4 ms·
Another great benefit of lab-created diamonds: you can get them with the impurities you want. Want a red or a blue diamond without the silly price tag? You've g
by Blackthorn 10y ago
Another great benefit of lab-created diamonds: you can get them with the impurities you want. Want a red or a blue diamond without the silly price tag? You've got it!
I bought my wife a blue diamond engagement ring in 2010 (blue diamonds have boron in them). The price was pretty good then. I can only imagine that since they've gotten bigger, cheaper, and purer since.
Same process has been done to other gems. I've bought emerald jewelry in the past; all lab-created of course.
- Animats 10y agoFor other gem materials, the synthetics are so good and cheap it's embarrassing that expensive jewelry is made from them. You can buy cheap sapphire bar stock[1] or ruby rod[2] on Alibaba. Synthetic emerald gems come in bulk in plastic bags.[3] [1] https://www.alibaba.com/product-detail/Custom-square-sapphire-rod_60383240240.html https://www.alibaba.com/product-detail/Custom-square-sapphir... [2] https://www.alibaba.com/product-detail/Ruby-crystal-Rod_60333055506.html https://www.alibaba.com/product-detail/Ruby-crystal-Rod_6033... [3] https://www.alibaba.com/product-detail/Synethic-Emerald-Oval-Cut-Green-Spinel_60353304175.html https://www.alibaba.com/product-detail/Synethic-Emerald-Oval...
- zem 10y agowow. i can actually assemble a set of real gemstones to play splendor [https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/148228/splendor https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/148228/splendor] with.
- thaumasiotes 10y agoYou can, but gemstones will nick each other if you leave them loose in the box. :(
- clock_tower 10y agoIf I ever get a time machine, I know what I'm taking back to fund my travels...
- Blackthorn 10y agoYou can buy the cut gemstones pretty cheap too. My wife is an artist; she has a massive catalog that contains various created "precious" gemstones for very reasonable prices. The finished jewelry itself can stand to be more expensive, as creating that piece is an art.
- detaro 10y agoDo you have a name/link for the "reputable" vendor? Just curious
- thaumasiotes 10y agoI buy cut gemstones from pehnec.com; they offer synthetic rubies/sapphires (both corundum) and cubic zirconia in many colors.
- Blackthorn 10y agoHer catalog is for Rio Grande, https://www.riogrande.com/ https://www.riogrande.com/
- Blackthorn 10y agoAlso, just actually checked your links and it's really not what you're describing. Link #1 and #2 are fused silica -- not jewelry gemstone material there. Link #3 isn't even emerald, it's spinel. Synthetic emerald is more expensive.
- thaumasiotes 10y agoYou can get actual synthetic emerald stock (and plenty else) on eBay.
- Blackthorn 10y agoYeah, of course, just saying that specific source is obviously bad. If you're a jeweler you want to get something certified anyway. I don't think a Chinese distributor's claim of AAA-quality emeralds is worth the electrons it took to show it to me.
- thaumasiotes 10y agoOne thing that's worth keeping in mind is that the usual term for "emerald" in Chinese is 绿宝石, which literally means "green gem". It's understandable that they might be confused about which green gems are actually "emeralds". (That particular ad still doesn't work even if you forgive use of the word emerald, though...)
- thaumasiotes 10y agoYour link (3) is deeply troubling. It claims to be "synthetic emerald spinel". Emerald is beryl, not spinel. It claims to have a hardness of 9. That would make it corundum; neither beryl nor spinel is that hard. I'd really rather buy gems from a source that can describe them without contradicting itself in multiple different ways.
- brokenmachine 10y agoPerhaps alibaba is not the marketplace for you then. :P