Synthetic Diamonds

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rjhtamu

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What do girls really thinks of these new synthetic diamonds that they are able to make? It sounds like you can get diamonds superior in quality to some that are mined out there for very very cheap, like around $33 per carat. That just sounds ridiculously cheap for diamonds and one of those "too good to be true scenarios." Does anyone on here actually have any experience with these? And hypothetically speaking, if they are as good as they're said to be, is there something traditionally wrong with getting synthetic diamonds opposed to good old fashioned straight ouf of the earth? It's not like diamonds are rare or anything.
 
Do not buy your girlfriend a synthetic diamond instead of a real one. If you do, most likely you will no longer have a girlfriend.
 
rjhtamu said:
What do girls really thinks of these new synthetic diamonds that they are able to make? It sounds like you can get diamonds superior in quality to some that are mined out there for very very cheap, like around $33 per carat. That just sounds ridiculously cheap for diamonds and one of those "too good to be true scenarios." Does anyone on here actually have any experience with these? And hypothetically speaking, if they are as good as they're said to be, is there something traditionally wrong with getting synthetic diamonds opposed to good old fashioned straight ouf of the earth? It's not like diamonds are rare or anything.
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Go to the library and look at the archives of Wired Magazine.. they have like a 8 page story about them.. De Beers isn't too happy with the prospects of these coming to market and have pretty much tried to sabatoge theses businesses.. They also use the dust for diamond sandpaper and cutting tools..
 
As a MD/PhD student I don't make a lot of money so I looked into industrial diamonds as well. I also tried the old cubic zirconia logic of "It looks like a diamond and only we know its fake anyways". I made my wife watch the PBS documentary on "blood diamonds", but I couldn't break her insistence for a diamond ring (the De Beers propaganda is too strong). From what I read, is that industrial diamonds are primarily used for tools. For whatever reason I was told by different gemologists that "gem quality" industrial diamonds cost more to manufacture than naturally mined diamonds. Furthermore, like with naturally occuring diamonds, industrial diamonds can become exponentially more expensive with increasing size so when quoted a price that seems low per carat, ask what size the diamond is; the ratio of $/carat may be misleading. Regardless of my research, my wife wanted a diamond ring so I bought her one and we are happily married. Even though I would of like to buy a cheaper ring and give her the rest of money in a Roth IRA or stocks, I think I made the right decision and bought her exactly the diamond she wanted (cut, clarity, color).
 
As a future physician, I won't give my money to DeBeers. I'll have $200k in debt by the time I'm done, thanks. Anybody's going to die in the course of my spending that much money, it darn well better be a learning experience for me, not just a rock. More to the point, the diamond cartels kill and maim people in the process of getting those things out of the ground, and the miners who aren't injured are still treated fairly horribly. So, for me, it's a question of...

a) Get a diamond from an estate sale/ pawn shop/ other source (where someone else has already paid the "blood money") and/or

b) Marry someone who hasn't bought into the DeBeers propaganda, or at the least has the decency to be aware of and bothered by the realities of the diamond mining business.

I guess c) might be, "check out this synthetic diamond thing." Thanks!

Kudos to the person who had the fiancee watch the documentary; do you remember what it was called and about when it was made?
 
The documentary had blood in the title. It was about a journalist that traveled to the countries that harvested diamonds and he also tried to buy diamonds directly from the miners. He also tried to get a glimpse of the Hope diamond in the diamond districts of the Netherlands and New York. If you look at diamonds in pawn shops just make sure you get it independently evaluated (you can use this evaluation for insurance purposes as well).
 
Don't laugh, but I was actually going to do the synthetic diamond for my engagement ring. I just didn't feel that we needed to spend a lot of money on a ring (when the money could go to more important things) especially since I'm not a big jewelry person. And there are some very good quality "fakes" out there to the naked eye (diamonique and absolut I think are the two). The problem I had was that since the fakes are so much cheaper, they tend to have these "HUGE" stones. Well, come on, if my ring is the equivalent size of a 5 carat stone that is just too obvious.
 
1.75 carat seems to be a decent but tasteful size. At a certain point, anything else is just so much bling.
 
My wife and I didn't get bands. She's really not gonna be able to wear it between, glove on, glove off, glove on, and glove off again. With my luck she'd lose it somwhere alone the way and we would be out the 3k. That money is much better spent on massive student loans.
 
I think the synthetics are totally cool and I would wear one with no problem (and happily take one as a gift from my husband). We're both poor students (he's PhD, I'm MD/PhD), so the DeBeers crap wasn't going to cut it. I have a sapphire ring, which I love. I would have worn a fake diamond (or lab created real diamond) in a heartbeat, but I didn't want a diamond. Dude, EVERYONE has them! Why follow the crowd?

Anyway, I think that the lab-created ones are AWESOME, the synthetics are great, and I'd wear them (even as an e-ring). Heck, Gemesis is even bookmarked on our computer (I like yellows, he hates them). The second they come out with a red lab-created diamond, I'm getting one!
 
The fake diamonds in nice settings that I've seen hold up perfectly in terms of color and clarity - the difference is in the faceting. Particularly in anything over a carat, the difference in faceting shows up right away (close up, under good light). OTOH, its possible to get a beautiful platinum setting for $1000 plus $100 for the rock, with nowhere near as much worry about loss, plus how many see the stone up close?

The DeBeers campaign that other posts refer to doesn't resonate with me one way or the other. I know this campaign is what people think of here. During my two years sharing a taxi as a Peace Corps volunteer in Guinea (border with Sierra Leone), I had men on more than one occasion pull their life savings in raw stones out from under their genitals (preferred storage area) and tell me that if only they could refine the stones themselves, they'd be happy to purchase me on the spot. :idea:

Real stones are never going to go out of style. Buying fakes is a matter of personal preference. The real issue is that Africans don't control the means of refining what comes out of their own earth.
 
If you don't like the look of the lab-created diamonds, there's always moissanite, which is a natural stone, looks very similar to a high quality diamond to the naked eye, and is significantly cheaper.

Also, www.thaigem.com is a gem wholesaler out of Thailand that sells to the public at about 40% of retail, and makes fabulous custom rings. My fianc? had my ring made there, and it cost about a third of a nearly identical ring at the mall (it's not a diamond, though - everyone else has the same ring, and I loathe the politics behind them).
 
drina said:
If you don't like the look of the lab-created diamonds, there's always moissanite, which is a natural stone, looks very similar to a high quality diamond to the naked eye, and is significantly cheaper.

Also, www.thaigem.com is a gem wholesaler out of Thailand that sells to the public at about 40% of retail, and makes fabulous custom rings. My fianc? had my ring made there, and it cost about a third of a nearly identical ring at the mall (it's not a diamond, though - everyone else has the same ring, and I loathe the politics behind them).
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(Drooling over the $11K Alexandrite) I WANT IT!
 
off2skl said:
Don't laugh, but I was actually going to do the synthetic diamond for my engagement ring. I just didn't feel that we needed to spend a lot of money on a ring (when the money could go to more important things) especially since I'm not a big jewelry person. And there are some very good quality "fakes" out there to the naked eye (diamonique and absolut I think are the two). The problem I had was that since the fakes are so much cheaper, they tend to have these "HUGE" stones. Well, come on, if my ring is the equivalent size of a 5 carat stone that is just too obvious.
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CZ's can be easily identified by dropping them in oil...

Usually, diamonds are cut and polished to sparkle.. this has to do with the diffraction co-efficent differences between diamond and air..
if you drop a diamond into oil (vegatable oil).. it sparkles less but still sparkles.. but if you drop a CZ into oil.. it doesn't sparkle at all since the two diffraction co-efficents cause internal diffraction...

so basically.. if you try to fake it.. your wife could one day see this trick used on Home and Garden TV or something... and try it out yourself.. in which case.. lying for years= disaster 😉


*Edit*.. It might be refraction indexes instead of diffraction.. long time since physics class.. i forget but you get the point.. google it if you want..
 
xSTALLiONx said:
so basically.. if you try to fake it.. your wife could one day see this trick used on Home and Garden TV or something... and try it out yourself.. in which case.. lying for years= disaster 😉
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BUT, if your SO is fine with synthetics, lab created, or other stones, I say go for it! Lying is bad, but fake diamonds are not!
 
And I AM the wife. If we had decided on a fake it would have been jointly. And if anyone else were to drop my ring in oil to check it out, frankly, they have bigger issues 🙂
 
Personally, I think the synthetic diamonds are fine, for the time being. I'm sure your significant other will understand that you're a student and don't have a lot to spend on, well, anything at the moment. As long as you are honest and open about the fact that it isn't authentic, and give it to her with the promise to replace it with "the real thing" once you can afford it, since that what she deserves, I don't think she would have a problem.
 
One note: the richest people in the world love synthetic diamonds. They are popular with Hollywood celebrities, Saudi princesses, pop stars, etc. Much of the gems you see worn in public by the wealthy are not 'real'.

If people like R. Kelly and Beyonce wear 'fake' bling, then it isn't it ok for poor people?
 
I mean, how fake are they really? If they are exactly the same except for the number of years it took to make them?
 
I bought my wife a real diamond engagement ring, even though I despised the idea. I liked the idea of a gold and/or platinum band much better, expensively engraved by a master craftsmen.

I'd be ecstatic if diamonds were valued at their true value - a common stone with great industrial uses and potential. Make them valueless, even if it means the $5K sitting on my wife's finger is only worth $50.

Kudos to all the folks aware of the DeBeers marketing machine, blood money, etc. If only word would spread more, maybe diamonds wouldn't be the stone of choice.

DeBeers latest tactic to sell more diamonds? The obligatory diamond righthand ring. You see it prominently featured by celebrities and on reality shows. http://www.sacbee.com/content/business/story/7887166p-8825882c.html

We can cut down DeBeers all that we want, but they are a case study in successful marketing.

If you must buy a diamond, stick with GIA certified for cut/color/clarity. It's the only independent grading. Although the three Cs are clever marketing to drive up value, if you're looking for the sparkle, they make a difference.

I personally bought my wife's ring at overnightdiamonds.com, about 40-50% of retail. They are based out of Ohio. If you live out of state, no sales tax, a big savings 🙂 I had never heard of that jeweler, but thought I would just dispute the credit card charge if it was fake. I did have it appraised for insurance purposes and, yes, it is real.

The diamond article mentioned in Wired magazine can be found online. It talks about the Gemesis yellow diamonds, the DeBeers marketing machine, the use of diamonds as microchips, and more. It's a fantastic read. Give yourself some time, though. It's a lengthy article:
http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/11.09/diamond.html

How inflated are diamond prices? Just try selling one to a jeweler. 😱
 
rjhtamu said:
What do girls really thinks of these new synthetic diamonds that they are able to make? It sounds like you can get diamonds superior in quality to some that are mined out there for very very cheap, like around $33 per carat. That just sounds ridiculously cheap for diamonds and one of those "too good to be true scenarios." Does anyone on here actually have any experience with these? And hypothetically speaking, if they are as good as they're said to be, is there something traditionally wrong with getting synthetic diamonds opposed to good old fashioned straight ouf of the earth? It's not like diamonds are rare or anything.
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PLEASE don't do it!!! if you can't afford a diamond either wait or find another genuine stone she'll love. my mom found a beautiful saphire to put in her ring and she loves the fact that it's different than anyone else's main stream ring *blah!*
 
If your GF agrees on the synthetic/naturally created diamond then go for it. If she doesn't then don't. I wouldn't try to pass it off as the real thing.

There was also an article in national geo last year (march or april 2003) about the diamond industry.

Oh and I think that 1.75ct is huge. Something like that would look ridiculous on my size 4 finger. Not that I think they're bad or anything, but "good sizes" are all relative IYKWIM.
 
Gawd, was it me that said 1.75? I meant 0.75... maybe 0.9 is what I'd do now.
 
I really hope my BF knows that I don't want a large diamond whatsoever ... I don't want him waiting and wating to save up in order to spend all that money on me, and besides, large diamonds look so cheesy to me. I like princess cut solitaires, which with a certain setting look just fine and dainty thank you! PLus I have skinny fingers....

I like Blue Nile (www.bluenile.com), bypasses all the markups by jewelers and stuff and sells the diamond wholesale. The rings I like (yes I admit I "play" when bored sometimes 😳) are only like $1000-$1300. I stay around ~.33 carat, and honestly I would rather have high cut, clarity and color, etc than size- smaller and sparklier vs. big and dull...

I just don't get this spending $3000+ on a ring... why is it more important than the wedding band? The wedding band holds much more symbolism. Plus, as said, how bout you put that money toward a house or a IRA or invest it... it would do you much better in the long run.

Those other options look intriguing. And hey it can be your little secret! 😛

But thats just me.
 
To add,

All the diamond propaganda can be summed up in this commercial.. and yes, i think its by DeBeers.

A couple is in a old piazza/square.. walking hand in hand. the guy walks ahead and yells "I love this woman!!" scattering pigeons all over the place. The woman gets all flustered and tells him to stop. So he turns around and gives her this huge anniversary diamond ring... suddenly the gold-digger- oops- the woman grabs him hugs him and whispers.. "I love this man, I love him I love him..."

😡 Yea... give us all a bad name... we only get all mushy when we get bling bling. 🙄

I would like the yelling he loved me in the square more than a ring. :laugh:
 
What means the most is what the ring represents. I feel that a ring should be reflective of the point in life that you are living currently. Example: My husband and I were married VERY young...we litterally had no money (lol...way less than we have now-is that possible?! 🙄 ) I look at the ring that we bought at that time and remember where we came from and it makes me remember what it's all about. A ring is about committing your life to one another through thick and thin through poor and more poor 😉 Its about your commitment to eachother, not the size of a diamond. Hey, i wish you luck...marriage is a wonderful ride!
 
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