Tangentially related: Does anyone in the HN community have a recommendation for a reputable place for obtaining a lab-grown diamond for an engagement ring?
Synthetic diamonds are now purer, more beautiful, and cheaper than mined
101–110 of 511 posts
Re: Synthetic diamonds are now purer, more beautiful, and cheaper than mined
#102This is true with some qualifications. If you're interested in the kind of investment grade diamonds that a major auction house would deal with, then you're looking at heavy weights and/or fancy colors that synthetics can't reach yet. In the diamond trade the word "paragon" is sometimes reserved for flawless or near-flawless stones above 100 carats, of which there is a long list of famous examples, but the largest ge…
Though if you are interested in investment grade diamods I'd say it is time to get out - diamonds have never been as rare as investors like to pretend, and things are going to get worse.
Re: Synthetic diamonds are now purer, more beautiful, and cheaper than mined
#103Over the past 10 years, there has been an explosion in cheap lab diamond and moissanite producers in China and India. 10 years ago, it was hard to find quality lab diamonds at a reasonable price, and moissanite was still reasonably expensive at $400-600/ct. Today, given cutthroat competition and "race to the bottom" pricing strategies, lab diamonds are ubiquitous, extremely high quality, and cheap. Less than $200/ct…
How big can you get?
Do they make olive sized ones (1-2 cm diameter)? How much would such one cost?
Re: Synthetic diamonds are now purer, more beautiful, and cheaper than mined
#104Earlier quoted context omitted.
Diamonds have lots of uses beyond being pretty. I have to bring this up because a lot of people are talking as if this is the entirety of the reason for their decrease. But there's diamond files, diamond cutting blades/wheels/drills, you can make glass from it (really only used in labs that absolutely need them because the price), and many more uses. Many of these don't care about size, quality, or clarity. So instea…
> diamond files on Amazon for under $10 Link? I'm skeptical. It seems more likely someone is abusing the term "diamond", no?
Not the same thing, but you can get diamond tipped 3d printer nozzles for ~$100: https://www.amazon.com/Diamondback-Nozzles-Compatible-Polycr...
Considering that these are a niche product requiring a precisely shaped diamond insert made by a relatively small operation in the US, I think it's believable that a Chinese company could produce diamond files for ~$10, considering that it only needs diamond powder and has more space for mass production.
Re: Synthetic diamonds are now purer, more beautiful, and cheaper than mined
#105That's a good article. The whole history is there.
The commercial side has made huge progress, too. Look up "diamond making machine" on Alibaba. You can buy a high-pressure, high temperature six sided press for about US$200,000. A chemical vapor deposition machine is about the same price.
De Beers, the diamond cartel, has an R&D operation, Element Six. They sell synthetic diamonds for lasers and other exotic applications. The technology is good enough to achieve flaw levels in the parts per billion range, and to make diamond windows for lasers 10cm across.[1] This is way above jewelry grade.
Over on the natural diamond side, there's been a breakthrough. The industry used to break up some large diamonds during rock crushing. Now there's a industrial X-ray system which is used to examine rocks before crushing to find diamonds. It's working quite well. A 2500 carat diamond was found recently.[1][2] TOMRA, which makes high-volume sorters for everything from recyclables to rice, has a sorter for this job. This is working so well that there's now something of a glut of giant diamonds too big for jewelry.
The finishing processes of cutting and polishing have been automated. The machinery for that comes mostly from China and India.
Diamonds are now something you can buy by the kilo, in plastic bags.
[1] https://e6-prd-cdn-01.azureedge.net/mediacontainer/medialibr...
[2] https://www.forbes.com/sites/amandakooser/2024/08/23/monster...
[3] https://ikcabstracts.com/index.php/ikc/article/download/4101...
Re: Synthetic diamonds are now purer, more beautiful, and cheaper than mined
#106Tangentially related: Does anyone in the HN community have a recommendation for a reputable place for obtaining a lab-grown diamond for an engagement ring?
James Allen
Re: Synthetic diamonds are now purer, more beautiful, and cheaper than mined
#107“ Lab diamonds are a testament to the principle that what nature can do, man is capable of doing better.” Profound hubris in an otherwise interesting article.
Would love to see us turn iron into gold as well as nature does with supernovas.
I thought this is possible and theory is well known. It just to expensive compared to mining
Re: Synthetic diamonds are now purer, more beautiful, and cheaper than mined
#108Earlier quoted context omitted.
It sounds like some people want to pay more money. Good for them. I'm happy to have a cheaper option.
The whole point is to spend money and to be an honest signal https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Signalling_theory In the event artificial diamonds are genuinely indistinguishable from natural ones they will all, natural and artificial, become worthless aside from practical applications.
Sylvester McMonkey McBean at work.
Re: Synthetic diamonds are now purer, more beautiful, and cheaper than mined
#109Earlier quoted context omitted.
Diamonds have lots of uses beyond being pretty. I have to bring this up because a lot of people are talking as if this is the entirety of the reason for their decrease. But there's diamond files, diamond cutting blades/wheels/drills, you can make glass from it (really only used in labs that absolutely need them because the price), and many more uses. Many of these don't care about size, quality, or clarity. So instea…
> diamond files on Amazon for under $10 Link? I'm skeptical. It seems more likely someone is abusing the term "diamond", no?
Sets like this one
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B092D4CV56
are also sold in U.S. hardware stores
https://www.harborfreight.com/needle-file-set-10-piece-69876...
https://www.menards.com/main/tools/hand-tools/files/tool-sho...
They are very cheaply made, but as far as I can tell are actually diamond. They're good for shaping glass and ceramics. For metal, you're better off using hardened steel files, but these ones will work, just slowly and with less precision.
Re: Synthetic diamonds are now purer, more beautiful, and cheaper than mined
#110Earlier quoted context omitted.
> I expect diamonds to lose almost all of their value. Artificial diamonds, you mean. The natural ones will keep their price, just as "hand-crafted" goods did (and, I suspect, as "human-produced" content in the future will); it's a matter of status and signalling that you can afford to buy an inferior, more expensive product.
It's based on supply and demand. In 2012, when I was shopping for an engagement ring, a natural 2ct diamond cost $250,000. (I bought a 2ct moissanite for much, much less, and my wife is very happy with it.) When I looked in fall 2023, a natural 2ct diamond cost $20,000. That's a loss of over 90% of value, not counting inflation! (Now the supply of diamonds is much higher, and the demand for natural diamonds is much l…
> also wonder if impurities will become fashionable, just to show that a specific diamond is actually natural and can't be made in a lab.
Why can’t you add impurities when manufacturing a diamond? “Doping”