Yeah a high precision scale and a good quality jewelers loop was my first purchase after I started buying online. Will look into the hardness testing kit, been using my diamond tester since I can get a general idea of hardness but since it’s mostly a threshold test of hardness and hard to calibrate for softer stones it’s definitely a little hit or miss.
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If you make a wire hangman with as small horizontal loop to put the gemstone into, you can use a small cup of water to immerse the stone in the loop. The difference in weight will allow you to calculate the specific gravity.
Make a mark on the rope part, and immerse the fixture in the water, to set your tare value. This removes the weight change of the support wire, to give you a better calculated number.
The mho tester set will help. A refractometer reading of refractive index, is the other number that really narrows it down.
A loupe is a good tool that will give you a lot of information about the stone. Lab created stones are perfect, so they show up with a loupe. I want to see some inclusions, before I buy! Even a bubble can prove it's natural....
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This is such an excellent tip! I have a big piece of bright orange gemstone that I am fairly certain is spessartite and this may be the trick I need to make that conclusive! Thanks again!
Specific gravity is a good indicator, make sure no bubbles are left on the stone. Visual inspection is acceptable, because bubbles will mess up your calculations.
Do you have any other test equipment?
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just a diamond hardness tester and a jewelers loupe, nothing really fancy since a lot of the real fancy tools are so pricey.
Do you have a scale that measures grams or carats? They are about $25, and good for other things. They can allow you to get to measure specific gravity. The first gem💎💎 microscope I got was a kids unit from a garage sale, and it worked fine.
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