diamonds

how do people tell a diamond from say topaz or quartes, visualy at the river

G'day Charlie123,

It's an old time question,

Personally, without getting to scientific, the only way to tell is by what they call a scratch test. This is done by getting a known substance harder than quartz or topaz and try to scratch the surface of the stone. If it marks it is not a diamond. ( That is one of the basic ways in which to test )

If you slip the piece into your mouth it feels sort of slippery if it is a diamond.......don't really know why but it does....even Zircon feels different to a diamond although it can look the same

regards

Probably quite difficult in the field without dropping it or some other difficulty, I'll just be taking anything interesting home to inspect or have inspected later. UV light can make different types of stones fluoresce, some diamonds will but not all, I think most Zircons do and some Topaz.

I've got a UV torch on the way 390NM, will post some pics of any fluorescent stones I have as a reference.

Anyway better to keep anything interesting.

Oh yeah was good chatting the other day Charlie, nice little Sapphire you found too.

heatho, the uv torch is a good idea, because when i posted my last find with tourmalines, they come up yellow under led light but under sunlight, perfect green, hence uv light is needed i think, champion, its like people who know how to do a service on a car, but do they realy, it the little tricks you dont read in a book that gets u there

Well sort of, UV light will make some stones fluoresce, do a google for "fluorescent gemstones" and you should get a few good pics come up. Zircon I think will fluoresce yellow or a creamy colour, diamonds will fluoresce a bluish colour depending on quality, the best and clearest diamonds will not fluoresce. Not sure about Tourmaline but the led lights may be making them fluoresce yellow, will know for sure when my torch arrives.

Also to add to this, long and short UV will fluoresce some stones a different colour. I'm actually getting it more for night time gem hunting, especially for Zircons, only very few Sapphires will fluoresce. Dunno if it will work, but worth a try.

yes was good to meet up with other people like minded, i go to gg pretty much every 2nd weekend, just be weary of pot holes, got a flat tyre comming back last weekend, last weekend was a good haul when i seived off the buckets I brought home, I will post the pics in day or so, the next time you go to gg let me know, I am just learning the river for the past couple of weeks with a couple of seives, test, test, test, till I can find a good spot, then i will bring the wal spec banker in

Cool mate will be good to see the pics, sounds like you're doing some good field testing, will let you know when we head back to GG for sure. My mate Joe and I are heading to Sapphire Bend this Sunday so will post up any results and pics from the day. Same here, trying to do a gem hunt every 2nd weekend.

Yeah I'm keen to get a Walbanker too.... after seeing Matt and Colin's running, they work great.

get your self a 6mm glass drillbit from bunnings, has a tungsten carbide tip ( Mohs scale=9) May scratch sapphires but should not scratch diamonds.

Another way to identify diamonds in the field would be to have a piece of topaz or corrundum with you, topaz is mohs 9 and corrundum 9.5. Very few things you dig up will be able to scratch these.

The Green Wanderer said:

Another way to identify diamonds in the field would be to have a piece of topaz or corrundum with you, topaz is mohs 9 and corrundum 9.5. Very few things you dig up will be able to scratch these.

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