Jewelry designers have for long set new design trends whether it is in vintage jewelry or in modern and futuristic designs that involved diamonds. With celebrities posing at large celebrity events with diamond jewelry hanging out from every possible visible body part, you too might want to emulate them and buy a similar piece of jewelry for that special person in your life. However, certain unscrupulous diamond dealers have allowed greed to get the better of their fair judgment and have started replacing real diamonds with fake cubic zirconia ones. It is thus vital that you conduct cubic zirconia diamond tests before you show the dealer your hard-earned money.
A real diamond is truly nature’s wonder as this crystallized marvel is made up of hardened carbon that would have evolved several thousands of years before you were born. Cubic zirconia or cubic zirconium as it is also mistakenly called is a man-made creation developed in the late 70s by Russian scientists that wanted a hard substance that mimicked a real diamond for their industrial needs. However, these inexpensive Russian diamonds were quickly lapped up by jewelry designers out on the look for cheap alternative jewelry that looked exactly like the real thing. They started incorporating these fake-but-attractive diamonds in everything from vintage jewelry, men’s jewelry, beaded design jewelry, and even custom design jewelry. Since cubic zirconia diamonds were very cheap compared to real diamonds they could easily replace real diamonds when teaching in a jewelry design school or jewelry design center. Designers also took their creations to different parts of the world through various trade shows and people realized that they too could gift a diamond look-alike that looked exactly like a real diamond but cost very much less.
Although as a product cubic zirconia is excellent at mimicking a real diamond to a large extent, in reality it is a mass-produced product that costs extremely less than an actual diamond. This is the main reason as to why certain cheating dealers use a cubic zirconia diamond in place of a real diamond and try to multiply their profits in a single deal. If you want to be absolutely sure that you are indeed getting the full bang for your money then you will need to conduct cubic zirconia diamond tests that will confirm if the diamond of your choice is truly a poor imitation of the real thing. These tests range from simple to complicated, but will not damage your chosen diamond in any way.
While testing a diamond is quite easy, especially the ones that can be conducted without any special instruments, the results are not conclusive enough to warrant relief or pain. You can start out with a simple test that involves blowing hot air through your mouth over your cleaned diamond. If the diamond is cubic zirconia or CZ then the diamond will fog over and take a little time to clear. However, a real diamond has excellent heat dissipation properties and will not fog up and even if it does then it will clear up immediately. You can also keep the diamond face down over a book and try to read through it. If it is indeed a CZ diamond then you will be able to read the letters underneath it since a diamond refracts most of the light thus making it impossible to read through it.
Your cubic zirconia diamond tests should also include sensitive equipment such as a hardness tester. If the diamond in question is a CZ then it will exhibit a hardness level of around 8 while a real diamond would have indicated 10. Similarly, a refractive index test would reveal a reading of 2.176 in case your diamond is cubic zirconia while a real diamond would have shown 2.417. A heat test will also expose the true nature of your diamond and the dealer since a cubic zirconia is a bad conductor of heat whereas a real diamond is a good conductor.
Once you have performed all the cubic zirconia diamond tests then you can be satisfied if the diamond of your choice is truly a real diamond. You can now buy the diamond ring or if the diamond is loose then you can give it to a beaded design jeweler or a ring designer and incorporate that shiny piece of natural carbon into a design of your choice. It is crucial that you subject your preferred diamond to the above tests since once you do buy the diamond and then realize that it is a fake then you will have a tough time returning the diamond back to the dealer or receiving your money back. The mental lashing that you will face from the person that receives this fake diamond is another story altogether.