This water test is easy if you have a loose diamond: Get a glass and fill it with water (it doesn't matter what type of water you use). Drop the diamond into the glass of water. Due to the high density of diamonds, when dropped into the water a real diamond will sink.
Using cold water is a much simpler and safer way to test the validity of a diamond. If you place the stone into water, a real diamond will sink to the bottom due to the density. Fake diamonds are far more likely to float or bobble around.
Mined diamonds usually have small naturally occurring imperfections, which are called "inclusions," that can be seen with a loupe. Look for small flecks of minerals, or very slight color changes. These are both signs that you're dealing with a real, albeit imperfect, diamond.
If you're serious about finding out whether your diamond is real or fake, you can put the stone through a fire test. Use a lighter to light the stone for approximately 30 seconds before dropping it in cold water. If it's a real diamond, the stone will remain unharmed, but if it's fake it will shatter to pieces.
To determine if your diamond is real, hold a magnifying glass up and look at the diamond through the glass. Look for imperfections within the stone. If you're unable to find any, then the diamond is most likely fake. the majority of real diamonds have imperfections referred to as inclusions.
Any diamond will flash, sparkle and look the best in direct sunlight. So, if you really want to know what exactly a diamond looks like, you must observe it in natural daylight. This is when its true brilliance and sparkle can be noticed. This is why most dealers sort their diamonds in indirect sunlight.
Look at the Stones under Natural Light
Many people sell fake diamonds and cubic zirconia under the guise of having natural diamonds. The giveaway that a stone is not a diamond is its reflection. Diamonds will sparkle and shine, while cubic zirconia will have duller shadings to them.
27, 2013 – Owners of Android phones and tablets like the Kindle Fire and Samsung Galaxy can now benefit from GIA's (Gemological Institute of America) free interactive diamond app for consumers and retailers, available in both English and Simplified Chinese.
True diamonds have high density and should quickly sink to the bottom of the glass. Fake diamonds are not as thick, and therefore, more likely to float in water. This test is not always foolproof. Some materials that make up fake diamonds, such as cubic zirconia and moissanite, can sink if they are heavy enough.
As straightforward as it sounds, fill a glass of water at home to roughly three-quarters full. Separate the stone so that it is loose, and drop it into the water. Diamonds are highly dense and a genuine gem will sink to the bottom – every time. If it hovers to the surface or only partially sinks, then it is a replica.
The way that diamonds reflect light is unique: the inside of a real diamond should sparkle gray and white while the outside should reflect a rainbow of colors onto other surfaces. A fake diamond, on the other hand, will have rainbow colors that you can see inside the diamond as well.
Beyond being a perfect size (big, but not too clunky on your finger), the 1-carat diamond ring is a popular choice because it allows the wearer to adorn a ring with side stones, like a 3-stone ring, leaving room for extra diamonds to accentuate the center stone without overcrowding or overwhelming it.
If LED lights up to the red zone with three periodic bees, the stone being tested is a diamond. If LED lights up only to the green and/or yellow zone, then the stone is a stimulate or non-diamond. If the probe tip comes into contact with metal, the diamond tester will emit a continuous beep.
Diamond testers are always accurate. However, the thermal diamond testers can be faulty when testing moissanite because it has a similar heat conductivity rate to natural diamonds. The other testers will work because moissanite has different electrical conductivity rates than natural diamonds.
However, the best way to spot a fake diamond is to take it to a jeweler for thermal and electrical conductivity tests. This requires an expensive machine, but it can tell the difference between diamond and moissanite.
DiamondEye provides you a way to recognize your diamond.
The most obvious difference between moissanite and diamonds is their brilliance, with moissanite possessing more brilliance than a diamond. “It has more fire and brilliance than any other gemstone, meaning it has more sparkle,” reveals O'Connell.
"Natural diamonds typically range anywhere from $7,000 to $10,000 per carat based on quality and exact specifications," Wegman says. "A cubic zirconia is typically less than $30 per 'carat.
Cubic zirconia appears white and sparkly just like diamonds. Most casual observers can't tell it's not real just by looking at your ring. But if you place your CZ next to a diamond, you'll notice that it sparkles in a different way. Cubic zirconia emits more rainbow sparkles, instead of a diamond's white sparkles.
Check out the following comparison of the diamond ring when it is clean versus when it is dirty and covered in grim. You see, diamonds are a magnet for grease/oil as their surfaces muck up easily. A dirty stone doesn't sparkle because light simply can't enter the diamond and causes it to appear dull.
Most synthetic diamonds look too good to be true all due to their extreme brilliance. Does your stone look really bright with lots of rainbow reflected colors? If so, it's most likely cubic zirconia. Yes, real diamonds are brilliant, but they are much more subtle than synthetics.
An ideal cut diamond shows only a few intensely bright flashes in direct sunlight. A diamond that actually looks good in sunlight splits those few flashes up into ten or twenty smaller sparkles.