New synthetic diamonds are so closely resemble mined diamonds that the naked eye cannot tell the difference, often saving consumers enough money to make a down-payment on a new home or buy a car. Unfounded diamond jeweler arrogance, pretentiousness, and snootiness has gone too far!
My girlfriend has been parading around town with a magnificent 4-carat Round Brilliant cut synthetic diamond set in a stunning 14K solid gold filigree solitaire ring setting for a year now. She has been to restaurants, work, shopping, night clubs, museums, and parties. Family and friends have scrutinized her ring. She has been stopped repeatedly by others who were dumbfounded by her ring. Hundreds of people have seen her ring, astonished by its majesty, gushing about it. And despite its ostentatious size, no one has asked if it is a fake diamond!
How could this be? The latest breakthrough science in lab-created diamonds has brought them in line with mined diamonds. Long gone is the aurora borealis or "disco ball" effect that was seen in synthetic diamonds of the past decades. New millennium synthetic diamonds—with similar hardness, clarity, fire, and brilliance—are indistinguishable with the naked eye and simply don't look fake. High quality synthetic diamonds even have the coveted hearts-and-arrows effect.
This begs the question: If one were to saunter into a jewelry store with a synthetic diamond, can a jeweler tell the difference? Since all mined diamonds have color disparities (flaws), birthmarks (flaws), and inclusions (flaws), and lab-created diamonds have none of the above, a trained eye can tell the difference. A sneering glance under a loupe or even under discriminating examination with a magnifying glass, a jeweler will often proudly declare a synthetic diamond as a fake. Modern synthetic diamonds are too perfect in the world of jeweler snobbery when pushing over-priced high profit diamonds is the agenda at hand.
With the use of scientific testing equipment, mined diamonds will conduct electricity and synthetic diamonds will not. That is because mined diamonds are a carbon gem material and synthetic diamonds are polycrystalline. A thermal probe will produce different readings, differentiating the two. But does this really matter to a jewelry lover who is interested in aesthetic beauty and saving thousands of dollars? In the year my girlfriend has been showcasing her synthetic diamond on her finger; no one has walked up to her with scientific equipment asking to test her gemstone.
Why do virtually all brick-and-mortar jewelers carry only mined diamonds? Why do jewelers scoff at synthetic diamonds? You need to look no further than your wallet. A 1-carat high quality mined diamond is about $3000, a 2-carat about $18,000, a 3-carat about $40,000, and a 4-carat goes for about $90,000. Respectively, synthetic diamonds run about $79, $158, $237, and $326. It's about the money. Don't kid yourself.
It's also about indoctrination. For over a century, the diamond cartel has spent billions of dollars convincing the public that jewel quality mined diamonds have intrinsic value like gold. Not true. Why? During this time DeBeers has limited production, bought up supplies from others, stockpiled inventory, and imposed its monopoly position on jewelry manufacturers in the successful effort to keep prices inflated. And to make matters worse, the diamond industry as a whole has a checkered past with conflict stones, debt-slave child labor in India used in cutting operations, and shady techniques used to enhance perceived quality to further squeeze out ridiculous prices from beleaguered jewelry lovers.
Smart jewelry shoppers today are considering synthetic diamonds as an alternative to mined diamonds for some very savvy reasons: (1) They can acquire fine jewelry pieces set in solid 14K gold. (2) They will save literally thousands of dollars. (3) There is no need to buy insurance. (4) When wearing there synthetic diamond jewelry nobody will know that they are not mined diamonds unless they tell them!
Synthetic diamonds are not to be confused with fake diamonds as we know it, like diamond-like carbon, which is amorphous hard carbon or diamond stimulants, which are made of other materials such as cubic zirconia or silicon carbide.
Synthetic diamonds are actually real diamonds; only they are produced in labs or are man-made, and depending on the process, can even be superior to natural diamonds.
The procedure of creating a synthetic diamond is relatively easier than mining and processing natural diamonds, which is why these stones are usually used in many industrial applications, such as drilling and cutting tools, as well as in electronics.
The process of producing these cultured diamonds was first discovered by French chemist Henri Moissan in 1892. This process created small diamond fragments by heating charcoal, which is carbon, to an extremely high temperature in a cast iron crucible.
It is then rapidly cooled by immersing the crucible into cold water, causing it to shrink, which then creates enough pressure to crystallize the molten carbon into tiny diamond fragments.
After Moissan's process, the first commercial application of synthetic diamond production was developed by Tracy Hall for the General Electric Company in 1954.
This production process is known as the HTHP or high-temperature high-pressure, a procedure that has been improved upon and has been used to make industrial-grade diamonds to this day. Another main process being used to create synthetic diamonds is the Chemical Vapor Deposition or CVD method, which was first developed during the 1980s.
The HTHP technique applies a combination of heat and pressure on a diamond seed by using either a four-anvil tetrahedral press or a six-anvil cubic press. This is a process that attempts to replicate the natural conditions of diamonds formation inside the earth. The CVD method on the other hand, adds a vaporized carbon-plasma mixture with hydrogen, activated on the diamond seed using microwave energy, which then allows the gas to substrate.
This makes the diamond seed grow in successive layers.
Both procedures can produce cultured diamonds in a span of just several days. These stones can have the identical hardness, cleavage, light dispersion, refractive properties, specific gravity, and surface luster of a natural diamond, and may even contain small inclusions. Some cultured diamonds are even superior to their natural counterparts.
Just some of the known synthetic diamond manufacturers are Apollo Diamonds, Chatham Gems, Gemesis Cultured Diamonds, and Taurus Created Gems.
These companies create a range of lab diamonds, as they are also called, from colorless grade D diamonds to fancy diamonds.
Most synthetic diamonds will have a slightly yellowish hue because of nitrogen impurities that are present during its manufacturing.
These cultured diamonds can be distinguished from natural diamonds by using any of the following: infrared, ultraviolet, or X-ray spectroscopy. Its UV florescence can also be measured with a Diamond View tester.
Both Robert Joseph & Paul Easton are contributors for EditorialToday. The above articles have been edited for relevancy and timeliness. All write-ups, reviews, tips and guides published by EditorialToday.com and its partners or affiliates are for informational purposes only. They should not be used for any legal or any other type of advice. We do not endorse any author, contributor, writer or article posted by our team.
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