Test Gold - How to Test the Purity of Your Gold

Knowing the real purity of the gold you want to buy is mandatory when you are interested in buying gold. You would imagine that you can find the purity of your gold stamped in numbers on the gold itself. The reality is that there is gold (especially gold jewelery) out there with inaccurate carat stamps, meaning the number stamped on the gold isn't the exact number of carats. Sometimes the gold you buy could even be fake. To avoid buying fake gold or not knowing the real amount of carats it's important to test the gold for it's purity. Below is an tutorial on how to test how pure your gold is at home.

Get a Gold Testing Kit

To start of this gold test tutorial you need a gold testing kit. With this kit you are gonna test your gold by using 3 gold testing products: A touchstone(a black stone, such as basalt or jasper), a gold test needle and gold test acid. All of these products can be found find in a standard gold testing kit which can be bought all over the world.

Find the Carat Stamp

Start with examining your gold by looking for the amount of carats that's stamped on the gold. You can do this by looking for a number ranging from 1 to 24 with a K behind it, for example 10K. You need this number to know which needle and acid you need to use to start testing your gold for its purity.

Using the Touchstone and Test Needle

Once you've bought the gold testing kit you need to start by selecting the right needle according to the amount of carats which can be found on your gold. For example, a 10K gold piece needs a a 10K gold test needle. This 10K gold test needle resembles a 10K gold piece(meaning it has a similar effect on the touchstone as a 10K gold piece). Scratch the needle over the touchstone. Don't scratch it with excessive force, but scratch it hard enough. Now pick up the gold piece you want to test and scratch a part of it over the touchstone, right next to the scratch you made with the test needle.

Using The Gold Test Acid

Pick up the right gold test acid according to the number of carats stamped on the gold you want to test. For example, for a 12K gold piece you need to use the 12K gold test acid. Now drop one or two drops of acid over the scratches you made with the test needle and your gold piece. Now check out how the scratches react to the acid you just put on it. If the reaction of the test needle scratch and your gold piece scratch is the same, your gold is real and the number of carats stamped on your gold piece is the real number of the purity of your gold. If the reaction to both scratches is NOT similar you need to use the other test needles and acid in your gold test kit to find out the real purity of your gold piece.







 

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