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How diamonds are made

diamond.jaydip.me

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Re: How diamonds are made

#11

Post by jebarker »

thrance wrote: post #9
A_D_E_P_T wrote: post #3

Well, that goes for some diamonds. There's another kind that are made by man. In recent years -- over the past four or five years -- there has been an explosion in synthetic diamond production, largely driven by factories in China and India. There are a lot of those factories (spurred by the relatively easy availability of the necessary production-line equipment) and they're all in cutthroat competition with each oth…

I'm often reminded of this classic tweet: > it's actually crazy we figured out how to grow real diamonds that are cheaper and better quality than the real thing and so many people are still like, no thanks the suffering is what makes it special. https://x.com/missmayn/status/1612892354624786444

It’s kind of surprising that diamonds still have appeal as jewelry at all given the rise of lab-grown. I always assumed that people liked them because they were rare and expensive.

Re: How diamonds are made

#12

Post by A_D_E_P_T »

Etheryte wrote: post #5
A_D_E_P_T wrote: post #3

Well, that goes for some diamonds. There's another kind that are made by man. In recent years -- over the past four or five years -- there has been an explosion in synthetic diamond production, largely driven by factories in China and India. There are a lot of those factories (spurred by the relatively easy availability of the necessary production-line equipment) and they're all in cutthroat competition with each oth…

Links and examples? Last I checked, this applied to industrial diamonds, not jewelery.

How large do you want them?

> https://item.taobao.com/item.htm?id=828627288905&skuId=55567...

This ring goes up to 5ct, and some other listings are at 7ct.

A 3ct example at the link, which would easily be a >$20k ring under other circumstances and isn't too comically large, will run you about $1500.

There are many, many others.

Re: How diamonds are made

#13

Post by dwd »

Etheryte wrote: post #5
A_D_E_P_T wrote: post #3

Well, that goes for some diamonds. There's another kind that are made by man. In recent years -- over the past four or five years -- there has been an explosion in synthetic diamond production, largely driven by factories in China and India. There are a lot of those factories (spurred by the relatively easy availability of the necessary production-line equipment) and they're all in cutthroat competition with each oth…

Links and examples? Last I checked, this applied to industrial diamonds, not jewelery.

Try somewhere like Blue Nile [1]. The price of natural diamonds increases exponential once you go over 1ct and the size becomes rarer.

Here's a quick comparison on just size, clarity and the visibility of inclusions.

A 1ct very good quality stone, E-F, VVS2 or better, no fluorescence - you're looking at a 88% reduction in cost ($700 vs $6,000).

Jump to 2ct and it's $2,300 vs $32,000.

At 3ct, the lab grown is still only $4,200 where the natural at that size starts at $82,000.

[1] https://www.bluenile.com/diamonds

Re: How diamonds are made

#14

Post by IG_Semmelweiss »

I wish articles/domains like this one, which are accessible, playful, informative, short, and with images would be easy to identify in HN.

That would be something worthwhile to share with children aged 8-12 who love learning new things.

Re: How diamonds are made

#15

Post by A_D_E_P_T »

dwd wrote: post #13
Etheryte wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Links and examples? Last I checked, this applied to industrial diamonds, not jewelery.

Try somewhere like Blue Nile [1]. The price of natural diamonds increases exponential once you go over 1ct and the size becomes rarer. Here's a quick comparison on just size, clarity and the visibility of inclusions. A 1ct very good quality stone, E-F, VVS2 or better, no fluorescence - you're looking at a 88% reduction in cost ($700 vs $6,000). Jump to 2ct and it's $2,300 vs $32,000. At 3ct, the lab grown is still on…

And in China and India they're roughly 3x cheaper than that, i.e. a 3ct lab-grown stone is somewhere under $1500. (I posted a link to one absolutely typical example in a previous comment.)

It's amusing that the price of gold has skyrocketed just as the price of diamonds has nosedived. Some old rings, which were valued for the small diamonds they carried, are now more valuable for their weight in gold.

Re: How diamonds are made

#17

Post by [deleted] »

Our_Benefactors wrote: post #7
Etheryte wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Links and examples? Last I checked, this applied to industrial diamonds, not jewelery.

James Allen, Brilliant Earth, Jared, Blue Nile, all of these vendors sell lab created diamonds openly and let you compare side by side. A diamond that’s $10k natural can be had for $1500 lab created without any scarcity.

[deleted]

Re: How diamonds are made

#18

Post by cwillu »

IG_Semmelweiss wrote: post #14

I wish articles/domains like this one, which are accessible, playful, informative, short, and with images would be easy to identify in HN. That would be something worthwhile to share with children aged 8-12 who love learning new things.

Playful yes, but it is anything but accessible.

Re: How diamonds are made

#19

Post by yayitswei »

jebarker wrote: post #11
thrance wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm often reminded of this classic tweet: > it's actually crazy we figured out how to grow real diamonds that are cheaper and better quality than the real thing and so many people are still like, no thanks the suffering is what makes it special. https://x.com/missmayn/status/1612892354624786444

It’s kind of surprising that diamonds still have appeal as jewelry at all given the rise of lab-grown. I always assumed that people liked them because they were rare and expensive.

Expensive because they were perceived as rare. Classic article: https://priceonomics.com/diamonds-are-bullshit/

Synthetic has pretty much eaten their lunch now.

Re: How diamonds are made

#20

Post by chistev »

A_D_E_P_T wrote: post #3

Well, that goes for some diamonds. There's another kind that are made by man. In recent years -- over the past four or five years -- there has been an explosion in synthetic diamond production, largely driven by factories in China and India. There are a lot of those factories (spurred by the relatively easy availability of the necessary production-line equipment) and they're all in cutthroat competition with each oth…

Could you distinguish between them if you weren't told?
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