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 diamonds are made
21–30 of 67 posts
Re: How diamonds are made
#22Well, 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?
In final jewelry no. This is why brands like Tiffany are in panic and pivoting to mechanical-watch-like branding, where only inflated price matters.
Re: How diamonds are made
#23Well, 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.
My wife and I got our engagement and wedding rings from Krikawa[1]. The stones on her ring were synthetic, extremely affordable given the size, and visually flawless.
(Not quite as related, but the process was also really easy; we were able to communicate everything over email, get sizing kits mailed to us rather than having to go in person, and they sent us visual mock-ups and procedurally generated 3D videos of what the results would look like, which was helpful because the rings my wife picked out had been temporarily delisted as they found an issue with it that they wanted to fix, so they went ahead and figured it out so they could make them for us without us having to wait for them to appear on the site again).
Re: How diamonds are made
#24Well, 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…
>"You can get huge, very high-quality diamonds now for a fraction of what they used to cost. Like 95% off. It's crazy."
The thing is though, what's the point? Unless you're trying to actually pass your diamond as real, there's literally no difference between that $1500 lab grown gem and a $5 piece of costume jewelry. No one but a jewler will ever tell the difference, so why pay anything at all? With real diamonds today you are paying for that certificate of providence, which is what actually gives it any value. Used diamonds of course are worth nowhere near their retail value, but used lab grown are worth zero, both monetarily and sentimentally. Grandma's heirloom Tiffany engagement ring will have meaning in the way that a lab grown no name ring ordered online will not, even if they are completely indistinguishable.
Re: How diamonds are made
#25Well, 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?
With close microscopic examination of inclusions and defects, yes you probably can. There are also spectroscopic differences. In general looking at finished jewelry, no, not really.
Re: How diamonds are made
#26Well, 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…
>"You can get huge, very high-quality diamonds now for a fraction of what they used to cost. Like 95% off. It's crazy." The thing is though, what's the point? Unless you're trying to actually pass your diamond as real, there's literally no difference between that $1500 lab grown gem and a $5 piece of costume jewelry. No one but a jewler will ever tell the difference, so why pay anything at all? With real diamonds tod…
As a fan of cool rocks and gems, and putting aside price and societal influences, diamonds are cool!
Especially compared to hard plastic “costume jewelry” (which I think you’re referring to), gems are hard, don’t scratch as easily as hard plastics, and have cool reflections.
Re: How diamonds are made
#27Earlier quoted context omitted.
Could you distinguish between them if you weren't told?
With close microscopic examination of inclusions and defects, yes you probably can. There are also spectroscopic differences. In general looking at finished jewelry, no, not really.
> With close microscopic examination of inclusions and defects, yes you probably can.
With good laboratory instrumentation, you might be able to distinguish between them -- i.e. note that they're not perfectly identical, that they are distinguishable -- but, unless you are an expert, you would be unable to tell which of the two is the natural stone.
So, practically speaking, it doesn't matter.
Re: How diamonds are made
#28Earlier quoted context omitted.
>"You can get huge, very high-quality diamonds now for a fraction of what they used to cost. Like 95% off. It's crazy." The thing is though, what's the point? Unless you're trying to actually pass your diamond as real, there's literally no difference between that $1500 lab grown gem and a $5 piece of costume jewelry. No one but a jewler will ever tell the difference, so why pay anything at all? With real diamonds tod…
As a fan of cool rocks and gems, and putting aside price and societal influences, diamonds are cool! Especially compared to hard plastic “costume jewelry” (which I think you’re referring to), gems are hard, don’t scratch as easily as hard plastics, and have cool reflections.
Referring to mossanite and cubic zirconia, which are completely indistinguishable to a normal person, and can be had for dollars per carat.
Re: How diamonds are made
#29Anyone know how those MS-paint-like vibrating gifs were made?
Re: How diamonds are made
#30Earlier quoted context omitted.
With close microscopic examination of inclusions and defects, yes you probably can. There are also spectroscopic differences. In general looking at finished jewelry, no, not really.
> With close microscopic examination of inclusions and defects, yes you probably can. With good laboratory instrumentation, you might be able to distinguish between them -- i.e. note that they're not perfectly identical, that they are distinguishable -- but, unless you are an expert, you would be unable to tell which of the two is the natural stone. So, practically speaking, it doesn't matter.
Yes, you need to know which features are evidence of mined vs. synthetic/lab grown. Although there is equipment now preloaded with software that can discriminate. I think its based on photoluminescence.