I have a ring that i am selling in a personal sale and the gentleman that is interested in purchasing it said that before he purchased it he had to test it. put it in a liquid and if its not above 10k it would eat away.
have you heard of this? is it for real? will it harm the diamond in the ring??
2007-07-07 06:35:15 · 9 answers · asked by blmbean 2 in Science & Mathematics ➔ Chemistry
The lack of a hallmark (10k, 14k, 18k etc.) is not indicative of whether your piece is gold or not. In the United States it is against the FTC's regulations for the jeweler to hallmark a piece of jewelry unless it is accompanied by a maker's mark. So, when I first began making jewelry and did not have a trademark of my own, I did not hallmark my jewelry. Now that I have a maker's mark, I hallmark my jewelry with the appropriate metal hallmark and my maker's mark.
A jeweler cannot just look at a piece and tell you for certain whether it is gold or not; the jeweler will do a test to determine it.
To be scientfically accurate a sample of the metal in question must be assayed in a testing laboratory, but the following two tests have been used for many years and often are sufficiently accurate for a craftsperson or the owner of the metal in question.
To answer "Is It Gold?":
With a small file, make a scratch in an inconspicuous spot. While wearing rubber gloves, use a wooden, glass or plastic stick to apply a drop of nitric acid to the filed spot. Observe the reaction. When done, rinse everything well in running water.
If there is no reaction, it's gold.
If there's a bright green reaction, it's base metal.
If there's green in the scratch, it's a gold layer over base metal (goldplate).
If there's a milky reaction in the scratch, it's a gold layer over silver.
To answer "What Karat Is It?"
Determining karat requires a testing kit containing nitric acid, aqua regia, samples of known karat, and a touchstone of slate or ceramic.
The gold object to be tested is rubbed on the stone ("touched") to leave a streak. A parallel line is made with one of the test pieces of known karat. Both marks are flooded with acid and the reaction are observed. When the sample colors at the same rate as the test streak, a match has been made. Nitric acid is used for low karat golds; aqua regia is needed for higher karats.
Please note: these tests are for your information only. They are not accurate enough to rely upon when representing a piece for sale. Most jewelers have testing kits to use when determining if something is gold or not and its approximate karat. It is probably easiest to take the item to a jeweler than to set up the testing kits yourself.
2007-07-09 04:00:31 · answer #1 · answered by shabocon 4 · 0⤊ 1⤋
There is a chemical test for gold but it doesn't work like this. First your ring should have a marking that tells the gold content (e.g. 333 for 8kt, 585 for 14kt, 750 for 18kt or other markings easily identifiable by a goldsmith or jeweler) If the ring is very old and the markings faded away or there were no markings then it could be tested by wiping it on a special plate and the mark left there will be tested with chemicals; not by dipping the whole ring in some acid. There are acid combinations that could eat away 100% pure gold. My advice: don't go for it. Go instead to a jeweler for apraisal.
2007-07-07 07:00:58 · answer #2 · answered by anton p 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Yes there is and they don't dunk your whole ring. They wipe it on a material (not sure what it is), and add the acid to mark left to determine the purity. This guy sounds like he's a little shady, or very misinformed. Take it to a jeweler and have them record the results for your buyer, or take him along to witness the results. Some pawn shops can do the test (which is where I have seen it done a few times), but I am sure they will charge for the service.
2007-07-07 07:13:09 · answer #3 · answered by konstipashen 5 · 1⤊ 0⤋
I have no endurance, so 6.0 would be average for me. Sometimes I'd just be like "**** it" and pull out at 5.6 or something. Worst score : 5.0. I hate the bleep test. It used to drive me crazy. There's so much pressure. And I feel like sh it for finishing so early but I'm sorry if I can't breathe. Running a mile was better. Running the bleep test made me taste blood in my mouth. Thank God I dont' have to do that anymore!
2016-05-20 22:53:29 · answer #4 · answered by ? 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I've seen commercials on TV that want to buy your old gold. It mentioned that you needed to get their test kit to get started. I imagine that this is the same test.
2007-07-07 06:40:03 · answer #5 · answered by Karrose 5 · 0⤊ 2⤋
Yes, that is how the assay offices were able to determine the value of a gold mine.
2007-07-07 06:38:13 · answer #6 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 3⤋
Yes, it will not harm the diamond.
2007-07-07 06:47:22 · answer #7 · answered by ag_iitkgp 7 · 0⤊ 3⤋
blarg
2007-07-07 06:47:45 · answer #8 · answered by blue october 3 · 0⤊ 3⤋
I would not do it.
2007-07-07 06:44:40 · answer #9 · answered by sarah 4 · 0⤊ 2⤋