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Cubic Zirconia Information How much like a diamond is cubic zirconia? AAAAA Cubic zirconia is the best diamond simulant in the world. It is very hard or may be impossible to tell apart from a natural flawless diamond by site alone. Some sources say that jewellers can tell by white flashes in the diamond compared to more colourful flashes in the CZ, but other sources say that in controlled experiments experts were not able to pick out a diamond from a number of cubic zirconia. Another source claims an expert could not tell the difference between a CZ replica of a famous flawless diamond and the real thing The problem is there are different qualities of CZ and the poor quality CZ's can be very poor, looking nothing like a diamond, this gives CZ a bad reputation. Other CZ stones are better quality but poorly cut or polished. It is not fair to judge Diamond CZ by one of these inferior stones. In a controlled test to see if an expert could pick out a diamond from a number of CZ's then the cz stones used would be top quality and cut the same as the diamond. The stones I sell are the best quality and the best cut, when buying a CZ as a diamond simulant you should choose these stones. I think that identifying a CZ would normally be done by guess work, a CZ is always D white and flawless. A D White flawless stone is unlikely to be a natural diamond, so as soon as one is seen, it would be suspected to be CZ. But if the stone had flaws and sparkles like a diamond, then it is most likely to be a diamond. All our Cubic Zirconia is cut and polished to the kind of standard you would expect a diamond to be cut and polished. Diamonds are cut by hand, so it is possible for a jeweller to tell by looking at the facets and see that it was machine cut. We sell hand cut CZ's too, these are even more accurate simulants because a diamond is always hand cut How is it made? CZ nearly always refers to synthetic man made cubic zirconia, but it also occurs naturally, natural cz is very rare. Synthetic CZ is made by heating zirconium oxide powder up to nearly 5000'F. Because it is so hot the powder needs to be heated from the centre outwards by radio waves so that the outer powder which is cooled by copper water pipes forms a crucible to contain it. As the mixture cools cz crystals grow. The zirconium oxide powder needs stabilisers and needs to be cooled carefully, the right balance of stabiliser and careful cooling determine the quality of the cubic zirconia. The best quality crystals are flawless and are 8.5mohs in hardness. Lesser quality cubic zirconia is not so hard and may have small bubbles that implode and cause the stone to discolour over time, this doesn't happen with high quality cz. Because of its hardness it will last a long time, you can rub cz with ordinary sandpaper (not emery cloth) and it doesn't scratch. |
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