The gemstones carat weight

You must have come across the word gemstones carat weight while working as a jewelry artist, buying or selling gemstones.

What are carat weightreally? How would you measure it? Are carat and karat the same thing- just someone made a mistake with spelling?

Well, carat is a measure of weight used in the jewelry business. The word originated from the seed kaura- the carob bean.

The gemstones carat weight was standardized in the 20th century. The U.S officially adopted the metric carat in 1913.

Stones are measured to the nearest of the hundredth of a carat. A hundredth of a carat is also called a point. Thus a .10 carat stone can be called 10 point stone or 1/10th of a carat.

A one carat diamond is about 6.5mm in diameter. Be aware that it does not mean that all gemstones of one carat will also have 6.5 mm diameter. For example ruby or sapphire, both of these precious gemstones are heavier than diamond. Having higher specific gravity, a one carat ruby or sapphire will be much smaller than a one carat diamond.

Is there an easy way to estimate the carat weight

The simplest way is to estimate the carat weight is to get a gem-scale that weighs in carats. If you don't have such a scale get one that weighs in grams up to 50 grams. You already know that 1 carat=.02 grams. So now you can find out your answer. But what if your stone is larger and too big for such scale?

You may use a postage scale. If they weigh in ounces convert it to grams. 1 ounce (oz)=28.4grams.Once you have it in grams you can easily find out the carat weight , as 1 carat=1/5grams.

This method will give an approximate gemstones carat weight of

The price of a gemstone kind of depends on the carat value, though that is not the only criteria. Clarity, cut, brilliance, color all these are factors that determines the price of a gemstone.

Now Karat with a “k” is a different thing. That is used for measuring the purity of the gold alloy, as opposed to stones.

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