difference bwteen diamonds and zirconiums

One is natural (millions of years to create) and one is mad mande (a few days...)

Cubic Zirconia is a very good fake diamond. a well made CZ can easily fool the un-trained eye. In fact CZ look better than diamonds.

I lifted the following section from Wikipedia.

[edit] CZ versus diamond

Cubic zirconia is so optically close to diamond that only a trained eye can easily differentiate the two. There are a few key features of CZ which distinguish it from diamond, some observable only under the microscope or loupe. For example:


Dispersion. With a dispersive power greater than diamond (0.060 vs. 0.044) the more prismatic fire of CZ can be seen by even an untrained eye.

Hardness. CZ has an 8.5 to 9.0 on the Mohs' hardness scale vs. a rating of 10 for diamonds.

Specific gravity. CZs are heavyweights in comparison to diamonds; a CZ will weigh about 1.7 times more than a diamond of equivalent size.

Flaws. Contemporary production of cubic zirconia is virtually flawless, whereas most diamonds have some sort of defect, be it a feather, included crystal, or perhaps a remnant of an original crystal face (e.g. trigons).

Refractive index. CZ has a refractive index of 2.176, compared to a diamond's 2.417.

Cut. Under close inspection with a loupe, the facet shapes of some CZs appear different from diamonds.

Color. More precisely, the lack of color: Only the rarest of diamonds are truly colorless, most having a tinge of yellow or brown to some extent. By comparison, CZ can be made in most cases entirely colorless: equivalent to a perfect "D" on diamond's color grading scale.

Thermal conductivity. CZs are thermal insulators whilst diamonds are among the most efficient thermal conductors, exceeding copper. This makes telling the difference between diamond and CZ quite easy for those with the right instruments.

Where can you buy good CZ jewellery in Hong Kong? I have onlt seen cheap costume jewellery in Shenzhen.

Thanks Waffle. Where is Carat? Do you have an address or telephone number? I live in Kowloon.

if not bothered whether it is a real diaimond or not, why bother at all and not just buy costume jewelry for very little money? in my books it is same as zirconium, might as well have glass - not much difference!

I have a pair of big fat earrings that are fake. i love that people always comment since they do look so real - then i love even more telling them they are fake. If you research about the Diamond conflict - it will make you think twice about the need for the real thing.... go fake and never look back!!!

except for an engagement ring why bother with real diamonds? did you know that even the best jewelers cannot tell the difference between the new man made and real diamonds? saw a program on 60 Minutes and they took the new man made ones to the diamond district in new york and all of them thought they were highest quality real diamonds