How do I know if my diamond is real?

Every year, just a few gem companies mine a small number of diamonds. Other stones, namely cubic zirconium and Moisannite (silicon carbide), look very similar to diamonds. These stones are beautiful, but it is still beneficial to most people to know that their diamond is a real diamond. The prices vary between these three stones and some people value them very differently. To many people, it matters whether the stone in your ring is a diamond or not.

This blog is designed to give you a brief overview of how you can test your diamond for authenticity following advice given on wikiHow.com. You may or may not be able to determine whether or not your diamond is real with certainty at home. That is why many people choose to have an appraiser who is a member of an appraising organization look at their gemstone. Some diamonds come with official certificates, too. A few basic tests to determine whether or not a gem is a diamond are outlined below.

• Refraction is a property of light. You may have learned about it in a physics class. Basically, when light is “refracted” as it passes through in object, the light bends. Diamonds bend light passing through them at a sharp angle. That means that its refractive index is very high. On the other hand, glass and quartz will not bend light so much; their refractive index number is lower than that of a diamond’s.
• Most cuts of diamonds are not fully clear when you look through them. That is if you put a diamond with the flat side down on a book and you can see the letter, then the diamond is most likely not real.
• Similarly, if you have a diamond ring and you look through the ring, then you should not be able to see through the entire ring.
• You can also weigh the gemstone. You should use a scale that is precise and will need to compare your stone to a known cubic zirconium. Diamonds weigh about 55% more than cubic zirconia. This rule of thumb only applies, however, for stones of the same shape.
• You can use a heat probe because diamonds are stones that do not hold heat. If you use this tool to apply heat to the stone for half of a minute, but the stone remains hot, then it is not a diamond. If the stone cools very quickly, you may have a diamond.
• Finally, there are devices that test gemstones to determine if they are truly diamonds.