Cultured Diamonds

[Emperor_Mike]

Has anyone else heard of this? Apparently, gem quality diamonds can now be manufactured in a lab.

A New Diamond Age (http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/11.09/diamond_pr.html)

[rice cracker]

Anything that destroys the slave drivers of DeBeers and puts an end to the environmental and human disasters that diamond mining causes is great, imo. Not to mention the advancement of technology using these manufactured diamonds, making things more cost efficient and easily produced.

[Faithless]

EM, this could be big for the downfall of the overpriced diamond industry.

Sounds like DeBeers is not happy about it.

http://www.investmentuonline.com/1iutext.cfm?ID=3365

The end result I'd like to see: the acceptance of these stones as better or as good as the real thing. Production with these stones and hopefully a drop in price of those things manufactured with it.

[ChairmanMah]

I think diamonds are gonna end up with little value soon.

and you're gonna see some major bling on people too since now they can afford it.

[teaz0r]

rubies are worth more than diamonds.

[thaite]

last i heard was that lab production of diamonds, though possible, was not economically feasible or practical.

[Faithless]

last i heard was that lab production of diamonds, though possible, was not economically feasible or practical.
Really?

If these diamonds can be manufactured and sold for about $5 to $10, sounds like it's feasable to me.

Is the issue about asthetics or also about commercial usage?

If it's about commercial usage, diamonds are four times harder than the next hardest mineral:

http://geology.about.com/library/bl/blmohsscale.htm

[thaite]

Really?

If these diamonds can be manufactured and sold for about $5 to $10, sounds like it's feasable to me.

No, the issue was that cost to manufacture outweighed the sale price.

Also, consider the fact that the diamond supply is actually at a surplus and are being hoarded by the companies in order to artificially inflate the price. Flooding the market with artificials drops the price, and nobody wants that, eh?

[Kuchana]

rubies are worth more than diamonds.

why's that? never been a fan of diamonds anyways.

i've read that manufactured diamonds are nowhere as valuable as the genuine ones...as of yet.

[ChairmanMah]

i think i saw a tv show and you make the diamonds the same way earth would, with extreme pressure and heat.

correct me if i'm mistaken but to replicate this i think they put carbon in a high pressure hydraulic press and heat it up.

[ChairmanMah]

i bet that right now, there are manufactured ones being sold as real. guaranteed.

[Chester]

No, the issue was that cost to manufacture outweighed the sale price.For the time being, it's uneconomical to produce diamonds for jewelry, but I think it's already currently feasible for industrial uses.

KQED radio's Forum program had a show on these diamonds some months ago -- I'm too lazy to check the archives for the link to the stream, but it was a good show. They discussed the technological outlook for the future, the whole issue of how to name this type of diamond ("cultured"? "manufactured"?), and what DeBeers' response has been to the burgeoning sub-industry.

I agree with Rice Cracker -- anything to undermine DeBeers' near-monopoly is a good thing. Overall, that company -- and, by extension, that industry -- is a fucking racket. I have one friend who, for years, has said that, when the time comes, he absolutely will refuse to give a diamond ring as an engagement ring. His girlfriend can have any other stone, but not a diamond.

"Good luck," we all tell him.

(Oh, also, I'm again too lazy to check, but there was also a long cover-story in Wired on this...within the last half-year. Should be in their web archives.)

[kboy75]

Isn't Moissanite pretty much a diamond too? or is that what we're talking about?

[AltimaGTR]

The article also talks about how the diamonds could be used for computers; now THAT's something to look forward to :)

[rice cracker]

Isn't Moissanite pretty much a diamond too? or is that what we're talking about?

Diamonique. Virtually a diamond, virtually.

[Emperor_Mike]

I don't think De Beers is going to approach this quietly. If things really get hot, they'll get desperate and the solutions will likely cross over into the criminal side of things.

[Chester]

I don't think De Beers is going to approach this quietly. If things really get hot, they'll get desperate and the solutions will likely cross over into the criminal side of things....like sending a bunch of Boer ninjas to attack diamond manufacturing labs?

They'll kick their marketing into overdrive and try to develop cache for their products in opposition to the manufactured diamonds...in a way similar to how they've competed against Russian diamonds.

And while I think their efforts might be futile in the long run, they are the ones who have propagated the whole two-months-salary-for-the-ring rule-of-thumb, virtually ingraining it as orthodoxy.

[AliBabaIncorporated]

I think diamonds are gonna end up with little value soon.
Not sure about that one. DeBeers has plenty of blood money and monopoly power to invest in:

1. Massive advertising campaigns to convince people that cultured diamonds are soulless and just as cheap and classless as cubic zirconia. Not just TV ads, but practices like forcing dealers to make changes to the certificates of authenticity provided with each piece of jewelry so that they HEAVILY emphasize the fact that the diamond therein was mined from the ground and not grown in a lab.

2. Improvements in gemological analysis techniques to separate cultured diamonds from real diamonds (note, for example, the comments in the article that, if nothing else, you can tell them apart because cultured diamonds are "too perfect" to be naturally occuring).

[Emperor_Mike]

...like sending a bunch of Boer ninjas to attack diamond manufacturing labs?

They'll kick their marketing into overdrive and try to develop cache for their products in opposition to the manufactured diamonds...in a way similar to how they've competed against Russian diamonds.

And while I think their efforts might be futile in the long run, they are the ones who have propagated the whole two-months-salary-for-the-ring rule-of-thumb, virtually ingraining it as orthodoxy.

Maybe not ninjas, but since we're talking about a multi-billion dollar industry here I wouldn't be at all surprised if one of these artificial diamond makers ends up with a bullet in the cranium.

[thaite]

why's that? never been a fan of diamonds anyways.

Because rubies are more rare than diamonds.

[ChairmanMah]

if manufactured diamonds are "more perfect" than natural ones, de beers better have a good scam to convince people that natural ones are better.

[Emperor_Mike]

A diamond is forever...

I have to admit that I'm captivated by the stone. There's something so unearthly about a well-cut gem. You really can't help but want one. Blue diamonds, pink diamonds, yellow diamonds...

[Kuchana]

A diamond is forever...

I have to admit that I'm captivated by the stone. There's something so unearthly about a well-cut gem. You really can't help but want one. Blue diamonds, pink diamonds, yellow diamonds...

I must be one of the few in opposite^^ :smile:
Diamonds are not my best friend. Emeralds, rubies, opals, and garnets are :biggrin: hehe

It'll be interesting to see how the diamond industry will be affected by the manufactuerd diamonds though.

[Chester]

Maybe not ninjas, but since we're talking about a multi-billion dollar industry here I wouldn't be at all surprised if one of these artificial diamond makers ends up with a bullet in the cranium.I would.

[Arex]

I sure hope these cultured diamonds catch on. De Beers's monopoly on the market, and their brainwashing of women (and rappers) has been pissing me off for some time now. I think I saw on 20/20 or one of those news shows that the diamond engagement ring is a relatively new phenomenon, starting in something like the 50's or so.

Rather than spend $10k on an artificially priced dirt-diamond, I'd rather spend $2k on the same ring with a cultured diamond and put the remaining $8k towards the downpayment on a car or home for the wifey to be. Now it's just a matter of convincing everyone that that's a perfectly acceptable thing to do.

Repeat after me: If a cultured diamond is an actual diamond that's even purer than a diamond mined out of the ground, then it's a better diamond. Spread the word!

RX