What's the best Jewelry scale & test kit to buy?

I keep asking a friend to test my jewelry and weigh it. Time to get my own. What's recommended?

 

following...

 

I use a digital scale I bought at a local smoke shop - it actually says "Gangsta" on it lol! but it works fine.

A friend and I bout a chemical test kit from Kovel's - it came with an enormous loupe with LED light. We both realize much later that leaving the loupe in the same drawer with the chemicals had corroded them But the test kit still works fine.

I bought calipers, but still not really happy with them - I think a digital caliper would be easier to use.

What I'd really love is a gemstone/diamond tester, anyone have suggestions for that?

 

Some time ago Calico recommended a Presidium gem tester. I got one and love it! Although recently realized that I didn't learn how to use it to its full capability.

The one she recommended, and that I got, is the Presidium Duo Tester. I got the PDT-S7. It does not differentiate between natural and synthetic colored gemstones, but is good enough for my purposes.

These are a bit expensive, but it turned out that I could use "points" from my credit card through Amazon to bring the price down by half.

 

Pelouze PE 5 is a good scale.

But being an old fart.....I still swear by my Ohaus triple beam.....
with the "dial o gram" being the superior model !

 

I would not recommend the portable diamond tester 2. I test a real diamond first to get a reading before test, but I have to boost it to make it register. Total waste of money.

 

I use a Tanita Model 1479 for a scale and it has lasted for years and works great.

 

I don't know if this is the exact kit that I purchased but mine came with the same bottles and it works great. FYI - the silver acid goes bad fairly quickly so I double test by using the 18K gold acid to test silver and it works great. The 18K makes silver turn a bluish, greyish, whitish color. I learned this trick from the jewelry people on the ebay board.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/6-GOLD-TEST...hash=item485ea0e766:m:mdFbj0m_G62XgOKgR-s2w3w

 

There are so many gram scales on Ebay for cheap. I got one similar that has been working on the same original battery for 7 years. We recently had 12 pieces of jewelry professionally evaluated and the weights listed were identical to the 1/10th of a gram to the $9.99 gram scale.

Similar to this:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/500-x-0-1-G...hash=item2a27c914ab:m:mLKpocdSTZ1vCu7WO0QWSHQ

 

Thanks, Fig! but bummer, too $$ for me today

I don't have much in the way of expertise, but would like to learn more...

We don't put an abundance of information on jewelry - Most of it's bridge jewelry, QVC, costume, Native American or Mexican, so I think we're ok.

But there have been pieces that rattled around because we couldn't decide between us if something was "real" or not. Wastes time.

 

Do you have a good jeweler in your area where you could take those few pieces that rattle around?