Equipment, Books, and Courses for Testing Gems.

The following courses, books and equipment are useful for testing gems.  We give very approximate prices.

Courses.   GIA course on colored stones, followed by GIA course on Colored Stone Identification

Books.   (a) GIA Gem Reference Guide;  (b) Webster, Gems;  (c) Gemology (Hurlbut and Kammerling);
(d)  Anderson, Gem Testing;  (e)  Liddicoat, Handbook of Gem Idenitification (GIA);  (f)  Arem, Color Encyclopedia of Gemstones; 
(g)  Dana, New Mineralogy; (h) Keith Mitchell, Spectroscope and Gemmology.

Important Equipment
(1)  Refractometer (see  GIA-edu or stuller) ($600)
(2)  Utility Lamp with yellow monochromatic light  ($450)
(3)  Polariscope (see GIA or ebay) ($200 - $300)
(4)  A&D HR60 scale with PAN specific gravity measuring kit AD-1653 -- or a Sartorius scale with YDK01LP denisty kit -- or the Mettler Toledo Density Kit SC33360 ($1500-$2000).
See  balances-balance or sartorius or A&D for a list of some models.  The wire balance specific gravity kit is hard to use.
(5)  Gem Microscope (60-70X) ($3000-$5000) (useful for identifying synthetics)

Other Useful Equipment
(11)  Loupe Magnifier (10X-20X) ($20-$50)
(12)  Dichroscope ($50-100)
(13)  Chelsea Filter ($20-$40) (essential for testing lab emeralds)
(14a) Diamond heat Tester with pointer (Presidium)($200-300)
(14b) Diamond & Moissanite tester  ($100-$200)
(15)  Gemmeter --  Reflectometer ($600) or Reflectometer on the Presidium Duo Tester (included with 14a) 
(16)  Presidium millimeter scale ($100)
(17)  Spectroscope  (Handheld model $200) (Good spectrophotometers are extremely expensive)
(18)  Long wave ultra violet light ($10 - $20) (Short waive ultra violet lights requires glasses)
(19)  Gold Tester (see Kassoy)