Fracture Filling Treatments.
How stable is it?
Fracture filling can and does deteriorate over time, and when subjected to different "environments". Prolong time in an untrasonic can deteriorate the treatment.
Fortunately the responsible companies that do the treating will retreat the stone again, but then you have the issue of shipping unsetting, and the expense associated with this that the companies do not warrant.
Fracture filling is most effective for covering up fractures that break the suface of the stone. SO consider that underneath the filling is generally a bad stone. Also consider that the material used for the filling does not have the strength of diamond.
A lot of the quality considerations of a fracture filled diamond is just how bad it was before the treatment.Some are far worse than others.
One should note that the warranties the treaters honor is for the treatment coming out? What is the stone''s fracture expands, and the stone actually breaks. Is that covered in the treater''s warranty?
A related question is Would your insurance company pay the claim due to inherent vice/ pre-existing conditions? Inherent Vice basically says that if it is the nature of the item to break then that coverage might be excluded from your coverage.
Why DO THE MAJOR LABS not grade stones that are Fracture Filled?
Fracture Filling doesn''t make the fracture go away. So even if the stone looks eye clean, the fractures are still there. So how do you grade a stone that could be an I-2 or I-3 which appears like an SI grade, or even a VS grade? Dancing''s analogy of buying a car with a salvage title, is most likely a very succinct analogy of what you''re really getting. Another interesting consideration is that the labs who will grade fracture filled diamonds do not report the amount of fracture filling that was used in the treatment process.
The labs that do the grading, base the clarity grade on how the stone appears AFTER it''s been treated. The price reduction is generally 20-40 percent less than an untreated stone. But does that really represent a good value? On the surface of price comparison it is tempting for those who are looking for a "bargain" - but are they really getting one?
In my opinion, buying a precious diamond, is the consideration of future market perferences for selling it in the future, if you have to. As you can see, from the responses from consumers here on this thread, the desireability of a fracture fillied or treated stone lacks consumer desireability, so potentially re-selling it as compared to an untreated stone would be very difficult. The usual type of consumer that would buy this type of purchase would be an uninformed consumer that was buying price primarilly over the quality consideration. So to summarize this, consumer preference would be a low percentage of preference to this type of diamond.
So with all these negatives, WHY do diamond dealers do this?
Let''s assume a diamond dealer has a highly fractured 10 carat piece of rough diamond. He has to make a decision, of how to get the most out of his investment.
Here in layman''s terms he basically has one of two deicisions to make. 1) Saw the diamond in to clean pieces at the fracture points, and cut several stones that he might have to cut into five or six stones possibly weighing 1/2 carat each....
or
2) Cutting the stone so that fractures reach the surface and fill them.
The resultant weight retention from a 10 carat piece of rough using the first situation might only be 2.50 carats spread over five 1/2 carats stones.
Of he might get a 4-5 carat single stone, if the finished piece was oriented in such a way to bring the fractures open so it could be filled.
Most people cutting diamonds today are experts at getting the most from their investment in the rough. Diamond rough weight retention is at the top of their preferences in deciding how to get the most yield from a diamond, even if you have to "cheat" on the proportioning or treating it..
Cutters that manufacture fine stones, would sell this type of material to someone who is well experienced in cutting fairto poor type quality type diamonds, and not bother with dealing with type of rough.
As to the historical approach to this sort of thing.... years ago this type of material wasn''t even sold or ditributed by De Beers. With the advent of fracture filling, and other treatments these stones which were formerly sold for industrial use have entered the market to be gussied up as gems.
So buying diamonds that most cutters would consider buying for an I-2 or I-3 price and "mazquerading" it to become an SI or VS could be very lucrative. The lion''s share of the income from this not being passed on in full to the consumer, but instead put in the dealer''s pocket who takes on these "high risk" type stones.
While this is not a complete writing on the suject, I hope those who do take the time to have read this, are better informed with WHY these items are sold and offered to consumers. As a sort of "judge" of those issues, thiese are my opinions based on the above, and I hope those reading it will better understand the surrounding issues.
Rockdoc
Rockdoc
How stable is it?
Fracture filling can and does deteriorate over time, and when subjected to different "environments". Prolong time in an untrasonic can deteriorate the treatment.
Fortunately the responsible companies that do the treating will retreat the stone again, but then you have the issue of shipping unsetting, and the expense associated with this that the companies do not warrant.
Fracture filling is most effective for covering up fractures that break the suface of the stone. SO consider that underneath the filling is generally a bad stone. Also consider that the material used for the filling does not have the strength of diamond.
A lot of the quality considerations of a fracture filled diamond is just how bad it was before the treatment.Some are far worse than others.
One should note that the warranties the treaters honor is for the treatment coming out? What is the stone''s fracture expands, and the stone actually breaks. Is that covered in the treater''s warranty?
A related question is Would your insurance company pay the claim due to inherent vice/ pre-existing conditions? Inherent Vice basically says that if it is the nature of the item to break then that coverage might be excluded from your coverage.
Why DO THE MAJOR LABS not grade stones that are Fracture Filled?
Fracture Filling doesn''t make the fracture go away. So even if the stone looks eye clean, the fractures are still there. So how do you grade a stone that could be an I-2 or I-3 which appears like an SI grade, or even a VS grade? Dancing''s analogy of buying a car with a salvage title, is most likely a very succinct analogy of what you''re really getting. Another interesting consideration is that the labs who will grade fracture filled diamonds do not report the amount of fracture filling that was used in the treatment process.
The labs that do the grading, base the clarity grade on how the stone appears AFTER it''s been treated. The price reduction is generally 20-40 percent less than an untreated stone. But does that really represent a good value? On the surface of price comparison it is tempting for those who are looking for a "bargain" - but are they really getting one?
In my opinion, buying a precious diamond, is the consideration of future market perferences for selling it in the future, if you have to. As you can see, from the responses from consumers here on this thread, the desireability of a fracture fillied or treated stone lacks consumer desireability, so potentially re-selling it as compared to an untreated stone would be very difficult. The usual type of consumer that would buy this type of purchase would be an uninformed consumer that was buying price primarilly over the quality consideration. So to summarize this, consumer preference would be a low percentage of preference to this type of diamond.
So with all these negatives, WHY do diamond dealers do this?
Let''s assume a diamond dealer has a highly fractured 10 carat piece of rough diamond. He has to make a decision, of how to get the most out of his investment.
Here in layman''s terms he basically has one of two deicisions to make. 1) Saw the diamond in to clean pieces at the fracture points, and cut several stones that he might have to cut into five or six stones possibly weighing 1/2 carat each....
or
2) Cutting the stone so that fractures reach the surface and fill them.
The resultant weight retention from a 10 carat piece of rough using the first situation might only be 2.50 carats spread over five 1/2 carats stones.
Of he might get a 4-5 carat single stone, if the finished piece was oriented in such a way to bring the fractures open so it could be filled.
Most people cutting diamonds today are experts at getting the most from their investment in the rough. Diamond rough weight retention is at the top of their preferences in deciding how to get the most yield from a diamond, even if you have to "cheat" on the proportioning or treating it..
Cutters that manufacture fine stones, would sell this type of material to someone who is well experienced in cutting fairto poor type quality type diamonds, and not bother with dealing with type of rough.
As to the historical approach to this sort of thing.... years ago this type of material wasn''t even sold or ditributed by De Beers. With the advent of fracture filling, and other treatments these stones which were formerly sold for industrial use have entered the market to be gussied up as gems.
So buying diamonds that most cutters would consider buying for an I-2 or I-3 price and "mazquerading" it to become an SI or VS could be very lucrative. The lion''s share of the income from this not being passed on in full to the consumer, but instead put in the dealer''s pocket who takes on these "high risk" type stones.
While this is not a complete writing on the suject, I hope those who do take the time to have read this, are better informed with WHY these items are sold and offered to consumers. As a sort of "judge" of those issues, thiese are my opinions based on the above, and I hope those reading it will better understand the surrounding issues.
Rockdoc
Rockdoc
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