Diamonds are a woman’s best friend. Over the years, the diamond jewellery market business has been on the rise. Asa part of this growing market, If you are not familiar with a diamond’s composition and design, it is possible that sellers may sell you fake diamonds in the name of real ones. Then the question remains- how to tell if a diamond is real or fake?

There are a series of tests that you can conduct at home for a basic understanding of your stone’s purity. Apart from that, there are also several technical tests that a gemologist or a jeweller can conduct for you.

Read further to understand how to identify if a diamond is real, and how these purity tests are conducted at home and by an expert.

Checking at home

You have a piece of jewellery you aren’t sure about. Now, how to identify real diamond at home? Experts have curated a list of tests you can conduct at home to confirm if your piece of jewellery actually has diamonds or not:

• Water Test – In a glass filled 3/4th with water, carefully drop your diamond. If the stone sinks, it is a real diamond. If it floats at the surface of the water or just below, it is a fake.
• Fog Test – You can breathe on a diamond jewellery piece with a puff of air. If this fog dissipates quickly, it is a real diamond. If the fog takes time to dissipate, the stone is not real.
• Heat Test – This test is done with heat and cold water. Heat the stone over a fire and immediately drop it into a glass of cold water. Diamonds are unresponsive to heat due to their incredible strength. On the other hand, a fake gem will shatter immediately.
• UV Test – If you have a UV light at home, you can place your gemstone under UV light. A real diamond will emit blue light. However, if the stone does not emit light, it does not mean it is fake – you can take it to a jeweller for further testing.
• Setting and Mount – Due to a diamond’s high value, it is usually set is precious metals like gold, white gold, or platinum. Thus, you can check the metal that your ring or necklace is made up of.

Checking at the jeweller’s store

Jewellers are experts in both creating diamond jewellery and in identifying fake diamonds and fake jewellery pieces. As is the procedure with gold, there are several expert techniques your jeweller knows that can help you answer the question – how to check if a diamond is real or fake:

• Inspection with a loupe – a specialized magnifying glass, called a loupe, is used by jewellers to look at gemstones. While fake diamonds are perfectly cut, real diamonds usually have small imperfections called inclusions.
• Thermal conductivity probe – As called a ‘diamond tester,’ this hand-held machine tests the thermal conductivity of the gemstone. Since diamonds are effective conductors, they disperse heat easily and can be identified.
• High-profile weighing – specialized weights calibrated for diamond weighing and carat calculation can catch a real diamond from a fake one – this is how to measure a diamond carat. A real diamond will weigh lesser than any fake stone.
• Electricity conductivity – How to test a diamond with a multimeter? A jeweller or a gemologist may use an electrical tester on a gemstone to rectify if it is a diamond. A diamond conducts electricity better than any other gemstone, including moissanite and cubic zirconia.
• Scratch test – This test involves rubbing the gemstone across a mirror. If the mirror was scratched, the stone was real, while if the stone was scratched, it was fake. Once a widely popular test, the scratch test today is not an accurate measure of a diamond’s purity. This is because synthetic diamonds and gemstones like moissanite can also hold the strength to scratch the mirror.

Diamonds VS Moissanites and other fakes

How to tell diamond vs moissanite? Moissanite is one of the best fake diamonds on the market today. The two primary tests that can differentiate between a moissanite and a diamond are:

• Under a Microscope – with a 1200x microscope, a gemologist will be able to differentiate between the inclusions of a moissanite stone and a diamond.
• X-ray examination – under an X-ray, the stone’s radiolucent molecular structure can be examined, and the difference between fake and real diamonds can be determined.

How to test stone for diamond? Apart from moissanite, several different stones can be sold as fake diamonds on the market. For each stone type, there is a separate test:

• Synthetic diamonds – also called lab diamonds, can be separated from real diamonds through the conductivity test and inspection under high magnification, preferably by an expert.
• Cubic Zirconia – through the sparkle test, you can identify that cubic zirconia produces less sparkle and also has an orangish tinge.
• White Sapphire – the lack of distinct light and dark parts is the characteristic of a white sapphire, which is the opposite of what is found in a real diamond.
• White Topaz – the exterior is softer than a diamond, thus, a scratch test will suffice.

To conclude

So there it is a beginner’s guide to How to tell if a diamond is real or fake. The quality and genuineness of all forms of diamond jewellery can be used to answer the question of how to check diamond quality. However, given the complexity of the gemstone market and its materials, it is recommended that you consult an expert jeweller or a gemologist to check if your diamond is real.

If you are interested in the field of jewellery and jewellery design, the perfect first step would be an Advanced Diploma in Jewellery Design from the JD School of Design. Along with the creative process, material & fabrication technologies, compositions, market trends, and analytical aptitude for jewellery design, you will also learn how to differentiate between real and fake diamond.