De Beers admits defeat over man-made diamonds • Hacker News Board

Re: De Beers admits defeat over man-made diamonds

#391

Post by CydeWeys » Wed, May 30, 2018, 4:09 PM UTC

merinowool wrote: post #316

Excuse me my ignorance, but could you bury lab grown diamonds deep in the earth (company back garden) and then mine them few weeks later, so that you can tell these were pulled from the earth?

The difference between the two is the flaws within the diamond itself (natural diamonds have more). Burying a diamond doesn't do anything to it; the difference dates back to its formation.

Now if you're burying the synthetic diamond hundreds of miles deep, where the pressure is high enough to create diamonds from scratch, then you might be into something.

Re: De Beers admits defeat over man-made diamonds

#392

Post by CydeWeys » Wed, May 30, 2018, 4:11 PM UTC

MarkMc wrote: post #206

One day man-made diamonds will be indistinguishable from natural diamonds. When that happens I wonder what will become of the 'rule' that says a man should spend 3 months salary on a wedding ring. Perhaps a Rolex watch will substitute for a diamond ring in signalling to your friends that you have a rich husband?

It's an antiquated rule that no longer makes sense given that women work now too. It only really ever made sense as an equivalent of a male dowry, which just isn't needed in modern gender egalitarian society.

Re: De Beers admits defeat over man-made diamonds

#393

Post by dogma1138 » Wed, May 30, 2018, 4:14 PM UTC

merpnderp wrote: post #382

dogma1138 wrote: post #301

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Considering the $800 per carat price tag for their artificial diamonds they want to charge a hefty fee for them much more than it would cost you today to get them form China or India.

Where do you get these cheap diamonds from China or India?

Both industrial and cut can be found through the usual channels (Tao Ali et al.) even eBay for small orders.

Re: De Beers admits defeat over man-made diamonds

#394

Post by digikata » Wed, May 30, 2018, 4:16 PM UTC

oblio wrote: post #278

ISL wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'd love for synthetic diamond to bring the price down on gemstones. A lot of people are engaged in arduous and risky work to produce natural stones. The environmental costs, too, are real. Modern high-quality synthetic materials, whether in gemstones or other uses, have so much to offer in fashion innovation. Indeed, diamond jewelers claim that silicon carbide (SiC) has "excess fire" as it has greater dispersion tha…

> Platinum is a boring metal, visually, difficult to distinguish by eye from steels, aluminum, and titanium. Platinum has very low reactivity so it doesn't rust, corrode, whatever easy, unlike the others. That's why it's considered valuable, because it looks almost the same after a lot of time.

In jewelry it can often have a bit of Nickel alloyed into it, and some people are allergic to Nickel.

Re: De Beers admits defeat over man-made diamonds

#395

Post by riffic » Wed, May 30, 2018, 4:17 PM UTC

Retric wrote: post #350

gorbachev wrote: post #340

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They could patent the process of cutting that shape though, if it's sufficiently complicated.

Patents last for 20 years and can be invalidated or worked around. Copyright is ~forever.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copyright_term

Re: De Beers admits defeat over man-made diamonds

#396

Post by chc » Wed, May 30, 2018, 4:19 PM UTC

jerf wrote: post #371

gorbachev wrote: post #340

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They could patent the process of cutting that shape though, if it's sufficiently complicated.

But again, that will only hold for some bizarre new shape. Anything using existing techniques and any cuts you can't plausibly claim copyright on will still be fine, and that's going to be almost everything. If de Beers wants to patent and copyright some bizarre foamy cut of a diamond that does some exotic thing, that's fine, but it's not going to be "a diamond ring" as most people think of them.

I don't know, lots of things that shouldn't be patentable seem to somehow become patentable when you say the magic words "using a computer." Maybe de Beers' legal team will come up with some gemstone equivalent.

Re: De Beers admits defeat over man-made diamonds

#397

Post by pnathan » Wed, May 30, 2018, 4:34 PM UTC

Animats wrote: post #173

simonebrunozzi wrote: post #170

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Exactly. Just wait for their counter-blow. They have enough money, resources and incentives to try to destroy man-made diamonds for at least a few more decades.

Not like they used to. De Beers used to have a monopoly on distribution, but that's been broken. You can get synthetic diamonds on Alibaba now. Some of which really are diamond.

now I am wondering about getting a multi-carat synthetic diamond on the cheap. :-)

Re: De Beers admits defeat over man-made diamonds

#398

Post by Johnny555 » Wed, May 30, 2018, 4:36 PM UTC

emodendroket wrote: post #315

Johnny555 wrote: post #105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Only for their own branded diamonds, there's no requirement that other manufacturers add any distinguishing feature.

I'm pretty sure that most do something similar regardless.

Unless they were trying to sell their lab-grown diamonds as "natural-made", and they'd induce impurities and minor inclusions.

Re: De Beers admits defeat over man-made diamonds

#399

Post by sametmax » Wed, May 30, 2018, 4:40 PM UTC

nradov wrote: post #372

sametmax wrote: post #355

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Legality and ethics are very different things.

Not at all. US law is pretty much in line with the national consensus on ethics (although perhaps not with your personal ethics). There are occasional discrepancies but when the national consensus undergoes major shifts the laws are usually revised accordingly within a few decades.

US people can't remotely agree on death penalty, marijuana usage, gun control, gay support, the church, abortion, war, trump or snowden. In a country where it's legal to openly give money to politicians, spy on all citizens and by pass habeas corpus.

I really doubt your statement.

Re: De Beers admits defeat over man-made diamonds

#400

Post by on_and_off » Wed, May 30, 2018, 4:42 PM UTC

distances wrote: post #300

colanderman wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yep. I've seen lots of marketing spam on my elevator's "Captivate" box "educating" viewers on colored diamonds and how "natural" impurities make them that way. Very obvious ploy to increase the desirability of mined diamonds.

Off topic, but I'm not sure I got this -- you have advertisements in an elevator ?

I have these too at work

First time I saw them I thought it was some kind of dystopian joke.