The composition and structure are exactly the same as those in rock crystals, especially when the inside of the crystal is very clean and no features can be seen, even laboratory identification is difficult and large instruments are needed. In this case, it is difficult to distinguish between natural and synthetic crystals only by naked eyes and portable instruments such as ten times magnifying glass. But there is also a method that is not very useful, that is, put the crystal to be tested at room temperature, and feel its cold degree by hand after its temperature is stable. Generally speaking, rock crystals are cooler, while synthetic crystals or glass have a sense of temperature. However, this method is greatly influenced by weather and environment, and it is not applicable in winter. Moreover, because individuals have different feelings about temperature, it is only an auxiliary identification method.
However, most rock crystals contain inclusions to some extent, such as cotton, ochre, clouds, mineral inclusions and so on. , forming green ghosts, all kinds of crystals and other varieties, full of vitality. Synthetic crystals are cleaner, but sometimes they have some characteristics.
A crystal with one of the following characteristics can be considered as a synthetic crystal:
(1) A layer of dust will fall on the glass desktop that has not been wiped for a while. This phenomenon must have been seen by everyone. If you see a phenomenon similar to "desktop dust" inside the crystal, that is, there are many tiny gray or white dots in the crystal, which are distributed along one plane or several parallel planes, the rest of the crystal is very clean. So this is basically a synthetic crystal.
(2) Sometimes there are some very thin hollow inclusions in synthetic crystals. These hollow tubes are basically parallel, sometimes reaching the surface, or they may be big at one end and small at the other, like nails. This is only available in synthetic crystals, which may be some flux residue in the synthesis process.
(3) rock crystal is basically not green, or extremely rare. Such as green ghost, green hair crystal and other varieties, the contents inside are green, but the crystal itself is colorless and transparent. So there are a lot of green transparent crystals on the market, the colors are basically processed, and most of them are synthetic crystals.
glass
Cheap imitations can be made into various colors, and sometimes they can be made translucent, which is relatively easy to identify. It can be considered as glass with the following characteristics:
(1) Many books teach people to distinguish a crystal ball from a glass ball by looking at the ghost of hair, that is, put a hair under it and look at it through the ball. If the hair becomes two, it is crystal (natural or synthetic), or one is glass. However, using this method also has some limitations: the ball should not be too small, if it is a ball on the bracelet, the effect is not good. And when watching, you should pay attention to turning the crystal ball to observe, not all directions will have ghosts. I don't know much about crystal balls, and I don't know how to look at them. However, I would like to remind friends who want to buy crystal balls: those "crystal balls" that are not small in size, very clean inside and not too expensive must be noted, and they are probably artificial crystals or glass. When buying, you must ask for an appraisal certificate issued by a professional institution recognized by the state.
(2) Bubbles can only appear in glass, but sometimes spherical inclusions appear in natural chalcedony. I've seen some, and it's easy to think it's a bubble if you don't pay attention. The difference is that the surface of bubbles is bright and reflective, while the surface luster of inclusions is much darker. This requires experience and can be mastered by reading more.
(3) Glass products are usually cast or blown, while crystals are polished after grinding. So like crystal beads, sometimes they are not round enough, and some planes or gaps remain in some places; However, the faceted size of faceted crystals may be different. These "flaws" are actually the labels of crystals, because glass will only appear indentation when it is cast (like many plastic products) or spiral when it is blown.
(4) Swarovski's "Crystal". Swarovski's product is called "Crystal", which is actually a glass product with a lot of lead added. Because lead will increase the refractive index of glass and make it look shiny, even close to diamonds. But it also makes its hardness very low, even if it is carefully preserved, the surface will be scratched, and the real crystal will not wear during normal wearing. Many so-called Swarovski jewels are synthetic cubic zirconia, commonly known as CZ, which is a kind of imitation diamond, with strong fire color and higher hardness than crystal, but this kind of jewelry should not be a Swarovski product, because Swarovski is made of lead glass.