How to Test a Diamond for Quality

When buying something as precious as a diamond, it’s perfectly normal to have doubts. First, we may experience some difficult choosing the piece of jewelry that we really want, and then, even after buying it, we may even have doubts regarding the quality of the stone we bought.

If you have these kind of second thoughts yourself about a diamond’s quality, or if the prospective seller allows you to test the diamond before buying, know that testing it is easy. In fact, there are two ways to do it, and each of these guarantee highly accurate results. Gemology is a science that developed greatly in the past few decades, so gem testing methods are also very much up to speed.

Photo credit: Grtc.co.in

Method 1: Use a Hand-Held Tester

Devices which you can buy for as low as $15-20 offer precise measurement on a diamond’s attributes and quality, and they also indicate if you should doubt the stone’s authenticity, too. The higher-end tools can reach above $100, but they are still more than affordable considering their purpose.

You should know that the cheaper options only indicate whether the stone is an authentic diamond or not, whereas the more expensive options are also able to return more complex results. If you also want to test for other quality factors beyond a yes-or-no type of authenticity, you will need a higher end diamond tester.

These tools are really a miracle of science: they are easy to use, affordable, provide instant results and they are also small enough to carry in your pocket. You can even take them with you when you go shopping for diamonds and use them on the spot.

The diamond quality testing devices are not intrusive and will not damage the stones you test in any way, so there’s nothing to worry about. TheDiamondAuthority.org provides a top of the best tools you can use for testing any diamond’s attributes, so go ahead and pick your favorite so you can eliminate your doubts.

Method 2: Take the Stone to a Gem Lab

If you are still uncertain of a diamond’s quality or if you’d simply feel better to have a full scientific report delivered to you so the results are official, there is also the option of the testing lab. As we mentioned, gemology has evolved quite a lot in the past decades, so laboratories certified for analyzing gemstone quality have been developed all around the world. Every country has at least one such laboratory, accredited by the government authorities, and which offers their services to anyone interested, for a fee.

The countries where the jewelry market is better developed have even more such laboratories. India, China, Hong Kong, Japan and Indonesia are chief examples of jewelry markets which offer plenty of testing laboratories to choose from, if buying locally. You can expect them to be as rigorous as their Western counterparts.

As for the fee, we cannot tell you an amount you can expect, since it can vary greatly with the country and its local economy. Of course, you can expect this method of testing a diamond’s quality to be a bit more expensive than the first one, that simply made use of a hand-held test device.

Most of the time, this second method of testing diamonds is usually popular with businesses which seek appraisal certificates and proof that they did their own testing before re-selling jewelry. For individual consumers, the most convenient option is still the hand-held device.

Conclusion

In this time and age, there is no more room for doubts regarding a stone’s authenticity and quality. Of course, certificates of assurance and appraisal for the seller are still necessary in order to trust them in the first place. But even after the point of sale, if you still have doubts about the stone you bought, it is so simple today to test a diamond for quality that you can do as soon as tomorrow.