Pearls are precious gems of high value and, since the birth of particular methods of imitations, they have usually been replaced by plausible copies and posed as true ones.
To establish if your purchase lead you to have natural pearls, there are several practical tests to do without the actual need of specific instruments:
– the tooth test, in which the costumer has to scrape the pearl againts his/her tooth to feel the consistency of the surface, that should be rough and sandy. This process, however, is surely the less recommended firstly for hygenic reasons, then for the scratches that the pearls would earn and lastly for the vague results that this method may have, since some imitations may be sandy and some natural pearls may be smooth;
– the magnifier test, which controlls if the pearl surface is finely grainy, that usually indicates an imitation;
– the flaw test, the easiest, which only requires a careful observation of the the pearls; if they have any sort of flaws, are most certainly natural ones;
– the duplicate test, which compares every single pearl for luster, size and color. Natural – or cultivated – pearls tend to vary from each other, while imitations are always all the same;
– the weight test, which makes the owner easily recognize plastic ore wax-filled pearls from true ones; but, on the contrary, solid glass pearls may have the same weight or even more than true pearls;
– the overtone test, which highlitghts how different are overtons from one pearl to another, in natural/cultivated pearls, revealing fake ones which have all the same overtones;
– the clasp test, which can make the owner immediately recognize possible reproductions; imitations don’t usually have precious silver, steel or gold-plated clasps.
Finally, one last effective test is surely the price one, because a true jeweller would never sell pearls below their effective cost.
A good gemologist should be able to satisy his/her costumers adequately, providing all sort of needed certifications to prove the autenticity of his/her own pearls: thanks to my status of qualified gemologist I am able to certificate all the pearls my costumers buy – in the near future on my online shop too – , assuring a wide range of activities, directly related to the pearl world.
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