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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Bronwen, post: 10277800, member: 5833&quot;]The operative word is &#039;gently&#039;.&nbsp; I would not push you to do something you have been advised against by someone whose opinion you respect, I&#039;ll just give you my experience.&nbsp; </p><p><br /></p><p>This has come up in the forum before, &amp; I want to say right off that not everyone agrees with my personal method of using the edges of my incisors to do the test; others prefer to rub a pearl against the flat of a tooth.&nbsp; </p><p><br /></p><p>Tooth enamel &amp; nacre are both composed mainly of forms of calcium, so the difference in hardness is probably not great.&nbsp; In fact, checking my mineral guide, the Moh&#039;s hardness of ivory - elephant tooth enamel - is less than that of pearl.</p><p><br /></p><p>You don&#039;t need to test every pearl in a strand; one will suffice.&nbsp; I find artificial pearls are so slick that a single pass is enough to identify them.&nbsp; Genuine pearls are variable in their degree of graininess.&nbsp; Some I can feel sure about with just a light &#039;nibble&#039; or two, sometimes three.&nbsp; When I&#039;m really uncertain I test a pearl I know to be artificial &amp; the contrast becomes stark.</p><p><br /></p><p>In short, the amount of hazard you are exposing the pearls to is really minimal.&nbsp; You only need to do it the once, after all, not as a daily ritual.&nbsp; I can understand wanting to be very cautious when testing pearls that belong to someone else, but your own...</p><p><br /></p><p>When it comes to perceived coolness, I have not spent the time to test this out, but, being smoother, I would expect artificial pearls generally to feel cooler to first touch than nacre would.&nbsp; I&#039;m thinking of good quality artificial pearls, not some kind of plastic.</p><p><br /></p><p>The few trials I made of rubbing pearls in a strand against each other showed me that if I relied on this kind of test to ascertain genuine vs. artificial, I&#039;d mistakenly write off everything as artificial.&nbsp; Maybe your sense of touch is more sensitive than mine.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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