Hi everyone,
This will be a long one. I appreciate anyone who tries helping even if it may not end with leads. My partner and I have been consistently searching for my diamond since September 2021, with months of research into what we wanted before that. We’re both well-versed in diamonds (or up until now we thought).
*Not using James Allen or Blue Nile
DIAMOND: 4.1-4.9ct natural Canadian mined Emerald. F-H colour, VVS1-VS1, no fluorescence, l/w ratio of 1.45-1.5.
PROBLEM: We are Canadians living in NYC. I want a Canadian mined diamond that will remain there or the US for the entire cutting and polishing process. We are not interested in our diamond being sent overseas. With Canada being one of the top mining countries in the world, we have been surprised at how difficult it’s been to find the right contacts to lead us in this direction.
Before anyone jumps on the opportunity to say all Canadian diamonds end up overseas at some point and cannot be traced back to the mine, that isn’t true. We have heard it also from some, but have also had conversations that say it is possible. See below.
Over the past four months we have met with jewelers, dealers (De Beers affiliated), sight-holders in the NYC diamond district, ongoing communications with Crossworks and the wholesaling company who holds the sole contract of a large Canadian mine, and finally email consistently the creative director of product development for a company who recently opened a Canadian cutting factory.
QUESTION 1: With all of this said, does anybody know of a process I'm not aware of to keep Canadian diamonds local? The options presented to us so far have been:
1. Put a (significant) non-refundable deposit down on a rough diamond they they will custom cut to our specs, which we are not opposed to, but know how important seeing the diamond with your own eye is; the affiliated paperwork isn’t the most important. We feel it is a huge risk to place trust into cutters and polishers and should it not turn out how we envisioned, we lose 30% of the cost of the diamond. We would prefer to see diamonds already cut and polished.
2. The diamond wholesaling company who holds contract of large Canadian mine contacted me with a beautiful stone that specs weren’t exact and offered to cut that one into what I wanted, but for a large fee. Similar to option 1. This company has told me they do cut and polish overseas.
3. Dealer in New York says he works with Canadian diamonds all the time, and will happily bring options in for us as he works with Crossworks, but isn’t able to guarantee if the stone left North America, and due to Canada’s c-r-a-z-y export taxes- does not work with rough stones.
QUESTION 2: Does anyone know any gemologists, dealers, jewelers, sight-holders, wholesalers, anyone(!!!), who we can email and perhaps take our search a different direction? We are patient and will wait for the right stone. We simply don’t feel like we’re contacting all of the right people for this request.
We know emeralds of larger carat sizes are incredibly hard to come by in Canada, but we have been sent one even larger than our specs, and could have it polished down if we wanted (refer back to option 1- not cut in Canada). We have also seen two others in the 3.5 carat range from DD dealer he is just not able to confirm whether it went overseas.
If you made it this far- thank you for any and all help. I will always try my best to lead anyone in the right direction if others have these kinds of questions as well.
This will be a long one. I appreciate anyone who tries helping even if it may not end with leads. My partner and I have been consistently searching for my diamond since September 2021, with months of research into what we wanted before that. We’re both well-versed in diamonds (or up until now we thought).
*Not using James Allen or Blue Nile
DIAMOND: 4.1-4.9ct natural Canadian mined Emerald. F-H colour, VVS1-VS1, no fluorescence, l/w ratio of 1.45-1.5.
PROBLEM: We are Canadians living in NYC. I want a Canadian mined diamond that will remain there or the US for the entire cutting and polishing process. We are not interested in our diamond being sent overseas. With Canada being one of the top mining countries in the world, we have been surprised at how difficult it’s been to find the right contacts to lead us in this direction.
Before anyone jumps on the opportunity to say all Canadian diamonds end up overseas at some point and cannot be traced back to the mine, that isn’t true. We have heard it also from some, but have also had conversations that say it is possible. See below.
Over the past four months we have met with jewelers, dealers (De Beers affiliated), sight-holders in the NYC diamond district, ongoing communications with Crossworks and the wholesaling company who holds the sole contract of a large Canadian mine, and finally email consistently the creative director of product development for a company who recently opened a Canadian cutting factory.
QUESTION 1: With all of this said, does anybody know of a process I'm not aware of to keep Canadian diamonds local? The options presented to us so far have been:
1. Put a (significant) non-refundable deposit down on a rough diamond they they will custom cut to our specs, which we are not opposed to, but know how important seeing the diamond with your own eye is; the affiliated paperwork isn’t the most important. We feel it is a huge risk to place trust into cutters and polishers and should it not turn out how we envisioned, we lose 30% of the cost of the diamond. We would prefer to see diamonds already cut and polished.
2. The diamond wholesaling company who holds contract of large Canadian mine contacted me with a beautiful stone that specs weren’t exact and offered to cut that one into what I wanted, but for a large fee. Similar to option 1. This company has told me they do cut and polish overseas.
3. Dealer in New York says he works with Canadian diamonds all the time, and will happily bring options in for us as he works with Crossworks, but isn’t able to guarantee if the stone left North America, and due to Canada’s c-r-a-z-y export taxes- does not work with rough stones.
QUESTION 2: Does anyone know any gemologists, dealers, jewelers, sight-holders, wholesalers, anyone(!!!), who we can email and perhaps take our search a different direction? We are patient and will wait for the right stone. We simply don’t feel like we’re contacting all of the right people for this request.
We know emeralds of larger carat sizes are incredibly hard to come by in Canada, but we have been sent one even larger than our specs, and could have it polished down if we wanted (refer back to option 1- not cut in Canada). We have also seen two others in the 3.5 carat range from DD dealer he is just not able to confirm whether it went overseas.
If you made it this far- thank you for any and all help. I will always try my best to lead anyone in the right direction if others have these kinds of questions as well.
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