How to Tell If a Diamond is Real – Diamond Tests and More

Buying a diamond is a great investment. Diamonds usually represent a momentous occasion that you want to remember. It is important for you to know how to check if the diamond you bought is real.

Whether you are buying a loose diamond for your custom jewelry or a diamond engagement ring, it is crucial that you know whether the diamond you bought is authentic or not. Everything will not depend on your jeweler. You should also have enough knowledge about the qualities that would let you know that the diamond you bought is not fake.

There are many gems that resemble real diamonds. And if you do not know how to check if a diamond is real or not, you can be a victim. Here’s some useful information on how to tell if a diamond is real.

How to Tell If a Diamond is Real Without a Tester

1. The Water Test

   To spot fake diamonds, you can use a glass of water and a loose stone. Simply drop the stone into the water. Diamonds carry great weight or are dense, making them sink immediately after they are dropped in water.

   When the stone does not reach the bottom of the glass right away, it means you are not holding a diamond. Do this with other reliable tests for fake diamonds, since there are several stones that can sink quickly as well.

2. The Fog Test

   Where will the fog come from? Out of your mouth, so all that is required is yourself when you do this test. First, you will have to make the stone spotless and clean of oil and dirt that can alter the results.

   Just as you would do to make a window foggy by using your breath, breathe on the stone with warm breath. You will know that the stone you fog on is a diamond if it will not get foggy. Real diamonds do not retain the heat of your breath.

   To make sure that your results are accurate, you can fog two stones and compare the results. If both stones fog up, both are not real diamonds.

3. Check the Setting and Mount

   A real diamond will most likely be placed on an equally high-quality and expensive material for a setting and mount. The most common materials that diamonds are set on include:

   – White gold
   – Platinum
   – Yellow gold

   You can personally check if the setting is made of real gold or platinum. There will usually be markings inside the center of the ring that indicates the type of gold used (10K, 14K, and 18K). Platinum markings include the letters PT or the word Plat with numbers like 585, 770, 900, and 950.

   A red flag is a “C.Z.” marking which means that the stone is cubic zirconia.

4. Newspaper or Dot Test

   This diamond test is best for loose diamonds. All you will need for this fake diamond tester is a newspaper.

   Draw a small dot on the newspaper if it is not printed. Place your loose stone face-down on a printed part of the newspaper or on the dot that you drew.

   To know if your stone is a diamond, you should not be able to see the shapes of the letters that it is placed upon. Diamonds extremely bend light because of their many facets, so the dot or the letter beneath the stone should not be recognizable.

   If you do not see the dot at all, you can be convinced that your stone can be a diamond.

5. The Sparkle Test

   You will have to do a little research on how to detect the sparkle of real diamonds. Diamond experts will tell you that 99.9% of diamonds are not pure. This means that almost all diamond stones have impurities in them that can affect their sparkle. Fake diamonds will appear to be perfect.

   Diamonds sparkle because of the reflection of light that passes through them. It is influenced by the cut of a diamond that determines how the stone reacts to the surrounding light.

   Real diamonds with a great cut display a strong contrast of light and dark facets. Without prior experience, though, this test can be tricky.

6. Scratch Test

   For testing fake diamonds, you can use a full gemstone hardness kit or another material that is very hard. This test can be destructive for stones that are softer than diamonds. Diamonds that are known to be the hardest stone will not be scratched.

   A popular scratch test for diamonds is scratching a diamond across a mirror. When the mirror is scratched, your stone is most likely a diamond. However, since there are hard stones compared to a mirror, you can get the same results.

   Use this test alongside other tests for fake diamonds to get more accurate results.

7. Black Light or UV Light

   

   You will need to turn off the lights in your home and place the stone under a UV light. Most real diamonds will reflect a blue-colored glow. Real diamonds do not always emit this color under UV light. Some say that real diamonds can also emit a shade of yellow. Since this test is not that accurate, you can use it alongside other tests to check if your diamond is real.

How To Tell a Real Diamond By Eye

You can check if a diamond is real by observing how it reflects light. Wikihow teaches that “a real diamond’s reflections usually show up in various shades of gray.” How do you check this by eye?

Look straight down from the top of the diamond. When there are reflections that are in rainbow colors, this means that the diamond is low-quality or fake. The reflection you see should be an intense light, not a colored light.

Ask an Expert to Test How to Tell if a Diamond is Real

To get the best results on how to test if a diamond is real, ask a professional expert to look at your diamond. They will have the right tools and the right training to check the refractivity and how light reflects on the surface of the diamond. Most importantly, they can check the color, clarity, cut, and carat weight (4C’s) of your diamond that determines its quality and authenticity.

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