Ebay Chinese Pearl Buying Adventure Part 2

[Camelotshadow]

Hmmmm I didn't test the white gold that stuck to the magnet but the seller took it back.

Looked like the acid held on your stone at 10K? Some 14 is 13.5 or so the acid test fails. I think we need 13K acid.

Platinum is hard to scratch but just so you know stainless can pass the platinum test. Suppose it can be used to fake white gold & pass a acid test. Thing is platinum is much heavier so you can generally tell by weight /size...sometimes just by feel in the hand.

You can't really trust gold marks these days. Just too easy to stamp anything 14K.
The magnet can eliminate alot of fake gold but copper & brass is also non magnetic. Zinc & silver non magnetic...its really the cheap steel thats magnetic. Stainless in most of its alloys is non magnetic but some is.

So if its non magnetic it does not mean its gold but if it takes to the magnet its not gold except for clasps with spring inside & not sure about thick rhodium plating yet...

 

[Lady_Disdain]

White gold is particularly tricky to acid test, since it is usually plated. You would need to remove the plating with some fine sandpaper or something in a discreet, unseen corner to make sure you are testing the gold, not the rhodium. And, yes, antique 14k can test at 13.5 but that hasn't been legal in new pieces for several decades. The easiest way would be to get an antique but cheapie 14k band to use as a comparison streak to the "true" 14k.

Thick rhodium is still too thin to mask magnetism/lack of magnetism. With a clasp, test the opposite side from the spring and the side with the spring. The difference in the magnetism is noticeable (try it with a clasp you know is gold and you will feel it).