Date: 12/29/2006 4:30:26 AM
Author: Lorelei
The other method is lasering, this is suitable for carbon spots or some dark inclusions in the diamond, lasering can make them less noticeable. If I remember rightly, GIA will grade lasered diamonds but not fracture filled.
Technically this is not Clarity Enhancement as the term is used in the trade. CE refers to the fracture filling method. Laser drilling is considered a permanent treatment since it can not be reversed while it is easy to drive the filling out of a stone by using heat etc. (This is usually done unintentionally by some poor benchie who was not informed of the treatment and who did not take a close look at the stone prior to working on the mounting.)
I would also say that the stone will not normally be sold at the cost of the untreated stone, but rather somewhere between the cost of the untreated and the treated. The treatment itself must be paid for, and I would suspect that it might be unusual to find someone who would tell you that the stone was originally an I2. Dealers in these stones are doing it to increase their profits on normally hard to sell items. Pricescope readers here are seldom the type of client who want big and semi splashy, but there are many people out there that buy that material.
Location actually plays a big part in that market. My jeweler friends in the South tell me that they sell a LOT of big, flash for the cash, diamonds, where many other parts of the country quality is more important than size.
I often get surprised though, more than one of my clients has come in with the recipient of a surprise engagement ring to "upgrade" the size while keeping the expense near or at the same. I think it is important for us to remember that what we decree as "true" here on Pricescope is often true for the bulk of Pricescope readers and fans, but not necessarily for the overall jewelry market. Our readership tends to be much more educated about quality issues than many of the jewelers in the marketplace.
I truly wish the market was more in line with the average Pricescope member''s thinking, but the success of all of the Mall type stores and the "stuff" usually sold in the Walmart type jewelry departments tells me that we are still far from the mainstream. I still dream of a world where that type of material is used for industrial purposes as it should be, but on this, my sixtieth birthday I fear that reality is not a lot closer than it was when I vowed to make it so when I was a young GIA graduate at 27.
Wink
