Whether you are buying diamond jewellery for yourself or your loved one, it requires a considerable investment. Often the investment is more emotional than monetary.
No wonder we all get the jitters while purchasing diamond jewellery. We always wonder if the pieces that we are picking are original or not.
But there are other ways too that can help you in assessing the purity of your diamonds. And you don’t have to be an expert to separate the real stones from the fake ones or common diamond replicas such as white sapphire, white zircon, cubic zirconia, and quartz.
Just follow these simple tips to assure yourself of the authenticity of your purchase:
- Water test: This is probably the easiest test to check if your loose diamonds are original. Fill a glass with water and drop the diamond into it. A real diamond, due to its intensity, will sink whereas a fake one will float on the top.
- Try the fog test: This test can be performed on both mounted and loose diamonds easily. Hold the diamond between your fingers and breathe on it. This will create a bit of fog on your stone. If the fog disappears immediately, your diamond is authentic. This happens because diamonds conduct and disperse heat fast. If the fog stays for a few seconds, you have a fake stone on your hand.
- Read through your stone: Though it may sound unusual the ‘reading through your diamond’ test gives pretty accurate results. Draw a straight line with a black pen on paper and move your stone over the line. If your stone is real, you will not be able to see the line through it. This is because diamonds have a high refractive index that lowers visibility.
- Check the metal: The type of metal that your diamond is mounted on tells a lot about its genuineness. Since diamonds are lavishly priced, they will always be set in expensive metals such as white or yellow gold or platinum. If the metal is something like gold-plated silver, you can be quite sure that it’s a fake.
- Do the fire test: Remember, diamonds are the hardest materials on the planet and can handle extreme temperatures and pressure. A great way to test your diamond is to conduct a hot and cold test. Start by holding your stone over a flame for around 30 seconds and immediately drop it into some icy water. A fake stone will shatter into pieces within a few seconds while a real one will escape unharmed.
- Check the colours that it reflects: One of the best things about a diamond is the striking display of colours that you see through it. To know that your diamond ring is real and not just a pretty fashion ring, look closely at the colours that the stone is displaying. If you see the resplendent colours of a rainbow along with white, you have a keeper. If you can’t see any colours, it’s probably a copy.
While these tests are easy, they are not foolproof. Ultimately, the best way, of course, to ensure that your purchase is genuine is to buy from a reliable store that will give you all the papers and certifications. You can buy brilliant and hallmarked diamond rings on Melorra or have an expert check look at your stones who will appraise them at a lab and come back with reliable reports.
