On Reading for Content and How Deceitful Can a Company Be?

I had a young gentleman in the other day asking about a custom engagement ring and he wanted to know if I sold, or would work with, synthetic diamonds in my pieces. For those of you who are regular readers you know that I recently set a synthetic white diamond in a piece and that I have also set synthetic green diamonds made from a pets' ashes. So I told him that I wouldn't sell him a synthetic diamond but I would be happy to set one that he brought to me. I asked him how large of a stone he was thinking of and he mentioned a size that I know to still be pretty much unavailable in white diamonds so I asked him who he was trying to purchase it from. At this point in time there are basically only two synthetic diamonds producers making white synthetic diamonds of any size and the name he mentioned wasn't either one of them. It was an online company that had a pretty splashy page and lots of jewelry on it, but when the guy mentioned the type and size of stone he was looking at on the site, and I went to it the price was ridiculously low for a synthetic diamond. A synthetic diamond takes a lot of energy to produce and the initial investment in the machinery used to produce them is huge so I knew that no one was going to be selling them for these prices.

When I looked a little closer I realized the company actually said they were diamond SIMULANTS not synthetics but it was in and among all of the information that included the fact that they sold synthetic sapphires and other types of gem materials (and when you do a search for synthetic diamonds on line they show up almost immediately). Synthetics, in case you haven't read enough of my articles, duplicate the natural in all physical properties except that they are man made. SIMULANTS are another material altogether that is made to look like the natural stones they are trying to duplicate (cubic zirconia is probably the best known of these). The company also proceeded to talk about their special processes (in this case a supposedly proprietary coating on the surface of the material they were using) that made their simulants "almost as hard" as natural diamonds and that it also made them at least as brilliant as diamonds. They revealed that their coating had, among other things, corundum (i.e. sapphire) in it. They also went on to say that the coating made the stones appearance rival what was considered to be the best color in a diamond, "blue-white" and that it also was fluorescent, thereby creating another "highly valued" characteristic of the "finest" diamonds. I was so disgusted at this point that I couldn't bear to keep reading anymore.

So how many things are wrong with all of these statements? Well first of all, let's talk about hardness. The Mohs hardness scale is a scale of 1 to 10 in which a material from the next higher number can scratch material at any number beneath it. But a stone that is 5 on the scale is not five times harder than a stone that is 1 on the scale. It can just scratch all of the materials below 5. Sapphire is a 9 on the scale. Diamond is a 10 on the scale. But a diamond is actually 140 times harder than a sapphire! So if their coating is made primarily from sapphire material, diamond is still 140 times harder than their coating. That is not "almost as hard". Secondly the use of blue-white as a descriptive term for diamonds was so horrendously misused in the past that the Federal Trade Commission banned its use as a term that can be used in association with diamonds. The stone is either white and assigned a legitimate color grade, or it is a fancy blue color at which point you are dealing with a completely different type of diamond. And third, while some fluorescence is considered acceptable in a diamond, strong fluorescence is considered detrimental and will drive the price down on a diamond. And as if this isn't enough please don't get me started on how coatings never hold up on stones subject to daily wear and tear.

Now I have no problem with jewelers selling synthetic stones or simulants. I understand many people don't have the resources to pay for the real thing but they still want something pretty to wear. But I do have a problem when the company selling the items so horrendously confuses, misrepresents their material and makes statements that are so blatantly wrong in their desire to confuse the customer. There is, IMHO, no excuse for this kind of behavior on the part of these types of companies. But some of it does come down to a customer doing their research and reading carefully for content. While I wouldn't expect most people to know some of the things I have brought here, the use of the term simulated should be a warning flag when you are looking for something you think is synthetic. And if you are looking for something like an engagement ring it doesn't hurt to do a little thorough research first.

The pair of rings at the top are a pair I recently custom made for a couple who renewed their vows to stay engaged for at least another 25 years in my store recently. I love this town! They are made of a base of 18k palladium white gold with 18k yellow gold on top, natural color Umba Valley orange sapphires, diamonds and fancy sapphire accents.

Synthetic Diamonds

What is a synthetic diamond (or any synthetic gem material)? A synthetic diamond is a diamond created by man that has all the same physical and chemical properties of the natural version. This is different than a diamond simulant (something like cubic zirconia) which mimic the look of a diamond, can be man made, but are not actually diamond material.

In the last ten years there has been a lot of talk about synthetic diamonds. It has been possible for quite awhile now to manufacture fancy colored synthetic diamonds in a wide range of sizes. However the quest to manufacture white diamonds has been a lot slower in coming. Creating white diamonds is significantly harder than creating colored diamonds, for a variety of reasons, which usually require a degree in the sciences somewhat beyond mine to explain and understand in detail but I am sure if you are interested in it, a quick online search should yield some results.

Unfortunately a great deal of the talk generated about the availability and the manufacturability of white diamonds was generated by the two companies who seem to be currently in the forefront of production. Both of these companies have made some of the most wildly exaggerated claims about their capabilities and their experiences (one of the owners claimed that agents from deBeers were following him around and had threatened to kill him). They have been saying for years that in just a little while (usually within the upcoming year after whichever conversation they were having) they would be flooding the market with white diamonds of all sizes, especially stones over 1 ct (which is kind of their end goal). Well so far none of that has come true. Are they currently able to produce white diamonds? Well yes but they haven't been able to come anywhere near their claims of the size range they can produce nor of the quantities they can produce.

However I had a customer come in recently who is a scientist and she had decided that she wanted a synthetic white diamond. I won't sell synthetic diamonds (of any color) but I told her I would be happy to make up a ring for her if she was able to procure a stone from one of the two manufacturers. So she went to them and after a little period of time she was able to buy one of the largest stones they had been able to make to date. It was a .65 ct. stone. Not exactly a 1.00 ct. diamond. Not completely white either in my book since it was an "H" color and I only sell "D", "E" and "F" (completely colorless) diamonds. It also, despite the fact that they claimed it was an excellent cut, did not fall into the ideal cut range that I sell.

But here is the most interesting fact. I went to check the pricing against other normal retail prices for like natural goods and it was only about 15% less expensive than a natural stone. Now this is somewhat understandable because it does take a huge amount of heat and pressure (read: energy) to produce these stones. So it isn't exactly a bargain, nor are they exactly dramatically undercutting the pricing of equivalent natural goods.

It also is not, for those of you concerned with environmental damage from diamond mining, a whole lot better for the earth because of the energy used to produce it.

As a gemologist, it is an interesting stone to see and work with. I'm sure that sometime in the future, the companies may actually be able to produce truly top color, larger stones. But for now, I don't think the natural diamond producers have much to worry about.

You should also note that it is possible with the right equipment to identify these stones as synthetics as well. However there have already been numerous incidents of small synthetic fancy colored diamonds being sprinkled into pieces that have some natural fancy colored material. It is becoming ever more important that you buy your jewelry from someone you trust and who has reliable sources.

My next posting will be about pearls. I can't remember if I ever wrote an article about the different varieties but I think it's an important topic so I'll be writing it up in the next week for your reading, and educational, pleasure!

The 18k gold ring picture above has one of my ALL NATURAL diamonds in it.