CLARITY ENHANCED

[dclenden]

For those that know what are the down sides to clarity enhanced diamonds. They are significantly cheaper. Do they look as nice and hold to the standards of the IGS and EGL?

 

[niceice]

A clarity enhanced diamond is one that has quite often been laser drilled, but which has always been fracture filled. Essentially a significant portion of the diamond has been filled with molten glass... So the question is "Is this a real diamond?" and the answer is "well, sort of..."

Some labs will grade them... Others will not because the treatment is not permanent, it can be burned out of the stone with extensive heat. Reputable companies will re-treat their production free of charge if this happens. Yehuda for instance...

They have their place in the market, they make good earrings and such for people who don't mind such things... The important thing as we see it is the disclosure in writing on the sales receipt in clear language that the customer can understand so that they know exactly what they are buying and the risks involved and that such things are not worth as much, nor as desireable as a natural untreated diamond in the open market.

 

[valeria101]

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On 12/18/2003 3:15:24 PM dclenden wrote:

For those that know what are the down sides to clarity enhanced diamonds. They are significantly cheaper. Do they look as nice and hold to the standards of the IGS and EGL?
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Some buyers would think "these are fake", so, obviously, one way to sell these is make them chaper. The 'treatment' (whichever) should no be aparent to the eye itself, but is evident upon magnification (fillin looks like irridescent veils, drilling is much harder to locate as some small, short threads leading from the surface to a shallow depth into the stone). While no substance used for fracture fillin would have the same properties as the diamond itself, it would be completely resistent to wear. All other quality aspects of the stone (the Cs) apply to these stones as well. One may want to pay extra atention to the extent of the enhancement and the overall quality of the stone, since these treatments are often applied to very low quality diamonds that should have rather been used for industrial rather than jewelry purposes. Also, it is quite important to get the stone from a reputable firm, otherwise, alot of strange things go by the name of "enhancement" rather than the rightfu "scam".

There is some rather detailed description of these on the GoodOldGold site. You may want to take a look.