7 Common Jewelry Questions - FAQ, advises, how-to, reviews, selections, diamonds, jewelry, gold, silver, platinum, gemstones, sapphires

There are several different lists of birthstones. Following is a list of some of the most commonly accepted birthstones.

This is another method of marking sterling silver and refers to the percentage of silver 92.5%).

Varying the alloys creates the various colors of gold. Red has more copper, green has more silver, and white has nickel or palladium added.

The four Cs are Color, Cut, Clarity and Carat weight. What is the difference between created and simulated stones? Both are manmade stones. Created stones are chemically the same as the natural stone. Simulated stones are stones that are made of a material other than what it is attempting to copy. Cubic zirconium, lab-grown corundum, lab grown spinel and glass are common materials used to simulate gemstones.

Stress fracturing is a problem associated with white and lower karat gold. Gold of 10 kt or less are susceptible. White gold often has this problem. Stress fracturing is caused by chemicals that dissolve the alloy out of the gold which, of course, weakens it. This can cause an item to suddenly just break for no apparent reason. This is most often seen as a prong tip on a white gold setting that is suddenly missing. Chlorine is one chemical that can cause this problem. Never soak your jewelry in strong cleaners.

This is most often not a problem with the quality of the metal. Whenever a metal is ground into a fine enough powder, that powder is black. If the hand cream or makeup that you are using contains any abrasive materials, this will rub on the piece of jewelry and create a black smudge. Many of the materials used to color makeup are mild abrasives.

Gary Haag has been designing and creating fine handcrafted jewelry for over 20 years. For more information about selecting and caring for your fine jewelry visit, Gary’s Gold & Silver (http://garysgold.com)

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