Using A Microscope For Assessing Diamond Clarity.

Even though many gemologists use a microscope to assess the clarity of a gem or a diamond, gemological experts prefer to start with using a loupe when they start and then have a detailed look with a microscope. This is specifically so because when you use a loupe, handling the diamond becomes far easier.

Using a gem microscope allows you the flexibility of increasing the zoom, adjusting the angle of the lighting and the light source by adjusting the overhead light. There are various gem microscopes that are premier microscopes and includes various tools and techniques so that proper gem identification can be done.

The one thing that you do need to keep in mind is that even though you can focus on the areas of the diamond that interest you, if an expert gemology expert cannot see a clarity characteristic at I0x, it is not taken into consideration when classifying the quality of the gems or stones.

There are some basic steps that you will need to follow when you use microscopes as instruments for assessing gems and diamonds for their clarity based on the grading system. The features of each microscope may need to be understood but there is a set process that you should adopt while evaluating. These are:

 - Make sure that the diamond is clean. If it is not, then wipe it with a lint-free soft linen cloth. A clean cloth is required to ensure that there are no dirt, threads etc on the polished stone.

- Use tweezers to pick up the diamond and make sure that you use the tweezers around the girdle of the gem.

- It is advisable to hold the tweezers in the left hand (more precisely the non-writing hand) so that you can manage the microscope with your writing hand in a more dexterous manner.

- To start with, you should look at the surface of the diamond with its face up. This should be done under magnification and should be under the darkfield lighting. As is the case while inspecting a diamond, look for flaws and spots on the surface to start with. Gradually start looking at the inside.

- It is important to take this look and make your first judgment about the diamond. At this stage you should be able to make up your mind whether the diamond looks clean or whether it seems to have many clarity characteristics.

- Once this overall examination has finished, place the gem on the cloth and hold the tweezers so that you are holding the diamond in a ?table to culet? position.

- Using the same optical power, lighting and magnification as before, start the examination again. Looking that the diamond from each and every angle is extremely critical. Keep rotating the stone and count the bezel facets if you cannot find any characteristics or marker inclusions.

- Now you will need to hold the diamond in a position that is table down. Look from the top in to the pavilion. Make sure that the angle is exactly ninety degrees. Again make sure that you start the assessment from the surface. Then look at the first wedge. Each time look from the pavilion to the crown and check for any flaws or inclusions that you may find.

- The next position that you need the stone to be in for examination is to tilt the diamond to examine the girdle surfaces. Make sure that you never forget that you should see the surface first and then begin to look inside. You may need to change the light source as you start to examine the inside.

- Make sure you examine each wedge at a time working from the pavilion to the girdle and then the crown.

- Last but not the least, the position of the diamond should be changed (girdle to girdle face up). This needs to be done so that you can examine any area that might have been hidden behind the tweezers.

Even after you have completed the microscopic examination, you should look at the diamond through a loupe. You should use an I0x loupe for a final appraisal. Hold the eyepiece of the loupe in your eye and give it a thorough check.

The entire process of assessing the clarity is extremely painstaking but interesting too. You need to work like a sleuth looking for some clues so that the mystery of the classification of the diamond can be solved.

The fact also is that even the microscope model with the highest power cannot make you an expert at assessing diamond clarity unless you practice this art over and over and over again.