How to Tell a Diamond From a Zircon
- 1). Clean the stone and its setting. You will have an easier time viewing the stone if it is clean and free of debris and smudges.
- 2). Look at a certified diamond and notice its sparkle and shine. The dispersion---or the stone's ability to fracture light through a prism---is more obvious and brilliant on a real diamond. Under a bright light, rotate the diamond and view the dispersion as you train yourself to recognize a real diamond. Compare your own stone's dispersion to the one of the real diamond. The zircon's dispersion is similar to a diamond's, however, so it may take an expert to recognize the difference.
- 3). Evaluate the stone's refraction---the quality of light that allows it to bend, such as when you view a stick in a pool of water and the stick seems to bend when it hits the water's surface. Diamonds have a single refraction; the light bends only once when shining through the diamond. Other stones, including zircons, have two or more refractions.
- 4). Focus on the "meet"---the areas where the facets come together. In a diamond, the meets are crisp and sharp. Use the jeweler's loupe to view the stone magnified and up close. If you view the meets and see slightly rounded edges, you may be looking at a zircon or other diamond substitute.
- 5). Weigh the stone. If you have a sensitive scale that measures fractions of a gram, use that scale; otherwise, take the stone to a jeweler to be weighed. A zircon weighs more than a diamond of the same size. Weigh your stone and then the same-sized certified diamond and compare the weights. If your stone is heavier than the diamond, it's not a real diamond.