Diamonds(?)

[historymystery]

These are diamonds (set in silver)??? Looks like stones picked up from the garden - and muddy ones at that. Just £49.99 for this 'delightful' ring.

 

[AndyW]

Terrible. I like the "goth" oxidisation but the stones are no better than sweepings from the cutting room floor. You would indeed find prettier stones in some gardens! I never understood I3 grey single cut diamonds. People can be snooty about topaz (plentiful) and zircon but these would be much better.

 

[leslie61]

These are diamonds (set in silver)??? Looks like stones picked up from the garden - and muddy ones at that. Just £49.99 for this 'delightful' ring.
View attachment 27399

To me this looks like something that Ellis usually has when she's doing the jewellery cleaning malarky but even she couldn't get those diamonds to shine.

 

[AndyW]

Angeline's on with this (final price, SI 1-2, 3.8mm, White with 3g+ gold):

Fair enough - although what's with the 'Colour' definition being declared as 'White'? Has G-H, H or I been scrapped, is it lazy inventory configuration or is there something else going on with the way that they are grading now?

My main point is Angeline's take on lab diamonds. Of all the counter arguments she decided to put forward was one along the lines of "who wants a diamond grown in a yucky petri dish. To me, it's not a diamond.". Well...even without wading into the pros and cons and the lack of "value", I'm sure that she's wrong on both counts.

Firstly, no petri dishes are involved - it's a highly technical, energy consuming process at the moment and secondly, I'm afraid it is a diamond. Or put it another way, Mrs Davies, your Malagasy ruby ain't a ruby really, is it luv?

 

[leslie61]

Angeline's on with this (final price, SI 1-2, 3.8mm, White with 3g+ gold):
View attachment 27507
Fair enough - although what's with the 'Colour' definition being declared as 'White'? Has G-H, H or I been scrapped, is it lazy inventory configuration or is there something else going on with the way that they are grading now?

My main point is Angeline's take on lab diamonds. Of all the counter arguments she decided to put forward was one along the lines of "who wants a diamond grown in a yucky petri dish. To me, it's not a diamond.". Well...even without wading into the pros and cons and the lack of "value", I'm sure that she's wrong on both counts.

Firstly, no petri dishes are involved - it's a highly technical, energy consuming process at the moment and secondly, I'm afraid it is a diamond. Or put it another way, Mrs Davies, your Malagasy ruby ain't a ruby really, is it luv?

I've never known them give full details of their diamonds. It's either the colour or the clarity but never both together. Even if you message in and ask they don't say.

 

[TheManWithNoName]

"who wants a diamond grown in a yucky petri dish. To me, it's not a diamond.".

But yet when they sold the synthetic diamonds on Jewellery Maker a couple of years ago, they very much were a diamond and they hyped them up something chronic...............

 

[ianrobo111]

But yet when they sold the synthetic diamonds on Jewellery Maker a couple of years ago, they very much were a diamond and they hyped them up something chronic...............

My wife has 3/4 pieces of jewellery with 'proper' diamonds and asked her what she thinks. Her responses I want 'real' diamonds, it would be interesting to know what the share of the market is now.

 

[AndyW]

My wife has 3/4 pieces of jewellery with 'proper' diamonds and asked her what she thinks. Her responses I want 'real' diamonds, it would be interesting to know what the share of the market is now.

I don't think that it will be easy to get an answer to that one, especially from a source that doesn't have any skin in the game. Figures are hard to find and are heavily skewed by the wide use of diamonds for industrial purposes. The only things that I have seen over the last 36 months is a YouTube output from a US diamond dealer, with his take on the market and value of natural vs lab stones (consistent drop for the lab versions, akin to new cars, once driven off the showroom forecourt). There is one site that projects a doubling of market value over the next ten years, with a 6.7% increase in market share. It'll probably take that decade before the figures mean anything.

 

[ianrobo111]

I don't think that it will be easy to get an answer to that one, especially from a source that doesn't have any skin in the game. Figures are hard to find and are heavily skewed by the wide use of diamonds for industrial purposes. The only things that I have seen over the last 36 months is a YouTube output from a US diamond dealer, with his take on the market and value of natural vs lab stones (consistent drop for the lab versions, akin to new cars, once driven off the showroom forecourt). There is one site that projects a doubling of market value over the next ten years, with a 6.7% increase in market share. It'll probably take that decade before the figures mean anything.

thanks and obviously as natural diamonds get rarer then clearly manufactured ones will get more ... so natural ones if you have them will get more expensive ...

 

[TheManWithNoName]

thanks and obviously as natural diamonds get rarer then clearly manufactured ones will get more ... so natural ones if you have them will get more expensive ...

Diamonds aren't rare. It's just another marketing con. 28,000 tonnes of the things are mined every year.

If Diamonds are so rare, the world and his wife wouldn't own one, and they wouldn't be in every High Street Jewellers windows.

Compare that to something genuinely rare, such as a Benitoite, Taaffeite, Bixbite or Pezzottaite, where finding even one is extremely difficult and the majority of people in the world will have never ever seen one.

I hate the term 'rare' being used in the gem industry because most gemstones are mined in huge quantities every year. Very few gems are actually 'rare'.

 

[AndyW]

Diamonds aren't rare. It's just another marketing con. 28,000 tonnes of the things are mined every year.

If Diamonds are so rare, the world and his wife wouldn't own one, and they wouldn't be in every High Street Jewellers windows.

Compare that to something genuinely rare, such as a Benitoite, Taaffeite, Bixbite or Pezzottaite, where finding even one is extremely difficult and the majority of people in the world will have never ever seen one.

I hate the term 'rare' being used in the gem industry because most gemstones are mined in huge quantities every year. Very few gems are actually 'rare'.

100%. Not rare at all. Hate this trashing of superlatives, like presenters misusing "unique" - or even worse, making me grind my teeth - qualifying it ("quite unique").

A lot of people probably have diamonds in their sheds, in polishing pastes, sandpaper or drill bits. As with petroleum, the diamond industry is run by a truly Stuart-era Cabal. That's why (I've whinged about this before) that VT of Swiss Tony Thompson spewing utter BS about the impact of the recent - but fleeting - embargo on rough diamond imports by the Indian government, is nothing more than scaremongering marketing cr*p.

Don't get me wrong, although I do prefer those gemstones that outperform a diamond for dispersion (zircon, sphene, sphalerite, etc), diamonds have durability on their side. But rare? Pah! A pint in a pub at a decent price, now that's rare!

 

[ianrobo111]

Diamonds aren't rare. It's just another marketing con. 28,000 tonnes of the things are mined every year.

If Diamonds are so rare, the world and his wife wouldn't own one, and they wouldn't be in every High Street Jewellers windows.

Compare that to something genuinely rare, such as a Benitoite, Taaffeite, Bixbite or Pezzottaite, where finding even one is extremely difficult and the majority of people in the world will have never ever seen one.

I hate the term 'rare' being used in the gem industry because most gemstones are mined in huge quantities every year. Very few gems are actually 'rare'.

Thanks but of those mined how many are suitable for jewellery and not industrial use ? Surely if plentiful supply of natural diamonds for Jewells then no need for manufactured ?

 

[TheManWithNoName]

Thanks but of those mined how many are suitable for jewellery and not industrial use ? Surely if plentiful supply of natural diamonds for Jewells then no need for manufactured ?

As myself and Andy have mentioned, almost everyone owns a Diamond. They're the stone of choice for the majority of wedding rings. You can walk down any high street and see Diamonds galore in jewellery shop window. If they were 'rare', they'd be almost impossible to get hold of.

Why are they manufactured? Two reasons:

£££££££££££'s.

Mining for Diamonds is expensive. Creating a Diamond in a lab is cheap.

Years ago, when Gemporia were dismissive of lab-grown stones, Steve Bennett used to say that they cost pennies to make. Then they started flogging them on Jewellery Maker and tried to hype them up saying they were more affordable than natural Diamonds, despite still costing hundreds of pounds.

The second reason is that there's pretty much a 'barrier to entry' to any companies that want to sell Diamonds. The market is pretty much controlled by De Beers and Rio Tinto.

Lab diamonds can't be controlled. Anyone with the money and know-how of how to create lab-grown diamonds can get into it.

Why on earth would anyone want a lab-created Diamond anyway? Surely the two key points of owning a Diamond are:

a) Its Durability
b) Its perceived rarity.

A lab Diamond only offers durability.

Another thing that I find annoying when Diamonds are sold is the spiel about them being hard and '10 on the Mohs scale' - insinuating that they're pretty much indestructible.

They're hard on the surface to the point that they can't be scratched, etc - but, overall, because of their crystal structure, they're fairly brittle. Hit a Diamond with a hammer and see what happens. You'll be left with a pile of dust.

Playing on their 'hardness' is yet another marketing con that the whole industry has used to try to justify their ridiculous cost.

Diamonds are so over-rated.

 

[AndyW]

They're hard on the surface to the point that they can't be scratched, etc - but, overall, because of their crystal structure, they're fairly brittle. Hit a Diamond with a hammer and see what happens. You'll be left with a pile of dust.

Playing on their 'hardness' is yet another marketing con that the whole industry has used to try to justify their ridiculous cost.

Diamonds are so over-rated.

...and, if given enough oxygen, a fire will vaporise them. Literally - and not in the sense of the youth today. They'll just turn into carbon dioxide - and the fire doesn't necessarily have to be forge strength. A house fire can be enough, with the right conditions.

 

[ianrobo111]

...and, if given enough oxygen, a fire will vaporise them. Literally - and not in the sense of the youth today. They'll just turn into carbon dioxide - and the fire doesn't necessarily have to be forge strength. A house fire can be enough, with the right conditions.

oh right ... guess it is just the myth about being a woman's best friend etc ...

 

[AndyW]

oh right ... guess it is just the myth about being a woman's best friend etc ...

Definitely a marketing ploy dreamt up around the turn of c20th - I think...as Eartha Kitt used to purr:

"I like the old fashioned flowers, violets are for me
Have them made in diamonds by the man at Tiffany
I want an old fashioned house, with an old fashioned fence
And an old fashioned millionaire"

 

[Marietta]

oh right ... guess it is just the myth about being a woman's best friend etc ...

No Ian, it's not a myth. Most women love good quality diamonds!

 

[AndyW]

No Ian, it's not a myth. Most women love good quality diamonds!

 

[SnowMoon]

No Ian, it's not a myth. Most women love good quality diamonds!

I am definitely not one of the "most". I can take or leave diamonds. I prefer coloured stones. For glittery accents I would prefer decent white zircons - given the choice. Mum loved a diamond - but I don't see the appeal. Maybe I am missing out on something - but it keeps the jewellery bill down (mostly).

 

[stratobuddy]

Who remembers MOISSANITE - - the hype was that even jewellers can't distinguish them from diamond by eye and have to use a special detecting machine?

But on the other hand, they are more sparkling than diamonds.

The 2 statements contradict each other!

BTW I have one.