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Are there any perceptible differences between these and 'natural' diamonds?
by xur17 8y ago
Are there any perceptible differences between these and 'natural' diamonds?
- mml 8y agothey are perfect, without inclusions, bubbles etc. really the only way to differentiate them. ironically.
- toomuchtodo 8y agoYou can introduce artificial defects during the manufacturing process to subvert detection of authenticity. Source: After reading this Wired article [1] ~15 years ago, myself and two friends tried to (unsuccessfully) put VC money together to commit to large amounts of manufactured diamonds for the consumer industry. [1] https://www.wired.com/2003/09/diamond/ https://www.wired.com/2003/09/diamond/
- fratlas 8y agoWhat went wrong?
- toomuchtodo 8y agoNo one thought it was viable considering the resources of the Da Beers cartel. In hindsight, they were right. I still have a small block of manufactured diamond I had made with impurities (as a proof of concept) in a box in my closet. With age comes wisdom.
- dreamfactored 8y agoCould be the timing was wrong? I'd think that an online direct to consumer model could work now with focus on social media marketing. Worst case you get bought out by De Beers if you make headway, especially now they are getting in the consumer synthetic market themselves.
- dreamfactored 8y agobtw let me know if you'd be interested in collaborating on such a thing
- fratlas 8y agoWell you fought the good fight. Thanks for trying! I sincerely hope someone brings down Da Beers
- SeeDave 8y agoSynthetic consumer diamonds is an interesting space, one that was actually explored by GE in the mid-late 90s. This article gave me flashbacks of "Straight from the Gut" by Jack Welch [1]... any chance you worked with that particular division? Even if not, it would be interesting to hear your story. [1] https://books.google.com/books?id=2GrqeGCE544C&pg=PT142&dq=I+was+stunned+and+excited+by+the+huge+potential+opportunity+this+new+business+might+create&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwi5zLSjnqzbAhUxzlkKHegZACkQ6AEIKTAA#v=onepage&q&f=false https://books.google.com/books?id=2GrqeGCE544C&pg=PT142&dq=I...
- deleted 8y ago[deleted]
- ValleyOfTheMtns 8y agoWell it says in the article that De Beers developed a machine to spot synthetic diamonds, so I presume so.
- shagie 8y agoIts likely based on fluorescence. From https://books.google.com/books?id=WQp_rEWV2XUC&printsec=frontcover&hl=en#v=onepage&q=fluorescence&f=false https://books.google.com/books?id=WQp_rEWV2XUC&printsec=fron... > In 1891, B. Walter was the first person to observe the well known cape spectrum in natural diamonds. This series of bands associated with type Ia natural diamonds (that are usually colorless and have blue fluorescence to ultraviolet light), are usually visible in the blue to violet part of the spectrum. ... No synthetic diamonds will show a cape spectrum. It goes on to describe other types of visible tests. The next capture (which I can't fully see on Google Books) describes a device called DiamondSure that fits on a desktop and looks at the cape fluorescence and absorption of particular wavelengths.
- userbinator 8y agoThat was 18 years ago, the synthetic diamonds today can be made to have the same impurities as natural ones and show up with the same spectrum.
- ridgeguy 8y agoNot really. Synthetic diamonds can be readily detected by at least two instruments sold by De Beers.[1] They look at emissive and absorptive optical features that aren't due to impurities, but due to defects (vacancies, stacking faults, interstitials, etc.). These crystal defects are atomic-scale departures from lattice perfection that are inherent to high growth rates (compared to natural diamonds). You can't see them on visual inspection. These machines are expensive, even when sold at De Beer's cost. You won't see them in the corner jewelry store. But for stones > a carat, it's worthwhile to send a gem to services that use these machines to determine whether the stone is, for example, a natural type IIa (the purest of natural diamonds) or a potential synthetic that "needs further characterization". [1] https://www.iidgr.com https://www.iidgr.com
- jseliger 8y agoDoes anyone remember the bunch of PR around Diamond Foundry? https://qz.com/630512/would-you-propose-with-a-diamond-grown-in-a-lab/ https://qz.com/630512/would-you-propose-with-a-diamond-grown... was on HN. I've seen their diamonds and they seem quite nice, from the naked eye, to me. Their direct-to-consumer company is here: https://vraiandoro.com/ https://vraiandoro.com/ and as far as I can tell, their diamonds look nice and like other diamonds, at least from the outside.
- cpitman 8y agoAre diamond foundry's prices an accurate idea of the cost to manufacture lab diamonds? I was surprised by what seem like only slight discounts over natural diamonds.
- emodendroket 8y agoYes. They put a logo in it.
- Johnny555 8y agoOnly for their own branded diamonds, there's no requirement that other manufacturers add any distinguishing feature.
- emodendroket 8y agoI'm pretty sure that most do something similar regardless.
- Johnny555 8y agoUnless they were trying to sell their lab-grown diamonds as "natural-made", and they'd induce impurities and minor inclusions.
- babblingdweeb 8y agoIn my experience: They tend to be clearer, "brighter"(more white), and more "brilliant" (reflectivity) than natural diamonds. One of the best ways to tell? They reflect more of a distinct rainbow vs. natural diamond.