Imagine this scenario: Your beloved grandmother left you her jewelry box full of beautiful necklaces, earrings and brooches — and a few loose diamonds sitting in the bottom. She never mentioned these gemstones to you, so are they real diamonds?
The popularity — and price — of diamonds has inspired a whole industry of copycat gemstones (like cubic zirconia) designed to mimic the real things. The problem? It’s usually difficult to tell if a diamond is fake or real just by looking at it. Luckily, there are multiple ways to find out the truth.
You have two options when it comes to determining real diamonds vs fake diamonds. The first option is to enlist the help of an expert who can do a diamond test using professional equipment. Or two, if you don’t want to use a professional, you can use a few at-home methods to figure out if your loose diamonds are real or fake.
While at-home methods for evaluating real vs. fake diamonds aren’t absolutely foolproof, they are surprisingly accurate. All you need is a couple of household items.
This is an extremely easy diamond test because all you need is sandpaper (and a bit of elbow grease). Simply rub the gritty side of the sandpaper against the stone. Don't worry, the grit on sandpaper usually has a hardness between 7 and 9 on the Mohs scale. Diamonds are one of the world’s hardest materials, so a real diamond won’t be affected by the sandpaper, and should remain in perfect condition. However, if it’s some type of fake diamond, then it will scratch.
The read-through test is exactly what it sounds like: a diamond test where you attempt to read text through the diamond. Any diamond that is unmounted in a setting or piece of jewelry — also known as loose diamonds — can be tested this way. Follow these steps for the read-through test:
Note, it’s impossible to read through a real diamond, but fake diamonds will allow you make out the words printed on the page.
The way a stone reflects and refracts light is a good indication of its authenticity. The at-home sparkle test is a visual inspection of the stone’s behavior in the light. A stone’s natural light refraction cannot be altered, so the light refraction, — or lack thereof — of a gem is typically accurate. Synthetic or fake stones, sparkle less than real, or mined diamonds.
With light reflection, look for shades of gray. Synthetic stones, such as cubic zirconia, sparkle with more iridescent colors. Natural diamonds reflect light in more grayish hues. So, if yours is a stone of many colors, it’s probably synthetic.
For the water test, simply get a glass and add water. Carefully drop the loose diamond into the glass of water. If the stone sinks, then you know it’s a real diamond. If it floats underneath, or at the surface of the water, then it’s a fake diamond. The reason: Real diamonds have high density, while fake diamonds don’t
To properly conduct the heat test, expose a loose gemstone to an open — but controlled — flame (like from a lighter), for about 30 to 45 seconds. Be careful with your fingers, and try to hold the stone with a pair of tweezers with a rubber base so there's no risk of getting a burn. Immediately after heating, put the gem into a container of cool water.
Why this method works: Diamonds conduct heat well and diffuse it evenly throughout the stone, while fake ones can’t withstand heat. That said, the extreme heat and sudden switch to the cool water will ruin anything other than real diamonds, so don’t do this home test unless you’re willing to ruin a fake diamond.
On the other hand, if it turns out that your loose diamond is real, you can rest assured that it can stand up to any task you will put it with your unique lifestyle. You saw it with your own eyes, so you’ll enjoy and appreciate the gem that much more.
Contrary to popular belief, lab-created diamonds aren’t fake diamonds, they’re just made in different settings. That said, there are still some minor differences between the two that you should be aware of while researching.
While real diamonds are mined from the earth, lab-created diamonds are made using techniques known as Chemical Vapor Deposition (CVD) or High-Pressure Crystal Formation (HPHT). To create the diamonds, carbon atoms are extracted from high-pressure vapor in a chamber. This process creates the diamond layer by layer over time — typically three months, though it can take longer. Real diamonds, on the other hand, can take thousands of years to form in the Earth.
Whereas moissanite is not a lab-grown diamond. Moissanite was first discovered in the late 1800s in a meteor by Henri Moissan (hence the name). Moissan first assumed the clear particles were diamonds, but later discovered that these gemstones are not made from carbon, but silicon carbide.
While moissanite is a naturally occuring substance, it’s difficult to find. So the majority of today’s moissanite stones are created in labs. They’re almost identical to diamonds, but there are a few big differences.
One of the most easily identified differences between moissanite stones and authentic diamonds is the color. The colors of natural diamonds are also more saturated than that of moissanite stones, which tend to appear to change colors as it disperses light throughout the gem. Although both produce stones that are yellow, clear or green, those with naturally red, blue, brown, black or purple tinted stones are likely in the diamond category.
Gemstone weight will also tell you whether you’re dealing with a diamond or moissanite. Moissanite stones weigh less than their diamond counter parts, no matter how similar or exact their physical shape is. This is a harder quality to assess yourself, unless you happen to have professional jewel equipment at home, unless you’re especially sensitive to the weight differences of two similar objects.
