Fake or synthetic diamonds are fairly common, but how can you spot them? Would a fake diamond float?
Real diamonds are incredibly dense and would certainly sink when placed in water. However, a fake diamond will almost definitely be made of less dense materials, and as a result, may float.
Read on to learn more about fake and synthetic diamonds, how to spot them, and what they’re used for.
Manufacturing Beauty
For thousands of years, diamonds have been coveted for their beauty, rarity, and durability. There are no materials on the planet that are tougher than diamond, which is formed in such a way that it becomes incredibly resistant to damage.
It’s been suggested (and proven) that the diamonds we mine on the earth today have taken more than three billion years to fully form. They’re composed entirely of carbon atoms that have been subjected to intense pressure and heat, and as a result, have crystallized.
They’re found deep within the earth’s mantle, often being discovered in deep cave systems some one hundred and fifty kilometers below ground. Humans have been mining diamonds for centuries, effectively plundering every known resource, but there are still tens of millions of carats produced every year.
However, only around twenty-five percent of all diamonds mined are of ‘gem quality’, the standard required for them to be used in jewelry. The majority of all mined diamonds are diverted for alternate practices, commonly being used for industrial purposes.
The intense durability of a diamond means it can be used very effectively in drills and abrasive surfaces. In many cases, something like a belt sander will have belts encrusted in rough diamonds that will shear a surface with ease.
According to the Mohs scale, there’s nothing harder than a diamond, so it has many uses where construction is concerned. For instance, there are sharp-tipped diamond cutters that can slice through glass with ease, a material that is several times ‘softer’ than diamond.
Although, not every diamond in the world comes from the earth’s mantle. These days, there are plenty of instances where a synthetic diamond can be used (and is) as opposed to a naturally-sourced diamond.
Fake or ‘synthetic’ diamonds are manufactured in laboratories, with scientists using rapid reproductions of the natural process that produces a ‘real’ diamond. Reportedly, there is almost no difference between a synthetic and a real diamond, as even their base composition is identical.
How To Tell The Difference
Allegedly, less than 0.3% of all jewelry-quality diamonds sold commercially were synthetically produced. The jewelry industry reportedly shuns fake diamonds, as once they’ve been revealed as synthetic, their value drops massively.
However, there are also many instances of ‘counterfeit jewelry’, with people selling fake diamonds as real, three-billion-year-old diamonds. This is an obvious issue as it dilutes the market and can impact the value of real diamonds.
There are many ways to test the authenticity of a diamond, but the easiest is the ‘float test’. If you drop a real diamond into water, its density will cause it to sink – this isn’t the case with a totally fake, less dense diamond.
It’s worth bearing in mind that what we’re referring to here as ‘fake’ isn’t synthetic, lab-grown diamonds, as they’re essentially the same as real diamonds. Instead, we’re addressing fake diamonds made from zircon, cubic zirconia, and even glass.
You can also tell if a diamond is counterfeit based on its weight, its reaction under a black light, and whether it fogs up when you breathe on it. Ultimately, many of these tests are best performed on a loose diamond, which many people won’t have in their possession.
The Benefits of Synthetic
There are several benefits where synthetic diamonds are concerned. Firstly, lab-grown diamonds help to combat unethical diamond trading, wherein the stones themselves have been mined by people forced to labor.
It’s also less impactful on the environment, as less energy is used to produce a synthetic diamond. The mining process uses a lot of energy and has a much larger carbon footprint than a laboratory.
Finally, there’s the obvious factor that a synthetic diamond honestly is no different from a real diamond pulled from the earth. They have the same composition, consistency in durability, and appearance.
There’s also the fact that a synthetic diamond is dramatically cheaper than a real diamond, meaning they’re much more economical for companies that use a lot of them. If the natural resources ever entirely deplete, the synthetic alternative will become king.