Is That Turquoise in fact Real? - How to Tell Fake Turquoise From Real Turquoise

Have you been shopping for turquoise recently and been confused on how to tell the incompatibility between fake turquoise and real turquoise? Price may give you a clue but it doesn't all the time certify what you're buying. If the price is low you can be pretty sure that it's fake, but if the price is high you can't all the time be sure that it's real. There are sellers of turquoise who whether don't know that they don't have real turquoise, or they are misleading you in order to make a very large profit. This record will help you to decree the incompatibility between fake (imitation) and real turquoise.

Let's first discuss real turquoise. Real turquoise is known as Natural Turquoise. Most Natural Turquoise is quite porous and soft which leaves it vulnerable to staining and changes in its color. There are some instances where the Natural Turquoise is quite hard, but this incompatibility is rare and difficult to find and quite expensive. In order to make the bulk of Natural Turquoise more durable and suitable for jewelry use it is treated in a process which stabilizes it. Stabilization ensures that the stone is both durable and retains its former color.

Diamond Pendant Necklace

Stabilization is achieved by treating the turquoise with a clear resin to both seal and harden it. Stabilization does not include applying any dyes or coloring to the turquoise, rather it ensures that the stone retains its natural color. If any dyes or coloring is added to turquoise it is no longer a Natural Stabilized Turquoise, rather it becomes an imitation goods called Dyed Turquoise.

Is That Turquoise in fact Real? - How to Tell Fake Turquoise From Real Turquoise

Turquoise is normally found in nature intermixed with other stones which shows up as grain in the turquoise. Higher grade turquoise is more pure and includes very little, if any, grain. The grain in Natural Turquoise is both uneven and randomly distributed. It may show up as large areas of darker color (brown or black) or as more of a spider web formation. The strings in the spider web should be random in their thickness and shouldn't look like uniformly thin strings - Nature is random in its creations. Also, if you break open a piece of Natural Turquoise you should see that the color is consistent throughout, if it's lighter in the center then it has been dyed. Looking at the inside buildings you should see that the grain is random within the stone, dyed products will show the grain only near the covering of the stone and the hole in the center of the bead as these areas are where the dye for the grain enters the stone.

You will also observation that the covering area exposed by the breaking of the stone will be not be smooth, rather it'll have a texture to it. To spot real turquoise you should note that when a piece of turquoise is broken and you look at the interior covering the color is consistent, the covering is bumpy, the grain doesn't originate from the covering (but it is close to the covering in this stone sample it due to its random nature of distribution) and that the hole in the center isn't ringed with a darker color.

Fake Turquoise is often called Dyed Turquoise and can undoubtedly look very much like real turquoise; however, it's not a 'real' turquoise and you shouldn't pay real turquoise prices. Most dyed turquoise is made from stones which are similar to turquoise and have been dyed to look like natural turquoise. Typical stones used for this are howlite and magnesite. Dyed turquoise can also be created from reconstituted turquoise which is ground into a powder then re-formed using an epoxy resin with coloring. whether it's made from reconstituted turquoise or another material dyed turquoise has its place in the turquoise store as it offers a low cost alternative to natural turquoise which can look nearly selfsame to natural turquoise.

Looking at a cross section of a broken piece of dyed turquoise you would undoubtedly see the incompatibility between dyed turquoise and natural turquoise. You would observation a brown grain on the cross section which originates from the covering of the bead and only penetrates a small length into the stone. Also you would see that the dark dye used to originate the grain has colored the hole in its center - the inside of the hole itself would have the color of the dark dye.

The covering finished covering of a typical fake turquoise bead would show a spider web pattern with the grain in a consistent width. This narrow graining is an easy way to fast identify dyed turquoise because in nature the grain in turquoise is caused by the inclusion of other stones - the dark inclusions wouldn't be spread in a thin uniform spider web manner. another thing to observation is if the blue dye is slightly lighter in the center of the stone; this would be because the dye didn't soak all the way straight through the bead.

Dyed turquoise has its place in the turquoise market. It provides a low cost alternative to natural turquoise yet can look very much like the real stone. Just be sure that if you're getting dyed turquoise that you're paying a much cheaper price than natural turquoise.

Is That Turquoise in fact Real? - How to Tell Fake Turquoise From Real Turquoise