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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

#61

Post by thaumasiotes »

spondylosaurus wrote: post #56
thaumasiotes wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Moissanites have already become as near-worthless as synthetic rubies. I've noticed that synthetic sapphires are (or were?) much more expensive than synthetic rubies. Do you know why?

I'm also curious about this. Especially since natural rubies and natural sapphires are the same type of gemstone, just in different colors. It sounds like the synthetic equivalents might not be similar at all!

The synthetic equivalents have to be similar, because they're the same thing as the natural stones, and the natural stones are similar.

A ruby is corundum with chromium coloring it; a sapphire is corundum with (most typically) iron coloring it.

Iron isn't rare, so either it affects the process used to make rubies, or there's no real reason for the price gap.

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

#62

Post by slm_HN »

"Synthetic diamonds are now purer, more beautiful, and vastly cheaper than mined diamonds. Beating nature took decades of hard graft and millions of pounds of pressure."

What does graft mean in this context? Is there a process where you graft diamonds, like plants? Does it refer to the diamond seed crystals mentioned in the article?

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

#63

Post by ycombinete »

slm_HN wrote: post #62

"Synthetic diamonds are now purer, more beautiful, and vastly cheaper than mined diamonds. Beating nature took decades of hard graft and millions of pounds of pressure." What does graft mean in this context? Is there a process where you graft diamonds, like plants? Does it refer to the diamond seed crystals mentioned in the article?

Hard graft is an idiom. It means hard work.

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

#64

Post by hintymad »

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…

And I'd be very happy to see the demise of De Beers. It's amazing that De Beers can thrive for more than 100 years, but still, using clever marketing and tight control of supply to artificially jack up the price of diamond is counter-productive.

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

#65

Post by godelski »

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…

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 instead of pulling from scrap material from jewelry making or rejected diamonds you could just make your own and ensure your own supply.

One of the things I've loved about synthetic diamond prices coming down is just how cheap and available diamond cutting wheels and filing tools have become. You can now get a set of diamond files on Amazon for under $10. That's crazy

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

#66

Post by Glyptodon »

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 think large natural diamonds will exist as a market. Just expect large real gems to become much less common for the non-wealthy. And large gemstone jewelry to become more ubiquitous with the increasing spread of lab gems. Definitely a trend towards seeing more such gems paired with silver as the prices have gone down.

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

#67

Post by snark42 »

DabbyDabberson wrote: post #41
indoordin0saur wrote: post #27

I'm planning on buying an engagement ring very soon and my own plan (as someone who has never done this before!) is to get a good lab grown diamond but spend more money on the metal in the ring. You can make a gem stone in a lab but until we become a Kardashev II civilization we won't be making any sufficient quantity of gold in a lab. If I buy a good loose lab grown diamond will I be able to find someone who will fi…

most people taking this strategy that I know use platinum instead of gold. Most engagement rings only have ~~~$200 worth of gold on them.

Did you mean rhodium?

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

#68

Post by tiagod »

spondylosaurus wrote: post #56
thaumasiotes wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Moissanites have already become as near-worthless as synthetic rubies. I've noticed that synthetic sapphires are (or were?) much more expensive than synthetic rubies. Do you know why?

I'm also curious about this. Especially since natural rubies and natural sapphires are the same type of gemstone, just in different colors. It sounds like the synthetic equivalents might not be similar at all!

This is just speculation, but assuming you're talking about gem-grade rubies and sapphires, perhaps there's more industrial uses for similar rubies and the gem industry sees the benefit.

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

#69

Post by physicsguy »

They're cheaper but they're not cheap and that's part of the issue...

I remember looking at engagement rings about 5 years ago, my now wife is quite environmentally conscious. At the time it was like ~£1200 for a diamond one and £800 for a synthetic one.

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

#70

Post by xhevahir »

lo_zamoyski wrote: post #29
BeetleB wrote: post #4

Mostly irrelevant when it comes to the value, sadly. Especially for engagements.

This seems to be an American phenomenon. Americans--women in demanding it, and men in acquiescing to it--are keeping this commercially confected "tradition" alive through a vanity bred and reinforced by corporate greed and consumerism. It's not that a diamond ring is bad per se. It's the artificial and frankly socially destructive stipulations around them. It's almost as if the marriage and future spouse were an afte…

If you think lavish spending on weddings and engagements is an "American phenomenon," you're badly mistaken. Read up on weddings in India, Armenia, Cambodia, Afghanistan...
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