Moderators have recently commented about touching pearls to a tooth to determine whether the pearls are real. That works, of course, but think how unsanitary that is, and teeth, being harder than pearls, can scratch them. Just as effective as the tooth test in feeling the roughness of real pearls is gently to touch one pearl against another. Works for me everytime.
My wife, who is from the Phillippines, and I have been importing pearls, jade and strands of beads from China and the Phillippines for about a year now. Inasmuch as we are relatively new at this, we have found pearl-guide.com to be an amazing fount of information. We are most interested in how pearls are produced, the cities and provinces where they can be purchased and what prices one should pay. I was blinded when I waas in the Air Force decades ago, and it is really funny to hear my screen reader try to pronounce words that its developers never imagined it would attempt. I have just started reading your site, so I am sure I will have questions and will be delighted to correspond with anyone who is interested about what has become a fascination for my wife and me.
J. Larry Railey
Railey & Associates
Houston, Texas
jlr@Houston.rr.com

When I started my pearl business at my first trade show. One lady passed by and put my pearl against her teeth. I did not know what she was doing at that time and was so afraid she bit on my pearl. Later on I realized that she was testing my pearl. I remembered at the end she repeatly said it was real. From time to time, I only use the pearls against each other to do the simple test.

Hi Larry,

I agree. With my hands I can tell fake from real just as well. But then, I can also see the difference. The only exception are medium quality akoyas that often look faker than fakes. They always require a touch test. Some treatments also make cultured pearls look fake and feel fake. However, in my book that simply makes them fake whether they spent any time in a mollusc or not.

Zeide

Hi Larry,

Thank you for pointing out that the tooth test is unsanitary.

Not so long ago when I do not give much attention to pearls, I do the tooth test. I know it's like 'ewww!' but I feel no choice but to do it incase of pieces that are rather harder to identify.

Now, having acquired some valuable knowledge from my ZESPA course and after scrutinizing, smothering, peeling, and smashing tons of pearls, I too, am able to feel or identify at a glance whether a pearl is dyed, coated, or irradiated.

There's a lot to learn simply by looking. However, not everybody have the privilege to see or feel so many pearls as we do. So people do the tooth test especially if they're paying a lot for the pearls.

You are right that gently rubbing two pearls together works. I think this is a better alternative to the tooth test. But one must have a single genuine pearl at hand when shopping since rubbing a fake pearl with a real pearl may not produce the same result. Don't forget that the drill holes tell a lot, too!

There are also some fake pearls that feels like the real thing, but these fakes will also fail the tooth test.

Cheers!

[effisk]

Originally Posted by perlas

Now, having acquired some valuable knowledge from my ZESPA course...

I did not know that organization, just googled it

Zeide Erskine School of Pearl Appreciation---ZESPA to the forum users

Patricia

[Caitlin]

I just wrote a post for 45 minutes extolling the Zespa- and where is it? Gone, gone gone. Darn.

I will revert to my method of writing in word and then posting. Be back later.

[purepearls]

Hi Larry,
It's nice to have a fellow Houstonian on board! It's definitely not something that I'd recommend doing all of the time. It can scratch the pearls. I agree with Zeide. For most pearls, you can tell by looking at and touching the pearls.

[effisk]

Originally Posted by pattye

Zeide Erskine School of Pearl Appreciation---ZESPA to the forum users

Yes. I was first surprized to only find references to this school on this very forum on Google, but quickly discovered why