- Joined
- Jul 27, 2004
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- 2,043
Also, there is a talk about how expensive lab created gemstones are. Truth of the matter you can get lab created sapphire and ruby and spinel for a few dollars a carat. Lab created emerald and alexandrite pulled czochralski (real lab alex not cc corundum) for $10 to $20 a carat. These might not be precision cut, but many are cut nicely. Nice enough for the general public. The corundum and spinel are flame fusion and not pulled czochralski which if you want czochralski you pay just a little more for but in the end they are all chemically identical. All are true synthetic corundum and spinel.
The pulled Czochralski material, and hydrothermal is pretty expensive. I don't see how it would be at all possible to sell it cut for $10 or $20 per ct. The rough is in larger pieces that must be saw cut, and a saw cut only cut straight lines, so there is often a lot of waste. I checked my data base and for this material I average 22% yield. At $20 per ct, a cut stone would be sold for less than the rough cost, and you would be paying the customer for the time you spent cutting it.