Purpose and Uses of a Jewelry Loupe
Things that a Jewelry Loupe can tell you:
With time and effort, you will start enjoying using the jewelry loupe – not just the playing-with-it part, but also the amount of information a jewelry loupe gives you. A seasoned professional in this jewelry business, using a jewelry loupe, can tell you if a gemstone is natural, a synthetic, or a piece of glass and if it is natural, then make out characteristic flaws – inclusions and blemishes, pertaining to the gemstone. As a beginner, you can find out the following things for yourself:
- The Cut or Workmanship of the gem: how well-proportioned the gemstone is, how well-balanced and symmetric the gemstone is, whether or not it has the proper number of facets and so on. These things directly affect the brilliance and aesthetic beauty of the gem.
- Chips, Scratches and Cracks: gemstones may get chipped or scratched on the surface because of their brittleness or carelessness on the part of the setter or jeweler. Other than that, cracks are naturally formed in stones which affect their brilliance and longevity. These are easily visible using a jewelry loupe.
- Inclusions: precious stones are naturally born with included impurities such as crystals and bubbles. In a diamond, they have a direct relation with its quality and thus, its price. In colored stones, they can tell the origin of the gemstone, which again affects their price. Either way, they can act as a fingerprint of the stone, and tell the real one from the imitation.
- The Sharpness of Vertices and Edges: natural stones are hard and have sharp edges whereas imitations are softer. So when seen under the jewelry loupe, the boundaries between the facets happen to be more rounded.
So your jewelry loupe can give you tell-tale clues on whether or not a particular specimen is an imitation or the real thing. At the same time, it can also give you an idea about the flaws the stone has. Grading the stone on this basis, or even finding important blemishes takes a lot of experience. But you are much better off than the uninformed buyer.
