Anybody tested their settings?

[cm366]

Saw a news report on a gold bar discovered in NYC that was actually a tungsten-filled fraud, and started googling. I wound up with these people, http://www.tungsten-alloy.com/tungsten-alloy-fake-gold-application.html

The idea seems to be that the product looks like gold, feels like gold, but is a whole lot cheaper... of course, they say it's for souvenirs and decoration only.

Any ideas on how to test jewelry from less-reputable sources, aside from trying to scratch off the surface layer? Am I wrong to be suspicious of what seem like VERY inexpensive Ebay settings?

 

[chrono]

Perhaps when the prong is trimmed down to size for setting or when the ring needs to be resized, it can easily be seen whether it is a gold setting or just gold filled setting? I have not purchased any Chinese made eBay settings since 2008 so I have no idea.

 

[OTL]

I was gonna rush in here and ask the same thing, but I thought OP ask the ebay setting vendor's....lol

 

[T L]

They under karat gold quite a bit too. That's also something to worry about when buying from a less than reputable source.