Diamond Scratched Diamond?

[sugarplum]

how easy is it for a diamond to get scratched by another diamond? my sister was looking at loose stones and held a stone (secured with tweezers) above her engagement ring to check out the size difference and she felt the two stones make contact. she said the culet of the loose stone may have grazed/rubbed her ering diamond as she was positioning the loose stone above her ering. she freaked out and thought she saw scratches on her diamond with a loupe (her ring was just cleaned so we don''t think it was dirt or lint) but after cleaning it again and checking it out muliple times, she didn''t see anything abnormal.

would it be unlikely for a diamond to scratch another diamond that way? or are diamonds very easily scratched by other diamonds and a light graze or rub will result in scratches? maybe she did see scratches but they''re so light/minor that they''re hard to find even with a loupe?

 

[stone-cold11]

Err... that is how they cut diamonds in the old days, with other diamonds. So I would say it is possible to scratch diamonds with diamonds but also depends on the force applied at the contact. A light contact is unlikely to cause damage.

 

[sugarplum]

yeah, i''m wonderding how much force/pressure needs to be applied for a diamond to scratch up another diamond.

 

[musey]

I could be wrong, but I don''t think it takes much. I have read on PS in the past that just storing diamonds loosely together (like in a jewelry bag) can lead to scratching.

 

[strmrdr]

doing this you would be more likely to break the culet of the top diamond before scratching the bottom one in my opinion but stranger things have happened.

 

[sugarplum]

do you think it''s possible my sister''s stone could have survived the contact unscathed? she and i have louped the stone and don''t see any scratches...i''m wondering how obvious they''d be though from grazing.

 

[coatimundi_org]

If you loupe it in reflected light and don''t see scratches, you''re probably fine.

 

[strmrdr]

Date: 2/18/2009 8:01:20 PM
Author: coatimundi
If you loupe it in reflected light and don''t see scratches, you''re probably fine.

ditto

 

[Circe]

I''d bet she just saw a tiny bit of oil/dirt atop the stone: even if it had just been cleaned, it''s quite possible for it to have brushed against her finger on her hand. If you don''t see anything under the loupe with sustained viewing, don''t fret yourselves. Next time, you''ll be extra-cautious, but, honestly, it doesn''t sound like it was a huge risk to start with.

 

[Lorelei]

Date: 2/18/2009 11:01:41 PM
Author: strmrdr

Date: 2/18/2009 8:01:20 PM
Author: coatimundi
If you loupe it in reflected light and don''t see scratches, you''re probably fine.

ditto

Thritto

 

[Garry H (Cut Nut)]

On the table of a diamond there are generally 4 defined directions you can scratch a diamond and 4 where it is next to impossible (= less than 50% chance) but the same probability applies to the culet - it has soft and hard directions.

So eve if you tried very hard and pushed very hard - there is about 1:10 chance you could achieve a scratch if you wanted to

 

[sugarplum]

thanks everyone. that''ll help ease her mind! there wasn''t any hard contact/pushing so if it''s a 1:10 chance with doing that then i''m pretty sure her diamond didn''t get scratched up by some light grazing/rubbing.

she was saying " it can''t be thaaat easy to scratch right??" poor thing was having a panic attack. i can''t say much though because i''d be just as frantic if i though my diamond got scratched up! will loupe (10x) again in reflected light.

if we put the ring under a microscope and don''t see any scratches, we can be pretty darn sure there aren''t any right?

garry- just curious, which directions would those be? is there a higher probabilty of scratching up the crown/kite facets?

 

[cofor]

The "soft" and "hard" directions in a cut diamond depends on what type of crystal was used to start with, how it is oriented and if it is twinned or not. Assuming a untwinned octahedron has been used to produce a round brilliant four of the bezels and four of the pavillion mains are the "softest" if you scratch sideways and not in a up-down" way.
I have bruted rough by hand. That is when you have one diamond as "grinder" acting on another to preform rough. That is hard work with quite high amount of pressure put on the pieces. Scratching the table facet of a mounted stone by letting the culet from a second diamond rest on top of it is most unlikely. Unless the mounted stone is for instance a CZ or other simulant which I assume it was not in this case.

Conny

 

[sugarplum]

thanks conny. i''ll tell my sister she can relax. there was definitely contact between the two stones as they briefly brushed against each other back and forth (she was trying to position/steady the loose stone above her ering) but she didn''t exert any extreme force or pressure so by the info on this thread and not seeing any scratches through a 10x loupe, i think it''s safe to say her stone was unharmed.