How to distinguish corundum from a fake?

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Hello, friends! Buying a gemstone is a responsible matter. A natural gem is not just prestigious and beautiful. This is a profitable investment and the acquisition of a reliable ally for life. In order not to fall into the web of scammers and not to buy an imitation ruby ​​instead of a ruby, you need to know how to distinguish a real ruby ​​from an artificial one.

You can check the naturalness of the stone right in the store, or at home. There are several proven methods for this. Interesting? Read on.

How to determine the authenticity of a ruby

To understand the difference between a real ruby ​​stone and a fake, you need to understand what properties it has.

1. So, first – hardness coefficient. Natural ruby, unlike artificial ones, belongs to the category of the hardest minerals. As an igneous rock, it rivals diamond itself in hardness. To check how hard a ruby ​​is, just drop it or even hit it hard on the floor. Regardless of the force of the impact and the type of surface, the stone will not be damaged; there will not even be any cracks or scratches left on it.
2. Second – cut quality. Gems formed with the help of magma are easily distinguished by clearly defined edges. Natural rubies have perfectly smooth and clear edges without grooves or wrinkles. Despite its hardness, the stone lends itself well to processing, blossoming and acquiring a new look in the skillful hands of a master.
3. Third – how to distinguish a fake by color. It is difficult to distinguish a genuine ruby ​​gem from a fake by color alone, but it doesn’t hurt to know that a natural gem is bright red. Shades occur and range from pink to burgundy. In rare cases, breeds combine several colors, pleasing the eye with delicate and graceful tints.
4. Brilliance — natural ruby ​​differs from synthetic ruby ​​in its powerful glossy shine, is translucent and effectively reflects in the sun.
5. Inner glow. The precious red stone glows from the inside due to the chromium included in its composition. In each sample its amount is equal to 2%. It is chromium that provokes that amazing violet-garnet tint of the gem, which can be seen when viewing it in the sun. It is pleasant to observe the glow – it indicates that the rock belongs to precious stones.

earrings with ruby ​​stone

Varieties of rubies

To understand how to distinguish a genuine gem from a fake, you need to understand its varieties. There are very few of them.

Read also: Star ruby: does it exist or is it just a legend

bracelet with ruby ​​stone

• Burmese. The stone received its name due to the deposit where it was discovered – Myante. The peculiarity of the breed is its rich, luxurious color. Such rubies are expensive and this fact alone may indicate the authenticity of the mineral. A truly high price can only be found for certified specimens of breeds. This distinguishes natural stone from artificial stone.
• Pigeon blood. A characteristic feature is a purple glow. Just like the Burmese one, this example of ruby ​​is very expensive, the price is close to the best examples of diamonds. Such rubies are not counterfeited due to the difficulties in combining several components with metal impurities. It is almost impossible to achieve the desired combination in laboratory conditions.
• stellate – one of the rarest specimens. It is distinguished by an internal glow, reminiscent of a star in shape. It is impossible to achieve the same effect in a synthetic imitation, so rubies of this type are not counterfeited in products.

pendant with ruby

How to check the authenticity of a breed at home

If you want to know more about a stone that has already been purchased and is at your disposal, you can try to check its authenticity yourself, at home. There are several ways to do this.

white gold earrings with ruby

1. Option one. Prepare any glass container. It doesn’t matter what volume and shape it will have, the main thing is the transparent walls. Place the pebble in the bowl. If it is a real ruby, regardless of the carat, it will glow with beautiful red rays. A fake does not have this effect.
2. Method two. Examine the pebble in the light (natural lighting is a must). If this is a real ruby, then in the sun it will sparkle with different shades depending on the degree of lighting. Opposite the sun, the mineral will glow burgundy, and on the other side it will glow with a pale and matte light.
3. The third method is using milk. A ruby ​​is placed in a glass of milk. If it changes color to pink, then the gem is real. And the point here is not in chemistry, but in the optical effect – the stone glows so brightly that the illusion of coloring the milk is created.
4. The fourth method is exposure to ultraviolet light. The synthetic analogue will remain red under UV rays, while the genuine samples will take on a warm orange tint.
5. The fifth method is to study the internal component. In fake and real stones you can see bubbles inside, but in the former they are filled with air, and in the latter they are filled with gases.
6. Method six – strength test. If you try to scratch the surface of a ruby ​​with glass, the scratches will come out uneven. In imitations, damage of this kind is usually straight and glossy.
7. Method seven – heating. Natural rubies heat up very slowly. It is easy to feel if you hold the stone in your palm. Imitations quickly absorb the heat of the human body. By this feature they can be easily distinguished from the original.

Read also: What is the cost of a ruby ​​for 1 carat in different countries of the world

The weight of the mineral is another important property to pay attention to. Original breeds are always noticeably heavier than fakes, harder and more solid.

Ruby: how to distinguish it from other precious rocks

It is not necessary to try to identify a synthetic analogue by comparing it with a natural ruby. Under the guise of an expensive, wine-colored stone, they may try to sell cheaper natural analogues that are similar to it.

brooch with ruby

Most often the gem is tried replace with pomegranate. In appearance, it most closely resembles a ruby: just as red and bright. The difference is the absence of a characteristic shine, so to reveal the deception, it is enough to turn the stone in the sun or under an artificial light lamp. If it is a garnet, it will never convey the brilliance of a genuine ruby, similar to a diamond.

A characteristic property of garnet is to be magnetized. To check whether a gem is magnetized or not, try placing it on a scale and holding a magnet. If the mineral becomes heavier, then it is definitely not a ruby.

It happens that this precious red gem they give out tourmalines. Just like rubies, they come in red and pink shades. It is not difficult to make sure that this is a deception – look at the mineral under the influence of ultraviolet rays. If it is tourmaline, it will turn orange; a ruby ​​will not change color.

Compared to the original gem with glass imitations, then everything is quite simple. The latter are fragile, break easily and are inexpensive. They do not have the shine or rich color characteristic of a precious gem; they remain scratched and chipped.

Another thing – combination of glass and ruby. It is created from the residual parts of processed rocks, mixed with glass and trying to pass off the result as a precious stone. The difficulty in identifying low-quality imitation is that in terms of external signs it is almost no different. Only a specialist who calculates the percentage of natural components and their properties can detect the catch.

cross with ruby ​​stone

What is the difference from corundum

Corundum and ruby ​​- the differences may seem insignificant to the uninitiated. Both gems are bright red with a characteristic shine, resistant to mechanical and chemical influences, durable and without adhesions. How are they different? To understand, it is important to know exactly what corundum is, since we have already dealt with ruby.

gold ring with ruby

Corundum is a dense and hard mineral, which is second only to diamond in these indicators. In nature, there are samples with individual crystals and united in columns. Characteristic colors for corundum:

Such a wide range of colors is one of the main differences between the gem and ruby, which is found only in red and burgundy shades.

necklace with stone

Varieties of gemstones also include sapphire, amethyst and leucosapphire. There is an interesting opinion that rubies are not fully ripened sapphires. After the fall of Pangea (a single ancient continent), a large deposit of stones collapsed, as a result of which some rubies remained in the ground and some went under water. The former were saturated with metal impurities and acquired a characteristic red color, the latter were painted blue, yellow and other shades.

So what is the difference from corundum? Let’s start with the deposit. Corundum is mined in Sri Lanka, India, USA, Canada, Russia and Norway. The best examples of rubies are found in Sri Lanka, Tanzania and Thailand. It was there that it was possible to identify elite types of stones of the “pigeon’s blood” variety.

silver bracelet with rubies

To summarize, it remains to be noted that no matter how many carats are in a ruby, it is a precious stone and a type of corundum (not classified as precious), but not vice versa. Share the post with your friends and discuss the features of the originals and imitations together!

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