How to identify a diamond at home?

Buying an expensive product, each buyer is certainly interested in how to determine a diamond, not being a specialist.

Certificate

How to determine a diamond when buying? The authenticity of the jewelry is confirmed by the availability of a certificate. After the evaluation, the jewelery is packed in a blister, if the integrity of which is violated, the compliance document becomes invalid. Well-known companies provide goods with certificates, so the very name of the manufacturer already speaks volumes. In addition, attention should be paid to other characteristics.

Required parameters:

• Color of a diamond (definition on the scale of transparency, colored nuggets - a rarity);
• the size;
• Weight in carats (200 mg / 6.4 mm);
• Purity (presence of inclusions);
• Shape of the cut (circle, oval, emerald, pear).

Optional characteristics:

• Glow, property of radiation in ultraviolet;
• Degree of polishing the surface;
• Symmetry of faces.

An independent appraiser with a higher degree of gemology, not related to implementation, will provide comprehensive information on how to distinguish a real diamond from a craft. He will carry out identification and make an indicator of the value of the product.

The next step may be the registration of a stone in a specialized laboratory, which will indicate unique characteristics, including the color of the diamond, and if the stolen jewelry is in an international database, it is easy to return it on the basis of a fixed description.

Tests at home

1. Transparency

The present diamond is not so transparent that images and letters can be seen through it. This can be determined by placing the stone on a stable face on a printed font. The corners and the top of the cut should not be visible through the decoration, if it is in the frame, although this is possible due to the disproportionate polishing.

Another method is to look through the stone to the point left on the blank sheet. If the diamond is not real, in that area will appear circular stains that are not distinguishable when viewed through a natural diamond.

2. Fogging

How to identify a diamond at home in a matter of seconds? When interacting with couples, this stone does not fog. This can be identified by breathing on a diamond. If there is a "haze" on its surface, most likely it is artificial. No increased breathing can create a scurf, unless very short-lived.

3. Not visible in water layers

A real diamond is hardly visible in the water column when viewed from above. But a fake will immediately reflect the unnatural part and the border of its connection with the present. Often the lower part is forged.

Colour

1. Expressive shine

High refraction - the reason for the brilliant brilliance of the diamond. For comparison, crystal and quartz have a lower index of light refraction. Regardless of the cut, the shine is a constant quality of the nugget. 2. Double refraction

The diamond casts double rays, unlike other stones: one - perpendicular to the face, and the other - in the direction from it.

3. Gray glare

The diamond casts glare of an exceptionally gray color, intense, but not iridescent. Multicolored shades are a direct proof of the low quality of diamonds. A true stone can not shine with the colors of a rainbow or be too bright: all these are features of artificial products.

Other criteria

View from any angle

What is characteristic for a fake, the only perfect is the upper edge. Therefore, it is important to examine the jewel from different sides.

Susceptibility to temperature

If you hold the stone in your hand, it will remain cool for a long time. Rapid heating is not characteristic of a diamond.

X-ray

Since the diamond has a transparent molecular structure, it makes sense to check it with an X-ray, which can be performed in a professional laboratory or at a local X-ray center. A true diamond is invisible in X-ray irradiation, unlike any minimal impermeability of crystals, glass, zirconium.

Ultraviolet illumination

If there is an opportunity, before asking the question "is it possible and how to determine a diamond at home", it is worth to test it with ultraviolet radiation. Most diamonds give a bluish glow. If the reaction of the stone to the ultraviolet is green, yellow, gray - before you moissanite.

Generally recognized characteristics of authenticity

Weight and size

According to the table of values of weight and size, it is easy to determine whether the given diamond is consistent with these data. For example, zirconium is half as heavy as a diamond.

Impression on the rim

The official approach leaves no questions about how to determine the diamond in the decoration. Of course, by its attributes. The frame of cheap quality will immediately issue a fake. If there is no impression or as an inscription like "CZ" instead of the alleged 585, 750, 950, PT, Plat, there is a fake in front of you. The mark "CZ" is put on ordinary metals framing artificial jewelry, as a rule, cubic zirkonia.

Jewelry Magnifier

Natural diamonds are usually not devoid of small defects. As a rule, these are hardly discernible inclusions of natural origin, peculiar to fossils, as well as color changes.

Phianites and semiprecious stones usually do not contain defects, since they were created in laboratory conditions, where there are no accidental natural effects. Nevertheless, the absence of flaws is not the determining factor of authenticity.

Strength testing

Testing the stone for strength is hardly appropriate without previous tests: if the decoration is artificial, the test can destroy it. And before you determine a diamond in this way, you should decide what is more important: leave the jewelry in its original form or find out the truth at any cost. The version that the stone will withstand the impact of a hammer, if it is real, is erroneous: strength does not exclude the fragility of the material.

Interaction with other stones

The diamond has cutting properties that can be tracked with glass and other stones, on the polished surface of which the real diamond will remain scratched.

Interaction with abrasives

If you rub the stone with sandpaper, there should be no scratches. This difference is not unique, and auxiliary tests are needed.

Trial by fire

It is enough to hold the stone over the lighter for about 30 seconds, then throw it into the cold water, and then observe how the sharp temperature drop affects it. If there are no cracks inside, what happens to the quartz or the crystal, then the strength test can be considered passed. Even experienced gemologists find it difficult to distinguish a nugget from an analogue created by artificial means, because of their identical chemical structure. Therefore, with frequent need for checking the stones for authenticity, it is recommended to purchase a complex tester in a specialized center.