On Sun, October 7, 2007 10:29 pm, Robert Donovan wrote: > On 10/6/07, Lan Barnes <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: >> I've read in authoritive sources that current synthetic diamond >> processes >> can now make gem quality stones to remarkable sizes. Also, that the >> process is in no way controlled by the diamond cartel. >> >> So this is not a good time to be "investing" in diamonds, or indeed, in >> gem stones in general. (I bought a "Chatham emerald" for my first wife's >> engagement ring over 30 years ago. The jeweler said a pro could spot a >> Chatham as synthetic because it has _fewer_ flaws than a natural stone. >> It >> was a glorious stone and I could have cared less that it was pressed in >> a >> factory and not a mountain in India.) >> >> And maybe when diamonds inevitably collapse in price, we'll get those >> heat >> sinks. >> > According to Gemesis, one of the leading cultured diamond producers, > their stones, can still be told apart from the natural article by > professional diamond graders via photoluminescence and cathode > luminescence analyses. It seems they give off a different flourescence > signature than the natural stones and exhibit a double refraction due > to the type of strain placed on the crystal when it is made. It is > telling that the standard gemological tests show them to be > indistiguishable from the typeII natural diamonds, so much so that > they laser inscribe their diamonds and add a bit of nickel to them to > make the identification easier. I'd bet that these folks could make a > reasonably priced diamond heat sink, given that the quality of the > diamonds needn't be gem quality. > > One way to make diamond prices go down is simply for all diamond > miners to refuse to sell to DeBeers. Daimonds are not actually that > rare a stone. DeBeers just buys every last one it can get their hands > on to withhold them from the market. Of course, convincing the likes > of the RUF to do that is a pipe dream. > > Robert Donovan >
Let me make clear what I was saying. I don't give a rat's patootie about diamond prices in jewelry. deBeers can keep right on truckin' for all of me. What I was saying was, synthetic diamonds are NOW being made in gem quality, and that should make "investing" in diamonds (i.e., buying them in the hope that their value will increase or at least hold its own) foolish. As for being able to tell the difference, again, IDGAS. In jewelry, the whole point is the beauty of the stone, unless you get off on the thought that a preadolescent African was abused and starved to mine it. Ask me how I feel aboyr Rolex watches ... -- Lan Barnes SCM Analyst Linux Guy Tcl/Tk Enthusiast Biodiesel Brewer -- [email protected] http://www.kernel-panic.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/kplug-list
