Top Ways To Test Your Gold And Silver Jewelry

Published: 29th November 2011
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Do you have gold and silver jewelries? Do you know how to categorize a counterfeit from a true jewelry? With no doubts, jewelries are graceful markedly if they are made of gold or silver. They are considered by many as investments. They are not cheap. They can cost you hundreds and thousands of dollars apiece. With that said, knowing the genuineness of silver or gold jewelry is very crucial. If you don’t want your lifetime savings gone to waste because of false jewelries here are few ways.

Using A Piece Of Glass
When testing your jewels using a glass, select a section that will be less noticeable in case this test leaves a permanent mark. In this experiment, you need to prepare a piece of glass and your gold piece for investigation. Using the sharpest point of the glass, scratch the gold jewelry. Scratches represent that the purity of gold is low and that the piece is not pure gold.

Survey The Karat Grade
If you gold item is too small to investigate, use a magnifying glass for amplified examination. Assess the gold purity of the piece. Nearly all gold items have their karat grade printed on them. Check your 24 karat gold ring for 24K emboss. Other possible markings are 18 karat, 14, 12 and 10 karat gold. Usually the mark is very small and it will be next to impossible to see. For better viewing use a magnifying glass.

Examine The Pendant
If you are checking your silver adornment, look closely at marking. If you see a .925 or S.S. it means that your pendant is made of sterling silver. Then again, if you see the S.P. mark, it denotes that pendant is silver plated.

Acid Testing
For jewelry buyers the acid test may not be the right testing for you to confirm if the items you intend to buy are authentic since most jewelry retailers will not accede you to drop any acid tests on their jewelries. However, if you have jewelries at home and you are curious if the pieces you have are genuine, you can choose to do this testing. Firstly, prepare your gold jewels and the testing stone. When scratching the test stone just use a drop of test acid on the streak of metal. Examine if there are any changes in color. If examining gold, the streak may elusively change. If you have used a14k gold acid and you did not test it on a 14k gold item, expect it to fade away, demonstrating that the item is below 14K. If the color did not change at all, it signifies that you are testing on a gold piece higher than14K. Nevertheless, if you are testing on a silver piece, use this guideline. The streak or band should change in dark red color if the item is 925 Silver. The streak should change to brown if 800 silver and green if 500 silver.

Using A Magnet
Find a magnet at home and hold it near your gold jewelry. If the magnet attracts to your gold ring or jewelry, there are other alloys or metals mixed in with the material. Remember that gold in itself is non-magnetic and pure gold is exceedingly soft that is why during manufacturing of gold jewelries other metals or alloys are included to make the jewelry strong and heavy wearing.

Inspecting your jewelry for its purity and authenticity doesn’t require competency in smiting or jewelry engineering. Follow the tips above if you want to check the genuineness of your items. So that next time you order a piece of jewelry, you will not just be trapped by the beauty but also the genuineness of the jewels.

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