Familiar Jewelry Vocabulary And Some Not So Familiar

Anodized:  Refers to a method by which metal, such as aluminum, is coated with color by the proces of electrolysis.

Asterism:  Star-like appearance of star rubies and star sapphires.

Balas Ruby:  Rose-tinted spinel.

Chased Design:  Fine lines indented in metal to outline the shap of design motif, used for copper, gold, and silver jewelry.

Chips:  Tiny, uncut diamonds; sometimes used to surround a larger diamond stone in a ring, also used in the case of a watch, or in a watch band.

Chromium:  A durable metal, resembles silver, used mainly for plating brass or copper.  Does not tarnish, therefore, has advantage over silver-plated articles.

Ceramics:  Porcelain, usually hand painted when used in jewelry.

Coral:  Opaque, rose-pink, ox-blood, white, or yellow in color; the skeletons of sea animals, used for earrings, necklaces and bracelets.

Ivory:  The hard creamy-white, opaque, fine-grained material of elephant tusks and the tusks of other animals; richly carved for use in jewelry.

Filagree:  Lace-like jewelry made from wire of silver or gold.

Engine Turned:  Line engraving applied to plain surface metal by hand or machine from master stencil.

Hammered:  The surface of metal is maked by small, round hammer marks.

Jet:  Black, opaque stone of hard-type coal that can be highly polished.

Mohs' Scale:  The scale used to denote hardness and resistance to scratching .  Ranging from diamond, which rates a 10, down to talc, the stone that is ground and screened for use in talcum powder, rates a 1.

Mother-of-Pearl:  Iridescent, changeable, mily-white coloring; often carved, is the hard pearly internal layer of the shell of an oyster of other seashell.

Oxidize:  Term used to designate the darkening pof designs on silver articles by chemicals to gie a richer effect.

Onyx:  A stone, chalcedony, in parallel layers of different shades of color used especially in making cameos.

Neillo Engraving:  Fine engraving filled with black enamel or alloy.

Paste Stones:  Imitation glass stones, usually made of lead glass that has brilliance and sparkle.  Made to imitate real stones.

Repousse Chasing:  Design raised from the inside, to give molded effect

Rhinestone:  A stone of glass, cut to resemble a diamond; usually backed with foil to give more brilliance and sparkle.

Rhodium:  Metal resembling silver, rhodium-plated jewelry wears well; extremely small amounts are plated on fashion jewelry items because rhodium is expensive.

Rose Cut:  Common type of facet cut: a stone so cut comes to a point at the top and has facets triangular in shape.

Stainless Steel:  An alloy composed of steel, nickel and chromium; popular for watch cases and under portion of watch bands; for watches worn for sports and other activities.  Wears well, does not tarnish or become discolored.

Swiss Lapis:  Opaque, dark red quartz stone that is strained blue to resemble Lapis Lazuli for commercial purposes.

Tenth-Power Loop; Jewelr's magnifying glass that enlarges ten times.

"Good jewelry is timeless and therefore, one of the best fashion investments one can make.  Don't just purchase jewelry, invest in it."                                                      
                                                                                                                        John Robert Powers

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6 DIY Tests For Diamonds REAL or FAKE?

There are no guarantees with these tests.  But, they just might get you closer to the truth.  Of course, the most reliable source would be an independent appraisal, which would probably cost some money.  Whatever you do, don't let your jewel be taken out of your site.  You could take it to a local jewelry store and get one of their 30 second oppinions for free.  Just know that mistakes can be made with these quick judgements.  With all that said, let's get to what you really came here for, the do-it yourself tests.

1. It is true that diamonds do scratch glass but so do a lot of the other fakes on the market.  To boot, it is quite possible to injure your rock even if it's real during such a hardness test.
2. If you flip the diamond upside down and place it over some newsprint and can clearly read through the stone, it's not a diamond.  Some diamonds are cut shallow and can be read through, so this really only works for larger diamonds.
3. The fog test is a good one.  Put the stone in front of your mouth and fog it like you would try to fog a mirror.  If it stays fogged for 2-4 seconds, it's a fake.  A real diamond disperses the heat instantaneously so by the time you look at it, it has already cleared up.  Oil and dirt on the stone will effect its reliability.  The test is not accurate at all on doublets where the top of the stone is diamond and the bottom is cubic zirconia epoxied together.  Did you know that happens? 
4. The most popular "fake" diamond is a cubic zirconia.  C.Z.'s weigh approximately 55% more than diamonds for the same shape and dimension.  So if you have a carat or gram scale at your disposal you can see if the imposter tips the scales too much.
5. A high percentage of diamonds fluorescence blue when put under an ultra violet light (black light).  Since 99% of all fakes don't, a positive identification of medium to strong blue would indicate a diamond.  This method proves you have a diamond.  It also proves your diamond is worth less.  Diamonds with blue fluorescence are as much as 20% less valuable.  Remember, lack of blue fluorescence doesn't mean it's a fake; it could just be a better quality diamond.
6. If you own some sort of magnifying lens, there are some things you can look for on the stone that might give away its identity.

•   Look at the rock from the top and see how well the facets are joined.  They should be sharp.
•   Look at the girdle and see if it is faceted or frosty (clear sign it's a diamond) waxy and slick  (indicates it's a fake). 
•   While you're looking at your stone under magnification, look into your stone to see if you   detect any flaws (carbon, pinpoints, small cracks).  These are typically clear indications it's the real thing since it's very hard to put inclusions in a fake.
•   After examining the stone, focus in on the stamps inside the setting.  A stamp of 10k, 14k, 18k, 585, 750, 900, 950, PT, Plat indicates the setting is real gold or platinum which gives a better chance that the stone in it is real as well.  While your're looking at the interior of the ring, also look for any C.Z. stamps.That would indicate the center stone is not a diamond but a cubic zirconia.

I hope this helps a little bit and I wish you luck on your sluething.

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Gold & Silver Meltdown Stories

compliments of Terry and Kim Kovel, Kovels Komments

Gold and silver prices are going up and down but are still very high. We took some commemorative silver dollars and other gold and silver items to be melted. The $1 coins brought $20 each. A gold charm that was a wire circle, 1 1/4 inch in diameter with a small half-mask inside, had a meltdown value of $270. A tooth with a large gold filling was worth $30. (We wonder why we had saved a filled gold tooth.)                                                  

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