Fake pearls

Posted by cnw | 20 May, 2008

Fake pearls are made by coating a core of some sort (mother-of-pearl, plastic, etc.) with a plastic, a kind of paint containing ground fish scales or other stuff that look pearly to the eye. Generally, the fakes do not have a gritty feel to the tooth. Most may be identified with a little practice and a 10x jewelers loupe or microscope. The way to do it is to compare real pearls with some known fakes. The fakes almost always show a grittier look to the surface and not the more smoothly formed natural nacre.

The look is grittier but the feel to a tooth is smoother. After some practice comparisons, most fakes are fairly easily identified. Still, some are hard to detect without very thorough testing sometimes using solvents and acids which attack the real pearl nacre but not the plastic fakes and visa versa.

Other than that, a look at the drilled holes in the beads will help. Since the pearl is formed naturally without a hole, the hole must be drilled. The surface of the pearl at the drill hole will not 'sink in' or 'rise up' as is seen in many fakes that are formed and coated with the holes already made to the core. In the real pearl, the nacre will be smooth with the drill hole and might even be chipped a bit. Some folks recommend having a dentist do an x-ray to see what is inside.

Are you familiar with jewelry? Hong Kong's jewelry is famous in the world of pearl jewelry supply centre. Each year, many jewelry shows are held in HK. Guangzhou City in South China become Hong Kong's largest jewelry manufacturing base in the mainland as many Hong Kong jewelry makers have moved to the area in an effort to find low cost and skillful craftsmen. In Guangzhou you can find what you need you can find freshwater pearl beads, cheap pearl strands, pearl necklace, cultured pearl bracelet, cultured pearl ring, cheap pearl earing, sterling silver jewelry, wholesale pearl pendant, single pearl necklace to meet your taste.

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