So Jewelers can now easily assess whether a diamond is natural or lab?

[Alybetter]

I bought a pawnshop cheapie. Pawnshop dude used his little gizmo, ( I know those inexpensive testers are mostly garbage), it tested as diamond and I snagged it. $150 so no big loss.

Took it a local jeweler that I use for occasional work and had them test the diamond. The tester she used was a handheld device which had a wire leading out of it to goodness knows where/what, and it had two prongs on it. First she tested it with one prong, and then the other, and let me know the diamond was a lab stone.

This doesn’t bother me, I love MMD and have had a bunch, and for $150, it’s whatever. But the pawnshop sold it to me as a diamond. It’s the principle of the thing. I returned it and let him know why, and he relented and allowed me to return it.

I didn’t know there were testers that could differentiate? At least, not a tiny little handheld gadget.

How is this done? Thermal and electrical?

 

[acaw2015]

I bought a pawnshop cheapie. Pawnshop dude used his little gizmo, ( I know those inexpensive testers are mostly garbage), it tested as diamond and I snagged it. $150 so no big loss.

Took it a local jeweler that I use for occasional work and had them test the diamond. The tester she used was a handheld device which had a wire leading out of it to goodness knows where/what, and it had two prongs on it. First she tested it with one prong, and then the other, and let me know the diamond was a lab stone.

This doesn’t bother me, I love MMD and have had a bunch, and for $150, it’s whatever. But the pawnshop sold it to me as a diamond. It’s the principle of the thing. I returned it and let him know why, and he relented and allowed me to return it.

I didn’t know there were testers that could differentiate? At least, not a tiny little handheld gadget.

How is this done? Thermal and electrical?

Interesting, I hope someone more knowledgeable will chime in. From what I have heard of these "boxes" used for "testing" they are highly unreliable. But I don't know, that is simply what I have heard and maybe they have become more advanced now.
The argument I have read somewhere re the boxes being unreliable is that the boxes can't really give a full answer. One type of box can tell if a diamond has fluorescence, which may be pointing towards it being a mined stone. If it doesn't flouresce it can be either lab or mined. So the box can only verify a stone being a mined diamond, not that it is a lab.
I have also heard of tests regarding the diamond being type a or b, with the one type being a lot less common in mined diamonds but highly common in labs, thus again giving an indication on the origin. But again, both types exist in mined diamonds and so the test is not really reliable to tell the absolute truth. I also do not believe that these tests are possible to do in a "box" as you mentioned, I think they still need to be analyzed in a lab(oratory).
Following to see more comments on this topic.

 

[0515vision]

I got this from the Eterneva site.

"The diamond conductivity test is a method used to determine the electrical conductivity of a diamond. It is particularly useful in distinguishing between lab-grown diamonds and natural diamonds, as they often exhibit different electrical properties. Natural diamonds are generally poor conductors of electricity, while lab-grown diamonds may have varying levels of conductivity depending on the specific growth process used.

In the test, a diamond is placed between two electrodes, and a small electric current is passed through it. The electrical conductivity is then measured and compared to known values for natural diamonds. Since lab-grown diamonds are often created using different techniques, their conductivity can deviate from that of natural diamonds."

 

[Alybetter]

Interesting, I hope someone more knowledgeable will chime in. From what I have heard of these "boxes" used for "testing" they are highly unreliable. But I don't know, that is simply what I have heard and maybe they have become more advanced now.
The argument I have read somewhere re the boxes being unreliable is that the boxes can't really give a full answer. One type of box can tell if a diamond has fluorescence, which may be pointing towards it being a mined stone. If it doesn't flouresce it can be either lab or mined. So the box can only verify a stone being a mined diamond, not that it is a lab.
I have also heard of tests regarding the diamond being type a or b, with the one type being a lot less common in mined diamonds but highly common in labs, thus again giving an indication on the origin. But again, both types exist in mined diamonds and so the test is not really reliable to tell the absolute truth. I also do not believe that these tests are possible to do in a "box" as you mentioned, I think they still need to be analyzed in a lab(oratory).
Following to see more comments on this topic.

It wasn’t a box, though. It was a handheld tester with two separate prongs. She took the ring back and cleaned it, and then brought it out and did it right in front of me. First, she would touch the diamond with one of the prongs, and the little device would beep, and then she would touch the diamond with the other prong and it would make a different beep. She did it quite a few times and let me know that the stone was a lab diamond.

I should’ve asked her what kind of device it was. I don’t know what I was thinking.

 

[Alybetter]

Found it !

 

[Karl_K]

cvd and many hpht lab diamonds are not electrically conductive and a small percentage of mined diamonds are conductive.
Its not considered a reliable test.
The testers considered to be accurate enough for trade use uv light in multiple wavelengths in an enclosed box.

 

[Karl_K]

Found it !

i did some research on that tester.
Open air swuv makes me cringe and it comes with protective glasses that i bet few use.
Reviews are all over the place on how well it works but in general even a lot of the good reviews say its finicky and can be inconsistent.

 

[Dreamer_D]

Sounds fishy to me. There are barely reliable testers to determine if something is diamond, let alone lab.

 

[Alybetter]

cvd and many hpht lab diamonds are not electrically conductive and a small percentage of mined diamonds are conductive.
Its not considered a reliable test.
The testers considered to be accurate enough for trade use uv light in multiple wavelengths in an enclosed box.

Thanks for the insight, Karl.