nile, two reputable online retailers. They show you magnified 360° footage of their gems so you can see how good they are. Even better, their diamonds come with certificates of grading!
Some Tests To Spot Fake Diamond
Water Test
Use this simple technique to determine whether or not a diamond is genuine.
Fill a normal-sized drinking glass with water to 34% capacity. Drop the loose stone into the glass with care. It’s a true diamond if the gemstone sinks. You’ve got a fake on your hands whether it floats beneath or on top of the water. The water test determines whether your stone matches the density of a genuine diamond.
Fog Test
Hold the diamond or ring between two fingers and blow on it with a puff of air to perform the fog test. Because of the moisture and heat in your breath, a light fog will form on the diamond. If the fog clears quickly, the diamond is genuine. It’s most likely a fake diamond if the fog takes several seconds to clear. Diamonds are excellent heat conductors and dissipate heat quickly.
Check Setting & Mount
Examine the type of setting and mount used if a diamond has previously been set in a ring.
Because of the exorbitant cost of a diamond, it will only be put in high-end jewelry. A real diamond, for example, will be set in white gold, platinum, yellow gold, pave or side-stone setting rings, and the halo setting rings.
Look for indications inside the ring’s center to determine if the setting is exactly as described. The notes 10K, 14K, and 18K, for example, show the sort of gold employed. Platinum is denoted by the letters PT and Plat. If you see a number like 585, 770, 900, or 950 on something, that means it’s platinum or gold.
Heat the Stone & See if it Shatters
Diamonds are constructed of an extremely robust substance that is unaffected by high temperatures.
Grab a drinking glass and fill it with cold water to see if a diamond is real. To hold the stone, use plyers or fireproof gloves. Heat the stone for about 40 seconds with a lighter, then drop it into the cold water. If the stone breaks, it is constructed of inferior materials and is not a genuine diamond. A genuine diamond will not react in any way.
The heat test determines the stone’s quality and strength. Weak materials, such as glass or cubic zirconium, will fracture and break due to the rapid expansion and contraction of the heart. Consider a cooking dish made of glass or Pyrex. If you take a hot dish out of the oven and try to wash it right away, the sudden temperature difference could fracture it.
Diamonds will withstand such heat testing because they are one of the toughest materials on the earth. The heat will swiftly dissipate, and the diamond will be unaffected by the temperature shift.
UV Light Test
Place a diamond under UV light and observe the reaction to see if it is real in a different way. The majority of diamonds, but not all, will give off a blue hue. Under UV light, some diamonds do not glow. As a result, if the stone doesn’t light, the results aren’t always indicative of a false diamond.
Because this test isn’t conclusive, it’s advisable to have a diamond expert or jeweler evaluate the stone using their advanced equipment.
Newspaper/‘Read-Through’ Effect
Place the diamond flat side down on a page of the newspaper in an area with a lot of lettering to evaluate its refractivity. Make sure the lighting is good and there are no shadows cast on the diamond by objects or people.
The diamond is false if you can read the letters in the newspaper, even if they are a little fuzzy. If the diamond is genuine, its facets will refract light in a variety of directions rather than in a straight line. You won’t be able to see clearly through the diamond and make out the text on the paper due to the refraction of light.
On loose diamonds, the newspaper test is most effective. If the diamond is already in its setting, use the fog test or have it evaluated by a diamond professional.
The Dot Test
If you don’t have any newspaper, the dot test is a great substitute.
Draw a small dot with a pen on a white piece of paper on a flat surface. Place the flat side of the stone on the dot. Look down on the paper through the diamond’s pointed end. If the gemstone has a circular reflection inside it, it is a fake. The diamond is real if you can’t see the dot or a reflection in the stone.
Light will bounce in many directions instead of a straight line because a genuine diamond has significant refractive properties. This is why a natural, genuine diamond will not allow you to see letters or dots.
Test for Sparkle
The only thing you’ll need for the sparkle test is your eyes. Place the diamond in question under a regular light source. Keep an eye on how light bounces off the stone. Do you notice dazzling white light glinting off the diamond? Do you perceive any other vivid light reflections?
A genuine diamond reflects white light brilliantly and sparkles brilliantly. Colored light, or fire, is reflected brilliantly by diamonds.
When comparing a real diamond to a fake diamond, such as Cubic Zirconia, you can see a significant difference in the white and colored light dazzle that the real diamond emits.
When comparing a real diamond to a fake diamond, such as Cubic Zirconia, you can see a significant difference in the white and colored light dazzle that the real diamond emits.
How To Tell If A Diamond Is Real At Home?
Use this simple technique to determine whether or not a diamond is genuine.
Fill a normal-sized drinking glass with water to 34% capacity. Drop the loose stone into the glass with care.
It’s a true diamond if the gemstone sinks. You’ve got a fake on your hands whether it floats beneath or on top of the water.
The water test determines whether your stone matches the density of a genuine diamond.
How To Avoid Buying A Hazy Or Milky Diamond By Shopping Smart?
By shopping wisely, you can avoid buying a hazy or milky diamond.
Greed, stupidity, and a lack of education are the top reasons why people make the mistake of purchasing a hazy diamond.
According to reader feedback, the majority of consumers unknowingly purchase a hazy diamond because they purchased SI/I diamonds at “amazing” pricing that appeared to have no faults. Worse, some people acquire SI diamonds purely based on a grade report.
Get this: there’s a reason some diamonds are so inexpensive, and purchasing with a “cheapo” mindset will almost always leave you on the short end of the stick.
Is The Scratch Test Reliable For Verifying A Diamond’s Authenticity?
The scratch test was originally a popular method for determining the hardness of a gemstone’s mineral. The loose gemstone was scraped against a mirror to check if it would scratch the mirror or the stone.
While a diamond is made of extremely hard materials, imitations such as cubic zirconia and moissanite are also extremely durable and scratch-resistant. As a result, the scratch test is ineffective. Other procedures, such as a thermal conductivity test or having the diamond viewed with a professional loupe instrument, are preferable options.
Synthetic Diamonds: How to Spot Them?
With the frequency of synthetic diamonds on the rise, it’s critical to understand how to distinguish between lab-created and genuine diamonds. Synthetic diamonds feature chemical and molecular components that are comparable to those found in natural diamonds.
We recommend having the diamond examined by a professional due to its complicated internal features. They can do a conductivity test and examine the stone under a microscope. Even if it’s difficult to tell the difference between a synthetic and a genuine diamond with the naked eye, it’s critical for resale and insurance values.
How To Test A Diamond Using A Thermal Conductivity Probe?
A thermal conductivity probe or meter is commonly carried by gemologists in addition to a loupe. They’ll utilize this gadget to figure out a gemstone’s thermal conductivity. Diamonds diffuse heat quickly after being warmed because they are good heat conductors.
The gemstone is not real if it disperses heat at a slower rate. This test is inconclusive with moissanite since manufactured moissanite stones often have similar or identical heat dispersion as actual diamonds. There are a variety of diamond testers available, so pick one that appeals to you the most.
Is It Possible To See Through A Diamond?
A real diamond can only be seen through on rare occasions when the cut is excessive. However, because this is unusual, bring it in to have it verified if you can see the writing or see through to the setting.
Do X-Rays Detect Diamonds?
In an X-ray, cubic zirconium can pass unnoticed, but a genuine diamond cannot. It is not authentic if you get it X-rayed and the stone does not appear.
Conclusion
A diamond-like look can be seen in a variety of white stones. Cubic zirconia, white zircon, white topaz, white sapphire, moissanite, white spinel, quartz (rock crystal), and glass are all common diamond simulants. These jewels, on the other hand, have a variety of physical, chemical, and visual qualities.
However, the easiest approach to recognize a fake diamond is to take it to a jeweler for thermal and electrical conductivity tests. This takes an expensive machine, but it can determine the difference between diamond and moissanite.
It is important to note that lab-created diamonds have the same qualities as mined diamonds and will pass all of these tests. Sending a diamond to a gemological laboratory is the only way to determine whether it was created in a lab or mined.
