How to distinguish crystal from glass and choose crystal glasses? How to distinguish crystal from glass
The choice of dishes today is huge and varied. But there are products that appearance they immediately “talk” about their status and “breed”. And they are always in the "piece" performance. First of all, this applies to high-quality porcelain, luxurious crystal and glass goblets. self made.
How to correctly distinguish crystal from glass when you want to buy exactly crystal tableware and vice versa? There are several specific features that distinguish this type of glass. And to begin with, in more detail about each of these materials.
Natural glass is a rarity today. This natural material appears as a result of global natural disasters, which are not so frequent. This includes the fall of meteorites, the impacts of which are capable of transforming rock into a glassy mass. Huge active volcanoes spewing lava, which sometimes eventually forms volcanic glass. And of course, these types of material have nothing to do with glassware Dont Have.
But organic glass is just the material from which it is customary to create vessels and other utensils. Organic glass is always of artificial origin and is created by human hands. The composition of raw materials may vary, but the main components are always quartz sand, feldspar and boric acid.
What is crystal?
Crystal, like glass, is natural and artificial. The natural species includes rock crystal, which is formed in the voids of rocks and limestone rocks, quartz veins and in shale. The mineral is unusually hard and transparent. It is often used in the jewelry industry as decorative inserts in jewelry.
Artificial crystal is created from glass with the addition of lead oxides in different proportions. Moreover, each country has its own composition, where the amount of lead content is individual. For example, European crystal contains about 10% lead oxides. In Russian crystal, this percentage may be higher. In this regard, experts often call crystal glass with the following definitions: lead; high lead. From this, two main types of artificial crystal can be distinguished:
- Classic crystal (high lead glass), which contains up to 24-30% lead oxide.
- Crystal (lead glass) containing less than 24% lead oxides.
Bohemian crystal instead of lead contains barium and glass, consisting of a large amount of calcium.
What is the advantage of artificial crystal? It is ideally decorated, as lead gives the material additional plasticity. Ornaments, drawings, engravings are created on the crystal surface. Undoubtedly, this is a huge advantage in the production of artistic tableware and decor items.
What is the difference between crystal and glass?
There are a number of signs by which you can visually distinguish crystal from glass without resorting to laboratory tests.
Thermal conductivity. The most distinctive physical property in materials is the difference in their thermal conductivity. heats up faster in the hand, becoming warm. Crystal tableware is always cool, no matter how long it is in warm hands.
Hardness and strength. To break a crystal object, you need to make some efforts, which cannot be said about glass products. There are never scratches on the crystal surface, which also confirms its hardness. But steel objects, for example, can leave marks on glass objects.
Don't rely on price. Although, of course, crystal in production is more expensive, and therefore more expensive. But some types of handmade glass goblets are several times higher than the price tags of crystal products.
The above practical advice help you more effectively understand the question of how to distinguish crystal from glass. And one moment. If the authenticity of the crystal is still in doubt, it is better to contact a specialist - an expert in this field.
To begin with, it is important to understand what crystal and glass are and what is their fundamental difference.
We all consciously and subconsciously love and appreciate natural things, realizing that natural is always better. No one will create such magnificent examples of real art as only Nature.
So is crystal - it has so many advantages that glass (artificially obtained material) can in no way be compared with it.
Crystal- This is a colorless quartz, a mineral that has the shape of icicles (krystallos in Greek means icicle). Glass is a material obtained mainly from a mixture of quartz sand (SiO 2 ), soda (Na 2 CO 3 ) and lime (CaO) and does not have a crystalline structure.
In addition, there isartificial crystal - glass with the addition of lead. The purity of crystal depends on the percentage of lead. The higher the percentage, the purer and more expensive the crystal. The most expensive crystal contains more than 30% lead oxide, the cheapest - from 18% to 24%, and in the US it is acceptable to call even glass with 1% lead as crystal.
For creating colored crystal color additives are used. So, blue tones are obtained by adding cobalt, red - cadmium or gold, pink - silicon, green - copper oxide, purple - manganese oxide. The famous Swarovski crystals are the same artificial crystal.
crystal glass differs from crystal in a lower lead content - from 4% to 15%. In addition, in crystal glass, part of the potassium is replaced by sodium, and part of the lead by zinc, barium, magnesium or calcium. As a rule, they make dishes, glasses, wine glasses, vases for home and restaurants from it. By its properties, it is harder than ordinary glass, but softer than crystal, so even dishwashers are safe for crystal glass. Crystal, including crystal glass products, easily tolerate temperature changes, so they can be scalded with boiling water or doused with ice water.
So what is the difference between crystal and glass?
The main distinguishing property of crystal and glass is thermal conductivity. A crystal glass can be held in hands for a long time and it will not heat up, absorbing all the heat from the palms. With glass, the situation is exactly the opposite - it quickly heats up with its surface, although it remains cold inside. So, in ancient Rome, rich people used crystal to cool their bodies on hot days.
The second pleasant property of crystal is the ability to produce a gentle "crystal" ringing, music from contact with another crystal glass or from a light blow with a thin stick or even a fingernail.
Crystal is harder than glass. A crystal glass is almost impossible to scratch and quite difficult to break. This is a very nice advantage for expensive cookware. On the Mohs hardness scale, it corresponds to the number 7. Only topaz (8), corundum (9) and diamond (10) are even harder.
There may be cracks or turbidity in rock crystal, but there cannot be foreign bodies, bubbles or voids.
To understand that you have real crystal in front of you, carefully examine the glass in the light - it should not enlarge or distort the shape of objects. If you put a glass on a sheet of paper, the edge of the sheet will optically split in two. And lastly, crystal perfectly refracts light, so crystal products are distinguished by a special brilliance and radiance.
Buy crystal glasses, and decanters you can in the appropriate section.
Almost no solemn event is complete without the clink of glasses. Modern technologies in the manufacture of dishes for special occasions reached such heights that few can distinguish glass from crystal.
You will be surprised, but from the point of view of chemistry, all festive and everyday dishes are made of glass. The difference is only in the composition and proportions of the ingredients.
The most popular and affordable today can be called soda lime glass, consisting of quartz sand, soda and lime, which are the most accessible natural resources.
If the alkaline components are replaced by boron oxide, then a stronger borosilicate glass, patented by the Pyrex trademark. Such glass is not afraid of strong heat and is usually used for the production of heat-resistant dishes.
Crystal- This is a special type of glass made with the addition of lead. Moreover, in the USA, glass containing only 1% of lead monoxide is considered crystal, and in Europe - 10 - 30%. The best exclusive handmade glasses are made from crystal, for example, elite Riedel glasses.
Crystal glass or lead free crystal- the latest technological development of manufacturers of glasses and other drinking utensils. Instead of lead oxide, which is recognized as harmful by world health organizations, other ingredients are added to such glass to improve the quality of the glass. Composition formula different manufacturers may differ. But in general, crystal glass is more suitable for everyday and professional use due to its strength and resistance to mechanical stress.
For example, Spiegelau glasses are made from crystal glass. High quality The components used make Spiegelau products shinier, clearer, more durable, impact resistant, dishwasher safe than other glasses made from cheap ingredients.
Crystal glass contains at least 10% metal oxides. Potassium compounds improve light reflection, transparency, make glass more bright and shiny. Zinc increases resistance to chemical attack, thanks to which Spiegelau glasses can be safely washed in the dishwasher without fear that they will fade.
Comparison various kinds glass
|
borosilicate |
Ordinary glass |
Lead Free Crystal |
Lead |
|
5% sodium oxide |
20% sodium oxide |
15% potassium oxide |
15% alkali metal oxide |
|
10% lime |
10% metal oxide |
24% lead oxide |
|
|
5% feldspar |
5% lime |
||
|
Example: |
Example: |
Example: |
Example: |
So how do you tell lead crystal from glass?
It is worth noting that in some cases glassware (more precisely, crystal glass) is made so skillfully that only a special examination can give an opinion on its composition. After all, crystal glass has the same melodic ringing and crystal transparency as traditional crystal.
When choosing dishes in the store site, pay attention to the characteristics of the product. We strictly follow the manufacturer's instructions and indicate the material from which the glasses are made. You can select glasses of the required quality using the catalog filters.
bubbles in glass
and crystal.
Simple and unpretentious, and most importantly affordable ways to help us distinguish crystal from usual glass.
Due to the fact that most often in everyday life we consider glass, which is a synthetically obtained material, then in this case it is amorphous, i.e. does not have a crystalline structure. Of course, in nature there are also glasses of natural origin, such as obsidian (volcanic glass) and tektites - glasses of impact origin, those that are formed when a meteorite hits the ground, but they are rather exceptions that we do not meet in everyday life. And that means that all other glasses are of artificial origin.
Rhinestone- This is a colorless variety of quartz, it is a crystalline substance of natural origin.
Without the use of additional instruments and equipment visually glass(including crystal, and these are all kinds of vases and vases, salad bowls and wine glasses from the USSR, for example) from rock crystal can be distinguished by the following features:
- There will definitely be gas bubbles of various shapes in glass, but they cannot be in rock crystal.
- If you look at the light, then striations will be noticeable in the glass - this is the name of the flow lines of a liquid and viscous substance, which is glass, in crystalline substances, such as rock crystal, striations are not found.
- different from rock crystal lower thermal conductivity (they are warm to the touch). The feeling of a warm or cold stone does not depend on the nature of its origin, but on its thermal conductivity. If the stone has low thermal conductivity, it feels warm to the touch, and if the stone has high thermal conductivity, it feels cold to the touch.
In the specific case, we compare the thermal conductivity rock crystal (quartz) and glass. Those who like to experiment try the warmth of compared stones with their tongue.
Plate of uniform thickness glass, when viewed through it, unlike rock crystal, has the ability to slightly increase objects.
At quartz (rock crystal(colorless), smoky quartz, citrine, amethyst etc.) strong bifurcation. For example, if you take a rock crystal ball and put it on the edge of a sheet, the edge will split in two, this effect will definitely not be achieved with a glass ball.
The first sign is a bifurcation of the faces.
By weight, most likely not in all cases it will be possible distinguish between glass and crystal, in quartz the density is 2.65 g/cm3, while in glass it ranges from 2 to 4.5 g/cm3, and these are quite close figures.
But for a more accurate diagnosis, it is necessary to use special gemological equipment.
How to distinguish topaz from crystal or zirconium?
Topaz from crystal (quartz colored) can be distinguished by hardness. Topaz always scratch quartz, topaz hardness 8, crystal - 7.
You can also distinguish topaz from crystal and from CZ (synthetic zirconia) in density. Topaz has a density of ~ 3.50 g / cm3. Quartz has 2.5-2.7 g / cm / cu. That is, with the same size, topaz is heavier than quartz. Zirconium dioxide has a density of 5.5-5.7 g/cm. cube, and at the same size with topaz, zirconium is much heavier.
It is not difficult to measure the density at home. To do this, you must have sufficiently accurate scales that measure weight with an accuracy of 0.01 grams, and preferably in carats, a 5-10 ml beaker and a 1 ml measuring capillary with a division value of 0.01 ml. Well, a calculator, of course.
You can BUY Service “HUNTING” set for wine decanter tray wine glasses:
hunter set wine decanter glasses and tray
the rarest set of the early 20th century, Zap. Europe
height of carafe with lid 40 cm.
the height of the wine glasses is 17 cm, the diameter of the dish-tray is 33.5 s
All handmade and picturesque drawings.
Perfect condition!!! (only wear of the gilding) everything else is in amazing condition!!!
The lot is currently in Moscow, please send applications by e-mail: [email protected]
How to distinguish a product made of ordinary glass from a product made of crystal? First, let's try to figure out what each of these materials is.
Glass is, as a rule, an artificial material, because in nature it is formed extremely rarely, after such infrequent natural disasters as a volcanic eruption (volcanic glass) and a meteorite fall. In all other cases, the glass is of artificial origin.
Pure rock crystal is a kind of colorless natural quartz that has the shape of a hexagonal pyramid (icicle). Translated from the Greek "krystallos" - ice. Crystal is born in the cavities rocks("crystal cellars") and in the voids of lava deposits. But it also occurs in quartz veins (“crystal coffins”), limestone rocks and shale.
There is also the so-called artificial crystal - glass with the addition of lead in certain proportions. In each country, the allowable amount of lead, so that glass can be called crystal, is different. In Europe, for example, no more than ten percent, in the US - just one is enough. There are also such definitions as lead and high-lead crystal, which differ from each other by the percentage of lead content.
How to distinguish glass from crystal not in laboratory conditions and without gemological equipment.
The most important difference lies in this physical property like thermal conductivity. If you put your palm on the glass, it will quickly heat up and become warm. Crystal will remain cool no matter how long it is held in warm hands. In ancient Rome, the patricians even used crystal balls to cool themselves in the heat of their hands.
If you run wet fingers over the crystal surface, then a clear sound will appear, reminiscent of a ringing, but glass will not have such a “sound”.
Crystal, even processed, is harder than glass. Therefore, it will not be possible to detect various damages and scratches on it, even if you scratch it with a steel tool. But on the other hand, it can easily leave a mark on the glass, even with a slight impact on the surface. In order to break the crystal, some effort will be required.
But the presence of gaseous bubbles or foreign inclusions indicates that in front of you ordinary glass. Rock crystal, on the other hand, may include only cracks and turbidity.
During the production of glass, so-called striations are formed in it - lines along which a viscous liquid substance flows. When light passes through glass, these lines can be seen. You will not see these lines in crystal.
Glass has a uniform thickness throughout its surface and therefore tends to slightly enlarge objects when you look through it. Looking through the crystal, no changes in the size and shape of things are noticed.
Rock crystal has such a property as a strong bifurcation. For example, if you take a crystal ball and put it on the edge of a sheet, the edge will split in two. Such an effect certainly cannot be achieved by conducting this experiment with a glass ball.
Rock crystal has a high refractive index, due to which it differs from glass in a special brilliance in the light and play of color.
There is another important difference that glass does not have - this is a "crystal" ringing. If you hit two items made of crystal against each other (these can be chandelier pendants or glasses), you will hear a transparent, sonorous, long, growing resonant rumble that is not characteristic of glass.
If, nevertheless, you have any doubts, and it is necessary to establish the authenticity of the crystal, then it is better to resort to the help of an expert.