Diamond appreciation thread

[Bloodysquirellls]

Who loves diamonds!!

Honestly I love them. They are SO beautiful.

My favourite type of diamond is a firey one.

My own is titchy. 0.2 carats. But my god it’s a firecracker. A sparky little rainbow on my finger 🧨

Besides my own children.. I do think good diamonds are the most beautiful thing on earth.

Tell me about your favourite diamonds?

Seen in a local jewellers a few weeks ago. No price shown......😯

I love diamonds too, but my favourite gem stone is tanzanite - just such a beautiful blue colour 💕❤️ … I wouldn’t say no to tanzanite and diamond jewellery of course!

I should think you'd need a second mortgage for that!

If it's a 'POA' piece I know it's going to be out of my budget - 'if you have to ask, you can't afford it' is true for me.

Oh, ok
my experience is mainly with dealers/wholesalers/shops buying new and there is a significant reduction in price. Its not unheard of for people to sell a diamond to the end customer at less than what they paid trade price, if theyve had it more than a year.

I have a diamond eternity ring with old cut rose diamonds. It’s 166 years old. It glows beautifully.

My engagement ring is a lovely grade AA tanzanite 😍

@Anonmousse I don’t doubt that but look at the price of the best jewellery pieces at auction from the top jewellery houses and you will see price rises!

Wow! That sounds amazing. Imagine the history in your finger

oooooo … can I see a pic ? I’m asking DH for a tanzanite ring for our anniversary 💕❤️

Diamond hands.

Anyhow, diamonds are pretty. They aren't forever though as they are not the most stable allotrope of carbon (which is graphite).

Your bog standard cooking diamonds that most people have aren't really worth that much. You pay a massive premium for them when you buy new.

Big ones, well cut and flawless and special colours are where it's at, but they cost a fortune.

@GasPanic I rather suspect no one posting here has that sort of money! I have several really nice diamonds but not coloured or flawless as I would never be able to afford them, even when the diamonds are 100 years old! I’ve seen the Hope Diamond and several whoppers in the Cartier exhibition last year but I also know how much you have to pay to get one!

Well you haven’t seen mine. Titchy by diamond standards but it’s a beauty. 😂

yes hang on

i've got a crappy old phone so this is the best i can do lol

DH bought the main stone separately and had the ring made up with 2 little diamonds 🥰

i bought moissanite earrings, expecting sparkle and fire- they just look like flat glass, very disappointed

@Laiste- beautiful colour 💕💕💕⭐️🤩

I know someone who had a moissanite engagement ring.
There was a pink tinge to it. I knew it wasn’t a diamond.
I was looking at diamond rings in an upmarket jewellers’s window in an indoor shopping centre recently and thought “Oh ! those diamonds look different.”under the strong lights the rainbow colours were quite visible. Then I saw a little sign that said Laboratory diamonds.
I think I can tell the difference- certainly under bright light.
A friend got a big, new diamond ring and I am convinced the diamonds are lab grown but would never ask.

diamond structure is stronger due to each carbon atom being covalently bonded to another three carbon atoms, but graphite is more thermodynamically stable. The carbon atoms in graphite are only connected to three other ones which means that there is an electron that “floats” between the layers and so the layers can bre separated, hence the marks that a pencil makes on paper. Source - materials science courses when I was training and also DD2 being a chemistry undergrad 🥰

anyway, my favourite diamonds are the antique ones in the ring I bought myself when I got promoted which is 105 years old ans still gorgeous ans sparkly. Then the lab created ones in my tennis bracelet and the moisonnite in another ring I wear and the studs in my second piercing.

Diamonds are actually quite brittle, drop one on a hard floor and if you are unlucky they can chip or even shatter.

All moissanite is not created equal and if you buy from Etsy or similar you may be getting a low grade stone or something that is not moissanite at all...

As for synthetic diamonds, the larger ones are often laser engraved with a serial number so that they can be distinguished from natural. They can also be distinguished by their lack of inclusions - a large natural diamond with no flaws or inclusions is going to be a very valuable stone indeed.

I usually assume large very high spec diamonds are LG, but we had one today, A 3.02ct that was a mined diamond. Anything that size and bigger is mostly lab grown

Unless theyre under uv light, its pretty difficult to tell LG from mined diamonds. Most jewellers have a tester which detects traces of nitrogen (found in mined diamonds)

I was heading up the LG industry globally and there is no way of discerning with the naked eye mined
vs LG. You need very specialist x ray equipment and training.

Spot on

I would like a ring, I would like a ring
I would like a diamond ring on my wedding finger
I would like a big and shiny diamond
That I could wave around and talk and talk about it

Is there any possibility that under strong artificial light you can tell the difference between mined diamonds and laboratory made diamonds ?