Tips on testing gems and jewels

Parent Category: Fashion n Modelling

Posted in: Jewellery on Wednesday, 07 May 2014 11:05

Published on Wednesday, 07 May 2014 11:05

Written by Models n Trends

Hits: 767

by Gaurav S. Issar, Managing Director, IDT, a testing lab for gems and jewels.

Don’t be dazzled when you walk into a diamond jewellery store to start shopping for that perfect diamond ring, fabulous diamond bracelet, or exquisite pair of diamond earrings. It is almost like being a little kid and walking into the candy store with a pocket full of money.  It is easy to get carried away with the beauty of the sparkling stones. Go through these tips and come out wiser:

Placing the gem over a printed text: Real diamonds refract so much light that you wouldn't be able to see any lines, circles or full letters coming through. But a diamond that's cut too shallow may produce inconclusive results. So, one of the techniques is to place the diamond on a newspaper and printed text.

Be a mirror: Another test requires breathing on the gem like you would do in front of a mirror. Diamonds are good at conducting heat, so the fog your breath creates should clear up almost instantly. However, a synthetic rock called moissanite can pass this test.

Comparison required: Because different stones have different densities, you can also compare how heavy your gem is to a real diamond of roughly equal size. For instance, if your stone is a cubic zirconia, it will be about 50 percent more heavy than a real diamond of equal size.

Go electronic: If you really want to be positive, you need to test these, using proper tecniques. Commercial pen-size probes, called simply "diamond testers," can test the thermal conductivity of your gem. However, moissanite registers as a diamond with these devices, just like with the breath test. So, you may need another probe that reads the stone's electrical conductivity or a dual tester that measures both properties.

Value the diamond: Just because it is shiny, detailed, and made of gold, so it looks flashy does not mean it is a quality setting. Learn a little about what diamond jeweller lingo means, such as the difference between 14 carat, 18 carat, and 24 carat gold. Genuine, real diamond jewellery uses a good mounting method to hold the stones in the setting. This means there should be prongs surrounding the diamonds and other stones, and you should be able to see the entire stone. Jewellers grade diamond on the “4Cs”- cut, clarity, color and carat weight.

IDT is the biggest network of Gem Testing laboratories across India. It is India's first network of private gemological laboratories across India, which empowers and enables jewellers and jewellery brands to get a third party certification for their loose and studded gems, diamonds and jewellery before selling their products to customers. Perhaps, IDT certification of Diamonds has added the 5th C i.e Confidence to the internationally acclaimed 4 C's of diamonds which includes cut, color, clarity and carat. At present IDT has certified over 20,00,000 pieces of diamonds, gemstones and jewellery across India and Internationally through the IDT platform.

They have launched operations in Rajasthan, New Delhi, Andhra Pradesh, Kerala, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir across India, U.A.E & Singapore Internationally, and after booming in these states, they are all set to focus on expanding the service offering to other places like Mumbai, Gujrat, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Utrakhand within 3 to 5 months.  They have recently opened Kochi and Gujrat outlets.

As a part of initiative to reach out to a larger target audience, they are trying to enter into strategic partnerships with the industry and premium media brands to create awareness across the masses.

For more information kindly log on to www.idt.edu.in