coolest machine to grade color!!!!!

[liarudd]

SO i brought my diamond to this guy to verify it was what it said it was...

and he put it in this machine with a light (made it look so white and beaufitul)...

closed it and then a digital reading blinked on the screen saying what color it was!!!!!!

LOL I ve never seen anything like it haha im so new....
i always thought theyd put my stone upside down and compare it to master stones lol

 

[oldminer]

The device you saw works to an extent but is not close to the way color is graded for diamonds. Those devices are frequently way off in grading due to several factors that they have not been able to work around. There is one device capable of doing diamond color grading by machine that is not yet in common circulation or use. I expect to see it become more widely available in the coming months and years.

 

[liarudd]

really thats interesting it must be right sometimes then, because it was exactly what my GIA cert said???

 

[Rockdiamond]

They've actually had the technology for quite a few years- but as Oldminer mentioned- it's not reliable enough to be able to depend on.
I'd say it coincides with GIA 40-60% of the time. You were in that group.
I remember a "fight" with GIA one of my employers had back in the early '90s over a 3ct stone.
We were pretty sure it was G- if not, an H.
The colorimeter tested it as a low G ( borderline H).
GIA gave it I color, and reaffirmed this on a re-check

 

[liarudd]

lol thanks so much (i was sure they had been around, i just havent kool facts on it though.... whether it is accurate or not, i think it is a cool concept
Thanks for explaining it to me! much appreciated

 

[Amys Bling]

neat. it seems you were in the minority of times the tool is accurate. That would be really need if an accurate machine was mainstreamed.

 

[liarudd]

ya it would be cool if it was always accurate... i can picture it now a game show: guess the diamond color... lol

 

[oldminer]

There is a machine that is accurate on a large percentage of stones, but due to rather minor inclusions in a small number of stones, or due to certain wavelengths of UV fluorescence, the many different hues of yellow, brown-yellow, greenish yellow, brown, etc of near colorless stones, and especially due to the subjective nature of the way GIA grades with human eyes, this device does not yet correspond in its results 100% of the time to existing GIA grading. However, the device and its hardare and software are undergoing constant improvments because it is now in commercial use and that is how all technology improves. You have to invent and then work to improve it over an extended period of time. Early adopters have to be willing to work with the technology company in order to make such devices a daily reality. We have seen this with cell phones over the past 20 years and we will surely see it with other devices related to diamond grading. A main hurdle is that a diamond color grading machine will not readily be accepted if it cannot give grades to diamonds which mostly match existing GIA grades even when the GIA system is flawed by subjectivity and by a secretive system which is proprietary to the GIA. In all fairness, this is a business reality and not an unfair or unusual situation. However, the trade can, and eventually will, be brought into the 21st Century with a public that increasingly demands and expects objective, accurate, repeatable scientific grading. Diamond color grading in the current form provided by labs is an antique system that has done as good a job as can be expected, but is bound to be vastly tightened up in the coming years by finely tuned technology. Such improvements will not displace gemologists, but will allow them to work on more interesting things than color grading. Those diamonds which remain outside the norm, or have some unusual characteristics like strange UV or problematic hues will continue to be graded subjectively until the improvements of technology address all of those particular types of issues.

I've owned three of the neat colorimeter devices that you saw employed on your stone. I thought "No one can argue with a machine." so I bought them in hopes of making them routine in my lab. The end result is I sold them to others warning them that they are a cool tool, but not up to the job to eliminate the subjective nature of the system as we have it today. They are superb confidence builders when they match a GIA report, but not so good when they don't match.

 

[liarudd]

oldminer! that was such a great read thanks!!! I hope it is like the cell phone and they come up with a perfect machine!! Very interesting to know - as you said when you see a machine you think how could it be wrong that is exactly what I thought as a consumer!!! Awesome insight (thankfully in this case, i had a GIA report and used it for fun)......

 

[denverappraiser]

I have one. It's for sale. Barely used.

I bought it for exactly the same reasons as David, and I hardly use it for the same reasons he doesn't use his. In very narrow circumstances I find it helpful but, in aggregate I bet it gets powered up less than once a month.

I'm actually considering taking it apart and using the sample chamber to make a spectroscope for peeking into the infrared and ultraviolet ranges on colored stones.

 

[Modified Brilliant]

I also have one. It's cool and mid 90's version which is star trekky looking.
It gets used on occasion but any gemologist who would rely soley on any digital colorimeter
is only fooling himself. It's another tool that we have, which can be useful sometimes, but
must be calibrated before using. Interesting topic, though.

 

[liarudd]

it is too bad they cant come up with a model that works with reliability.... my jaw definitely dropped to the floor when i saw what it was and my eyes lit up like it was Christmas morning --- oooo look at the pretty lightsing

If people had a store, and were selling me a diamond (and tested it before and knew it was accurate to the stone i was purchasing of course)... I would oooo and awwww for sure and want to go back to look at it again from that place

i get what people are saying about them not being accurate , but sometimes girls just want some fireworks!!! Maybe set up a cool display in the store so i can play with it or something lol

I should add it to my christmas list..... i bet they are too expensive hehe