Blog Diamond Fun Facts to Blow Your Mind

[bcmacdonald]

John Pollard published a new blog post.

What are fun facts?​

Fun facts are pieces of useful information. They're different than nickel knowledge, which is defined as information that's nice to know, but that no one really cares about.

Good fun facts are “edu-tainment” - they stimulate conversation by teaching something interesting. The more fun...

Continue reading the Original Blog Post.

 

[DejaWiz]

Some very cool facts and info - thank you!

 

[John Pollard]

Thanks @DejaWiz .

Curious - did you have answers to the Qs I posed at the end of the post?



Speaking of which - you and others gave great, thoughtful opinions to my last set of questions. I have not forgotten, and do have some follow-up planned. I just wanted to let you know the coals of those conversations remain warm - I appreciate the dialogue.

Cheers.

 

[DejaWiz]

Here ya go, John Pollard !

Have you seen the Dom Pedro Amethyst before?
Never have

Isn’t it awesome?
YES

Do you think flawless diamonds are better than VVS diamonds?
From an enthusiast standpoint, YES.
From a consumer standpoint, NO.

Are diamonds “better” or “worse” due to natural color or clarity differences?
Depends on the goal. I've seen some great and terrible examples of both colored/tinted and colorless diamonds, as well as inclusionless and included diamonds.

Had you heard of the oldest supercontinent Vaalbara before?
Nope, just Pangaea.

Would you name your oldest child Vaalbara?
Thinking about it...might start the paperwork later.

Would people spell their nickname Vaal or Val?
Vaal.

Do you think it would be fun to have a magnetic lab-grown diamond?
Indifferent, but probably pretty cool.

What about a magnetic, fluorescent lab-grown diamond?
Probably wouldn't bother me to have one.

Are owls funny-looking?
Kinda-sorta, yeah!

 

[mwilliamanderson]

Interesting article! Thanks for the fun facts. Looking forward to my next party invitation so I can show off my diamond knowledge. Just kidding, my friends think my diamond is fake because it sparkles too much, lol. They won't believe a word I say.

 

[DejaWiz]

Thanks for the fun facts. Looking forward to my next party invitation so I can show off my diamond knowledge. Just kidding, my friends think my diamond is fake because it sparkles too much, lol. They won't believe a word I say.

Look at this way: it's not your fault that they're so desensitized to their garbage cut diamonds barely worthy of being the prize at the bottom of the cereal box or free with 8 box tops (just pay S&H).

 

[mwilliamanderson]

Lol, it's true. They do know, but they don't want to embarrass their husbands.

 

[John Pollard]

Are diamonds “better” or “worse” due to natural color or clarity differences?
Depends on the goal. I've seen some great and terrible examples of both colored/tinted and colorless diamonds, as well as inclusionless and included diamonds.

I'm tracking with you.

I had the pleasure of appraising a 30.72 carat D FL diamond some years back - it's been my Facebook Cover photo for a long time. It was superbly cut. Not "super" but that whopper was bright, with large enough compound mirrors in primary reflection/refraction that it was "fluid" with spectral colors in normal lighting.

Opposite: I was at a charity event where a lady set down her drink and asked me to evaluate the "10 carat colorless, flawless" diamond on her hand. It looked somewhere between 7-8 carats and had a lot of dark areas, even though we were in a nicely lit room. I get this question sometimes, but I'm not on-duty at parties so my standard social reply is - "The question is, do you love it? It looks beautiful on your finger." It was a good thing that I had that ready. Her husband was paying keen attention to my answer and he might have been former NFL. Or WWF (wrestling, not the wildlife fund).

Had you heard of the oldest supercontinent Vaalbara before?
Nope, just Pangaea.

Would you name your oldest child Vaalbara?
Thinking about it...might start the paperwork later.

Would people spell their nickname Vaal or Val?
Vaal.

I love it.

 

[John Pollard]

Interesting article! Thanks for the fun facts. Looking forward to my next party invitation so I can show off my diamond knowledge. Just kidding, my friends think my diamond is fake because it sparkles too much, lol. They won't believe a word I say.

My pleasure. And you keep on out-sparkling those other folks. What they don't know doesn't take away from what you do know.

It brings to mind one of my pivots at parties. Social consciousness is a big thing for my wife and me. As you can imagine, the topic of conflict diamonds comes up from time to time. Relative to the pre-Pangaea bits in my post - if I can tell the "asker" is looking for an argument, rather than an answer - I tell them I only work with natural diamonds from Vaalbara and Nuna.

 

[oncrutchesrightnow]

I want a magnetic diamond that glows in the dark but that is eye clean. Possible? And if the diamond goes green to yellow then it would be a chameleon. If someone can make a chameleon in a pretty green, that would be cool, too.

 

[AprilBaby]

Great article! Btw John, my best friend knows you from Diamond Gallery Naperville.

 

[RunningwithScissors]

Q: Would you name your oldest child Vaalbara?

A: No.

However, I know someone in real life who named their child Viande. They thought it sounded pretty. They are American and don't speak French. In French, viande means meat, specifically red meat. There are whole categories on French menus titled Viande.

Who's hungry?

 

[RunningwithScissors]

Thanks for the article -- very fun!

I would love to learn more about cut in fancy colored diamonds. Can you give us any generalities about what the cutters do to increase the perception of color? For example, so they cut deep or shallow? Or something else entirely? Are there certain shapes that accentuate color?

 

[PreRaphaelite]

Q: Would you name your oldest child Vaalbara?

A: No.

However, I know someone in real life who named their child Viande. They thought it sounded pretty. They are American and don't speak French. In French, viande means meat, specifically red meat. There are whole categories on French menus titled Viande.

Who's hungry?

That's totally hilarious!

 

[Karl_K]

Thanks for the article -- very fun!

I would love to learn more about cut in fancy colored diamonds. Can you give us any generalities about what the cutters do to increase the perception of color? For example, so they cut deep or shallow? Or something else entirely? Are there certain shapes that accentuate color?

Make the light bounce around in the diamond more so it picks up more color unless the rough is naturally to dark then add leakage.

Crushed ice radiant is the king of bringing out color.

A rough in the hands of an expert in color that could be u-v yellow or even maybe s-t yellow in an RB could possibly be made into a diamond in the fancy yellow range by cutting it into a radiant.

 

[Karl_K]

Have you seen the Dom Pedro Amethyst before? yes
Isn’t it awesome? yes
Do you think flawless diamonds are better than VVS diamonds?no
Are diamonds “better” or “worse” due to natural color or clarity differences? depends
Had you heard of the oldest supercontinent Vaalbara before? yes, that is where Garry is from.
Do you think it would be fun to have a magnetic lab-grown diamond? yes
What about a magnetic, fluorescent lab-grown diamond? yes
Are owls funny-looking?not when compared to buzzards

 

[Ibrakeforpossums]

Opposite: I was at a charity event where a lady set down her drink and asked me to evaluate the "10 carat colorless, flawless" diamond on her hand. It looked somewhere between 7-8 carats and had a lot of dark areas, even though we were in a nicely lit room. I get this question sometimes, but I'm not on-duty at parties so my standard social reply is - "The question is, do you love it? It looks beautiful on your finger." It was a good thing that I had that ready. Her husband was paying keen attention to my answer and he might have been former NFL. Or WWF (wrestling, not the wildlife fund).

Seriously? Where are peoples' manners?
Your wife should keep bear spray in her handbag.

 

[Garry H (Cut Nut)]

Thanks for the article -- very fun!

I would love to learn more about cut in fancy colored diamonds. Can you give us any generalities about what the cutters do to increase the perception of color? For example, so they cut deep or shallow? Or something else entirely? Are there certain shapes that accentuate color?

They increase the number of internal bounces - and usually not with extra facets RWS.
Let me know if this is too technical?

Fancy-Color Diamonds: Better Color Appearance by Optimizing Cut

Oral Prezentation at IV Gemological Symposium, San Diego, Ca, USA 27-30 Aug 2006 Sergey Sivovolenko, OctoNus Software, Moscow, Russia Yuri Shelementiev, Diamond Design, Moscow, Russia Content Col…

www.octonus.com

 

[Garry H (Cut Nut)]

Had you heard of the oldest supercontinent Vaalbara before? yes, that is where Garry is from.

Yep - and a theory is that south America and Africa were joined at the hip and the source of diamonds was from what they floated over.

Do you think it would be fun to have a magnetic lab-grown diamond? yes
What about a magnetic, fluorescent lab-grown diamond? yes

Most LGD's fluoresce rather strongly under shorter wave UV.
All diamonds fluoresce under X rays.
And yes - I have some synthetic pink diamonds that can be picked up by a strong magnet.

 

[Garry H (Cut Nut)]

Age based technicality:
How old is the Dali Lama?
If he is the 14th incarnation then we could say he is many hundreds of years old.
Or we could just say he is 81.

The youngest diamonds on Earth arrived in volcanoes around 20 million years ago. They had been hanging around a few hundred miles down for a billion years.

Age when created or age when born?

 

[RunningwithScissors]

They increase the number of internal bounces - and usually not with extra facets RWS.
Let me know if this is too technical?

Fancy-Color Diamonds: Better Color Appearance by Optimizing Cut

Oral Prezentation at IV Gemological Symposium, San Diego, Ca, USA 27-30 Aug 2006 Sergey Sivovolenko, OctoNus Software, Moscow, Russia Yuri Shelementiev, Diamond Design, Moscow, Russia Content Col…

www.octonus.com

Thank you! Very interesting. I love learning about this stuff.

 

[RunningwithScissors]

Make the light bounce around in the diamond more so it picks up more color unless the rough is naturally to dark then add leakage.

Crushed ice radiant is the king of bringing out color.

A rough in the hands of an expert in color that could be u-v yellow or even maybe s-t yellow in an RB could possibly be made into a diamond in the fancy yellow range by cutting it into a radiant.

Thank you! I do see a lot of crushed ice fancy yellow radiants, now I know why!

 

[John Pollard]

Great article! Btw John, my best friend knows you from Diamond Gallery Naperville.

@AprilBaby that's awesome. I'm trying to guess which of their celebs it might be

I haven't been that way in a long time. What a great local business and good people! Send my regards when you visit with them again!

 

[John Pollard]

Q: Would you name your oldest child Vaalbara?

A: No.

However, I know someone in real life who named their child Viande. They thought it sounded pretty. They are American and don't speak French. In French, viande means meat, specifically red meat. There are whole categories on French menus titled Viande.

Who's hungry?

@RunningwithScissors - that is awesome. I do love the sound of the name. Any idea what the shortened or nickname was?

Thanks for the article -- very fun!

I would love to learn more about cut in fancy colored diamonds. Can you give us any generalities about what the cutters do to increase the perception of color? For example, so they cut deep or shallow? Or something else entirely? Are there certain shapes that accentuate color?

Strategy 1 = more light reflections: The more a ray of light travels inside the material the more it illuminates and helps show the body color present. So it's quite opposite trying to get light in and out as efficiently as possible.

Strategy 2 = windowing: Depending on the color, if you let the light pass through the bottom of the stone it can help show body color.

Obviously strategy 1 is preferable, especially when trying for intense/vivid results. There is a real strategy/art to planning which has been helped immensely in modern days by technology/modeling.

Edited to add: I replied before I saw Karl popped in and @Garry H (Cut Nut) provided some good material with illustrations. It really is fascinating, no?

 

[AprilBaby]

@AprilBaby that's awesome. I'm trying to guess which of their celebs it might be

I haven't been that way in a long time. What a great local business and good people! Send my regards when you visit with them again!

Not Jackie but the other “ older” lady. She says Hi! They sold the store and K opened a new one alone without Jackie. Everyone else is the same.

 

[John Pollard]

Have you seen the Dom Pedro Amethyst before? yes
Isn’t it awesome? yes
Do you think flawless diamonds are better than VVS diamonds?no
Are diamonds “better” or “worse” due to natural color or clarity differences? depends
Had you heard of the oldest supercontinent Vaalbara before? yes, that is where Garry is from.
Do you think it would be fun to have a magnetic lab-grown diamond? yes
What about a magnetic, fluorescent lab-grown diamond? yes
Are owls funny-looking?not when compared to buzzards

Karl, you do understand @Garry H (Cut Nut) is bulletproof on those age-jokes due to #silverfox status, don't you?

I'll set aside the old buzzard comments for now.

 

[John Pollard]

<< Opposite: I was at a charity event where a lady set down her drink and asked me to evaluate the "10 carat colorless, flawless" diamond on her hand. It looked somewhere between 7-8 carats and had a lot of dark areas, even though we were in a nicely lit room. I get this question sometimes, but I'm not on-duty at parties so my standard social reply is - "The question is, do you love it? It looks beautiful on your finger." It was a good thing that I had that ready. Her husband was paying keen attention to my answer and he might have been former NFL. Or WWF (wrestling, not the wildlife fund). >>

Seriously? Where are peoples' manners?
Your wife should keep bear spray in her handbag.

It's funny. When we'd first go out as a married couple she'd tell any and everyone I was an educator in the diamond biz... Bit by bit we learned that comment was a lightning rod. Sometimes for honest inquiries - "Oh, what do you think of..." (honest/harmless) but frequently an opp. to put their S.O. on a funny hot seat, based on what my answer might be... Between that and "Oh honey, here's someone I want you to meet" (followed by the 'dude, really?' look from the S.O.) I've become mostly just her boring sidekick in new situations.

 

[John Pollard]

All diamonds fluoresce under X rays.

@Garry H (Cut Nut) provides the perfect opening for another fun-fact... That's how diamonds get sorted with technology.

Click here for an illustration. Credit: ALROSA.

Note: You can rewind the whole video if you wish for a good illustration of crushing and sorting.

 

[John Pollard]

Not Jackie but the other “ older” lady. She says Hi! They sold the store and K opened a new one alone without Jackie. Everyone else is the same.

@AprilBaby got it Please say HI right back for me.

I have not shucked & jived with K for way too long. That guy always has me in stitches. So glad to know we have friends in common.

 

[Garry H (Cut Nut)]

@Garry H (Cut Nut) provides the perfect opening for another fun-fact... That's how diamonds get sorted with technology.

Click here for an illustration. Credit: ALROSA.

Note: You can rewind the whole video if you wish for a good illustration of crushing and sorting.

Excellent Sir John, But I will see you and raise you one.
This video shows why there are 3 -5 times as many +100ct diamonds being discovered today. Again - it is Xrays - but Xrays through the ore to identify diamonds inside the rock.
If there is a cavity inside the rock - it is likely a diamond - because diamonds are transparent to Xray (as well as the fact that they all fluoresce under Xrays).