Since its discovery, gold metal has always been a highly valued metal by all civilizations, not only for its beauty and rarity, but also for its color and brightness; It has always symbolized purity, wealth and status in society. This meaning still stand today and many people consider it important to have a jewel of gold to project status. But everything that shines is not gold, so we must learn to differentiate it from other similar metals, especially after buying jewelry. Discover how to tell if a jewel is made of gold through the following tips:
Check the purity of gold: Note that pure gold is very soft, so when jewelry is manufactured, is usually fuse with another metal for added strength, reason why is sold according to the carats that the piece have. One carat is 1/24 of the total mass composing the jewel, so the more carats more the purer will be.
To do this, we must look with a magnifying glass identifying the official seal carats contained in the piece, which can range from 10K to 24K. However, by wear may not be visible, and even fake jewels have seals that can seem real, so another test will be required.
Magnet test: Being a non-magnetic metal, gold repels attraction generated by the magnets. So you can try approaching a magnet to the piece and if this is strongly attracted by him, then it is not gold. Although this test can help rule out some n metals, non-magnetic metal can be used to make imitations, so it requires another test.
Ceramic test: The first will be to get a piece of ceramic floor and rub the piece against it. If you create a black mark it is not gold, but if the mark is gold will be pure gold.
Acid test: It is the more definitive of all, we only need: nitrile gloves, safety glasses, cotton and hydrochloric acid. Dip the cotton on the acid, then place one drop on the piece and watch the reaction. If the piece begins to be damaged, then it is not gold because gold is not affected by this acid.
Another type of acid that can be used is nitric, but with this we will use a stainless steel container, in which we let the piece, then place a little acid and observe the reaction. If there is no reaction is gold, but if, on the contrary, the acid turns green it is not.
Buy a gold jewel is a big investment, so it is important to be sure that we have an authentic piece, so try these simple methods; and won’t have to spend large amounts of money by going with an expert to check.
Useful tips indeed!!