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Synthetic diamonds are now purer, more beautiful, and cheaper than mined

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Re: Synthetic diamonds are now purer, more beautiful, and cheaper than mined

#381

Post by xeonmc »

Animats wrote: post #105

That'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 applicat…

Re: source #2, I believe this is a better reference: https://old.reddit.com/comments/1f06cpm

Re: Synthetic diamonds are now purer, more beautiful, and cheaper than mined

#382

Post by myrmidon »

murukesh_s wrote: post #46
jajko wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They never had any value, apart from specialized ie glass cutting tool. Only when DeBeers realized they could push some fictious heavy marketing 'to prove your worth to woman you are asking to marry' for those shiny stones nobody wanted to buy, people who didn't know better got manipulated into buying them. They are supposedly very common in universe, and probably in deeper Earth too. Correction is healthy and benefi…

>They never had any value They had immense value in ancient world. They were valued much more than gold - due to their rarity. Southern India was the only known source for mining diamonds in ancient world [1]. They were used as currency and was valued higher than gold. In fact there were wars fought for diamonds. There is a saying about Koh-i-Noor, one of the most famous Diamond - "If a strong man were to throw four…

The 5 stone gold comparison is utter BS (unless those 5 stones are like 5 stones heavy :P).

All the gold available to humans on earth right now fits into a ~20m cube, and that is most certainly worth orders of magnitude more than a single diamond in a historical artifact.

Re: Synthetic diamonds are now purer, more beautiful, and cheaper than mined

#383

Post by user_7832 »

saagarjha wrote: post #356
vladvasiliu wrote: post #344

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not exactly a watch nerd, so don't know how true this is, but I hear that sapphire shatters on impact. Or maybe that's just an excuse for people peddling "alternative" materials for their watches? But if it is true, then I'd say that sapphire is a poor choice for mobile phones. IME I'm far more likely to drop the phone, preferably on some form of hard surface, that to scratch it. Phones are nowadays so ridiculous…

I believe Apple tried to get sapphire for phones screens at some point, but their supplier folded.

From what I remember, it was mainly because it was a fair bit more expensive to manufacture.

Re: Synthetic diamonds are now purer, more beautiful, and cheaper than mined

#384

Post by GJim »

Joker_vD wrote: post #49
A_D_E_P_T wrote: post #11

Over 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…

> 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.

> Artificial diamonds, you mean.

Synthetic diamonds, you mean.

There is noting artificial about them! They are diamonds.

Re: Synthetic diamonds are now purer, more beautiful, and cheaper than mined

#385

Post by GJim »

bambax wrote: post #265
Joker_vD wrote: post #49

Earlier 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.

High-end watches are worse at telling the time than electronic watches, but they are visibly different and identifiable, so they can broadcast status. Diamonds made by man or nature are now indistinguishable, except to highly trained experts (and even then, not always), so it's unclear why anyone would prefer the expensive kind.

> so they can broadcast status.

Ummmm no.

As a lover of clockwork, I couldn't give a toss what anyone else thinks of my clock or watch collection.

Re: Synthetic diamonds are now purer, more beautiful, and cheaper than mined

#386

Post by sxv »

saghm wrote: post #294

When my fiancee and I got engaged last year, we bought our rings from a place that (in addition to having a robust process that allowed us to avoid having to go anywhere in person) uses lab-grown gemstones. Not only is the quality quite high and the color impressive (she picked a pink sapphire), the prices were much lower than we expected. I'm not really sure why anyone would want a "real" diamond at this point; you…

Many see a value in "natural" objects that is absent in those engineered by man. There is a raw energy and story behind it. Would you be just as awe-struck by a magnificent waterfall built by engineers flowing atop beautiful factory-produced rocks as one created by geologic forces over millennia?

Re: Synthetic diamonds are now purer, more beautiful, and cheaper than mined

#387

Post by silexia »

A_D_E_P_T wrote: post #11

Over 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…

Awesome! This is how the free market works without government regulations.

Re: Synthetic diamonds are now purer, more beautiful, and cheaper than mined

#388

Post by heystefan »

sxv wrote: post #386
saghm wrote: post #294

When my fiancee and I got engaged last year, we bought our rings from a place that (in addition to having a robust process that allowed us to avoid having to go anywhere in person) uses lab-grown gemstones. Not only is the quality quite high and the color impressive (she picked a pink sapphire), the prices were much lower than we expected. I'm not really sure why anyone would want a "real" diamond at this point; you…

Many see a value in "natural" objects that is absent in those engineered by man. There is a raw energy and story behind it. Would you be just as awe-struck by a magnificent waterfall built by engineers flowing atop beautiful factory-produced rocks as one created by geologic forces over millennia?

^ What he said. There's something in story/branding/nostalgia too.

Re: Synthetic diamonds are now purer, more beautiful, and cheaper than mined

#389

Post by Xcelerate »

Animats wrote: post #105

That'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 applicat…

> diamond windows for lasers 10cm across

> Diamonds are now something you can buy by the kilo, in plastic bags.

I can’t wait to use diamond cookware. A pan with a thin layer of 430 stainless steel for induction, a wafer of diamond, and then another thin layer of stainless on top will be amazing. Almost perfect evenness over any cooktop.

Re: Synthetic diamonds are now purer, more beautiful, and cheaper than mined

#390

Post by taormina »

sxv wrote: post #386
saghm wrote: post #294

When my fiancee and I got engaged last year, we bought our rings from a place that (in addition to having a robust process that allowed us to avoid having to go anywhere in person) uses lab-grown gemstones. Not only is the quality quite high and the color impressive (she picked a pink sapphire), the prices were much lower than we expected. I'm not really sure why anyone would want a "real" diamond at this point; you…

Many see a value in "natural" objects that is absent in those engineered by man. There is a raw energy and story behind it. Would you be just as awe-struck by a magnificent waterfall built by engineers flowing atop beautiful factory-produced rocks as one created by geologic forces over millennia?

Many marketers have convinced you of that. To many, the story is a story of blood and tears. Diamond mines are terrible places.
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