How to Detect an Original Precious Stone

by Hassan Nasser in Craft > Jewelry

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How to Detect an Original Precious Stone

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Whenever you buy a ring with a gem (stone), you wonder if it is original or not, for that in this instructable i will show you with my experience how to choose the perfect original precious ring with a stone using different methods.

Also I will present for you the most popular collection of precious stones with rings. Addition to a short description about each gem (stone).

NOTE: The fake rings are marked in each picture.

Be careful there is also artificial stones beside of the original ones that are commonly similar.

Tools Needed

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  • magnifier
  • powerful flash light
  • lighter
  • brush
  • magnet

Precious Stones

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  • Precious stones are of different kinds of polymers composed of two or more elements, consisting mainly of silica with some mineral impurities. The type of gemstone differs according to the constituent material in addition to the silica, and is usually found in volcanic silt areas, Volcanic regions, especially in volcanic river run-off areas.
  • Precious stones are made up of natural minerals during geological processes called "precious stones". Artificial stones resulting from a series of industrial laboratory chemical processes are called imitation and fake stones. The word is not only about the chemical compound, but also the metal construction. The metals in the composition vary from pure elements and simple salts to highly complex silicate compounds in thousands of known formulations. These processes are known as chemical composition, known as the chemical formula or formula, and are not impurities within that formula, The impurities are the cause of the color of that gemstone.

  • In this field there are several tests to know the originality of the stone and the ring. These tests divides into chemical, manual, magnetic test.... and all these tests I will describe them through the instructable additionally to a description about each stone.

Chemical Test

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Sliver is a main component of an original stone placed in a ring, so whenever you buy a ring with a stone make sure that the ring is sliver, for that you can make this chemical test.

  • you will need a brush, gloves and a sliver testing liquid
  • how to get the sliver testing liquid:

- you can buy it online

-or you can prepare it manually at home to do it just mix 0.5g of a dichromate or chromate salt( Potassium Dichromate). Then we add 10mL of water and 7ml of 70% nitric acid. After a good shake that's all.

Indications : after putting a little amount of the solution on the sliver one of this results will appear according to this scale:

  1. Bright Red: Fine Silver
  2. Darker Red: 925 Silver
  3. Brown : 800 Silver
  4. Green : 500 Silver
  5. Yellow: Lead or Tin
  6. Dark brown: Brass
  7. Blue: Nickel

WARNING : This test may destroy or deform the shape of silver.

Heat Test

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  • Apply heat test by using a lighter, if the stone melts down then it is fake (plastic) and if the stone remains solid then it is original.

NOTE: Not all the fake stones melts down, they can be glass or artificial stone.

Magnetic Test

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  • Use a magnet to detect the sliver ring.
  • Silver Don't attracted by the magnet.
  • Generally sliver is most used in rings that holds a precious stone, also they use alloy metal.

Sliver Indications

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Silver rings is one of the indicators of an original stone, and in this test you will search on the bottom of the ring on a scale that indicates that it is original and if there is not then it is fake. (as you can see the difference in the photos)

Rubellite Tourmaline

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  • Beautifully shaped gemstone from the colorful Tourmaline Collection. Its colors shine beautifully and range from red to pink.
  • is a crystalline boron silicate mineral compounded with elements such as aluminium, iron, magnesium. Tourmaline is classified as a semi-precious stone and the gemstone comes in a wide variety of colors

Tests on This Stone

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  • magnifying to see the purity of the stone
  • flash light test
  • scale observation test

(as you can see in the pictures)

Quartz or Al-Durr Al-Najafi

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  • Quartz is a mineral composed of silicon and oxygen atoms in a continuous framework of SiO4 silicon–oxygen tetrahedra, with each oxygen being shared between two tetrahedra, giving an overall chemical formula of SiO2. Quartz is the second most abundant mineralin Earth's continental crust, behind feldspar
  • There are many different varieties of quartz, several of which are semi-precious gemstones. Since antiquity, varieties of quartz have been the most commonly used minerals in the making of jewelry and hardstone carvings.

Tests on This Stone

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  • heat test using a lighter if the stone melts down then it is fake (plastic)
  • flash light test
  • magnifying test to see the purity of the stone and especially in this type it should be cracks in the middle of the stone since it is naturally extracted from the ground.

Brown Yemeni Agate

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  • Yemeni Aqeeq is a kind of Aqeeq stone which has different color variations. Due to its colors and natural variations one of the most famous stone is Yemeni Aqeeq for customers. It is also known as Agate and Aqiq. It is collecting from Yemen and processing with traditional techniques. Famous Yemeni Aqeeq is top stones for Aqeeq Rings or Aqeeq Tasbih fans.
    Some people also knows benefits of Aqeeq stone and because of that they want to carry it with them. So best way to carry Aqeeq stone is Ring, Tasbih or Pendant.

  • Magnifying test

Brown Agate

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  • The agate is known as a dielectric material, so nothing can be exposed to contact the agate to burn and is not affected by the heat (the part that touches the stone only).
  • Light test

Agate

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Black Yemeni Agate

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Red Agate

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Light test

Yellow Agate

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Pure yellow and yellow and the latter call it the honor of the sun and engrave on it the talismans they call it (Solomon's ring). Yellow agate stone consists of silicon, oxygen, magnesium, manganese, calcium, chromium and trace amount of iron minerals. Its basic composition is silicon dioxide (SiO2). Yellow agate is a translucent and stiff stone.

  • Agate undergoes color changes when heated. Fake agate stone can easily be detected with a brief heat test.

Red Heparin Agate

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  • Red Heparin Agate: Red Ramani is characterized by its red color, which tends to sapphires and red hepatic. It is characterized by a deep red color that is brown to the color of the liver and is of great importance.

  • Magnifying test

Jade

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  • A stone near the aquamarine, but more transparent and pure, and the finest.
  • light test

Turquoise

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Turquoise is known since ancient times, blue green or grayish green and sometimes turns into light green. It is very rare to exist in the case of amorphous, and is composed of aluminum phosphate that contains copper water.

Mixed Rings

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Mixed Rings

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Fake

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  • Here' an example of a fake stone,In the magnifying test it shows that this fake stone is like glass as you compare it with the original stone that contains cracks in the middle which is different from the fake ones.

Fake Red Heparin Agate

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  • magnifying test shows a scratches in the inside of the stone which shows that it is artificial
  • silver test: doesn't have a scale

Fake Agate

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  • silver test shows that it is iron
  • the stone has melted in the heat test so it is plastic

Fake

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  • heat test : doesn't work on this stone.
  • Magnifying test and light test : it shows that the stone is artificial.

Fake Turquoise

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  • By magnifying test, it shows that and especially in this stone the scratches in the stone are printed on a plastic stone.
  • compare them with the last photo(original), you can see the difference between the stones.

Fake (White Agate)

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  • light test shows the difference between the fake stone and the original one.(as in the pictures)
  • fake(white yellow)
  • original(bright white)