DIY Diamond Authenticity Hacks
As Jewellery experts with decades of experience in the industry we have heard many supposed ‘hacks’ for testing if you have a real Diamond at-home. In this blog, we’ll be sharing some of the most popular and bizarre hacks, along with our reasoning to why these may not work, or worse, cause damage to your stone.
Myth 1 – Heat the Diamond
It is widely believed that if you heat a Diamond for 1 minute with a lighter or flame, then drop the stone in cold water, a Diamond will not break whereas a simulant will break.
If you do this hack, you are at a very high risk of burning a Diamond. Burning a Diamond permanently damages the surface of the Diamond and can only be rectified by repolishing the Diamond, an expensive process. Also, if there are weaknesses in the Diamond, or a Diamond has been treated, it can be susceptible to cracking.
Myth 2 – Diamonds in Water
Using this method, it is suggested to fill a glass of water and drop the stone in. If it sinks, it’s a Diamond, if it’s a fake, it will float.
This doesn’t work for a vast majority of simulant stones. Water has a specific gravity of 1.0, with almost all simulants having a specific gravity of over 1.0, meaning almost all gemstones and imitations will sink in water - even glass has a specific gravity of 2.5, way over the 1.0 of water.
Myth 3 – The Newspaper Test
This hack involves placing your gemstone on a newspaper. Supposedly, if you can read the writing through the stone is not a real Diamond
The thinking behind this hack is that Diamonds have a high refractive index, so they will bend light making it very difficult to read text on the other side of the stone. However, this only works if the Diamond has been cut to perfect proportions and this is not the case for many Diamonds, particularly ones cut between the 1940’s and 1950’s, so this method cannot be relied upon.
Myth 4 – The UV test
Using a UV light, it is suggested to look for a fluorescent blue glow under the UV light in a dark room to confirm a Diamond is real.
Some Diamonds do fluoresce Blue, however, many Diamonds do not fluoresce at all, and others may fluoresce more unusual colours such as yellow or green. Synthetic Diamonds also commonly fluoresce blue, so again, not much, if anything can be determined from this test.
Myth 5 - The Rainbow Test
Many online suggestions have been to look for rainbow reflections in a Diamonds. They then go on to state that if you see many rainbow reflections, you have a fake Diamond.
Diamonds are renowned for their ‘Fire,’ of which is part of the GIA Diamond grading process. Diamond ‘Fire’ is the dispersion of light from the facets, causing a rainbow of colours to appear. This is very sought after in a well-cut Diamond and contributes to what most people consider a ‘lively’ Diamond. This means the Rainbow test is nonsense.
Myth 6 – The Fog Test
This theory is that as Diamonds are a good conductor of heat because of the strong covalent bonding, so when you breath sharply on a Diamond, the fog that forms over the Diamond will clear very quickly. If it is a simulant, it will supposedly take longer to clear.
For this to be remotely accurate, the test would have to be conducted in a temperature-controlled environment. If your surroundings are particularly cold, the stone is warm or cold, or your breath particularly warm or cool, this will distort results. Diamond simulants such as Moissanite are also very good conductors of heat, so will have very similar results to Diamond.
Myth 7 - The Flaw Test
This method is based on the notion that if a stone has tiny flaws inside, inclusions, it is more likely you have a Diamond than a simulant.
This myth is easily challenged, as Diamonds can be internally flawless with no marks whatsoever and other colourless gemstones that look like Diamonds, such as Moissanite, do contain inclusions.
Laboratory grown Diamonds
Another consideration nowadays is whether the stone you have is actually a lab-grown Diamond. Even if you had a basic Diamond tester at home, it would pass these, so you will not be able to be determine a lab-grown Diamond from a natural Diamond by any means at home. It can only be determined if a Diamond is natural by using professional high-tech equipment.
When buying a Diamond, make sure to buy from a reputable jeweller so you do not need to conduct these tests at home. If are unsure of a gemstone provenance, such as inherited jewellery with no documentation, always visit a professional jeweller to have any tests undertaken.
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