How strong is a diamond, Chips, scratched

[cmelb]

Just curious to know how strong a diamond is, how much force would be required for a jeweler who is setting the diamond on a band need to apply to chip the diamond?

Also how can a diamond be scratched?

Question, if you dropped a loose diamond on concrete would it chip or get scratched?

 

[Garry H (Cut Nut)]

Date: 5/25/2006 4:53:22 AM
Author:cmelb

Just curious to know how strong a diamond is, how much force would be required for a jeweler who is setting the diamond on a band need to apply to chip the diamond?It is virtually impossible to crush a diamond in certain directions - but in other directions a small sharp blow can cleave or chip the stone

Also how can a diamond be scratched? only by another diamond - we see 200 year old diamonds with small chips around the girdle if they have thin parts - but never a single scratch unless they have been worn on a finger where another ring has been able to rup its edge on the top of the diamond.

Question, if you dropped a loose diamond on concrete would it chip or get scratched? Very very unlikely - most diamonds are chipped by a setter pushing a sharp bit of prong or setting onto the point of a princess - or slipping off a prong and bashing the girdle. OR - when 2 diamonds are set too close to each other (common in bands) and one stone chips the other

 

[diagem]

Date: 5/25/2006 4:53:22 AM
Author:cmelb

Just curious to know how strong a diamond is, how much force would be required for a jeweler who is setting the diamond on a band need to apply to chip the diamond?

Also how can a diamond be scratched?

Question, if you dropped a loose diamond on concrete would it chip or get scratched?

A diamond is the hardest substance on earth, but that does not mean it is unbreakable. Tales from historic times tell that a means to check if a diamond was a diamond, they would hit the crystal with a strong blow..., if it broke it was not a diamond, if it survived it was a genuine diamond..., imagine howmany fine diamond rough crystals were destroyed in this process.

A jeweler can chip a diamond quite easily if he applies more than reasoonable force on a diamond with extra thin (knife-edge) girdles... so watch-out!!!

Since diamonds have weak-points, when droped on concrete, there are some odds (Very Rarely) that it can chip (good senario) and worst off it can split into two or more pieces... (by the way, i have witnessed it once in the past!!!!)

 

[cmelb]

That''s scary to know that a diamond if dropped onto concrete it can chip or split into two or more pieces.

The reason I ask this is, when a diamond is set on a ring and lets say you place the ring on a table and it falls off the table and the worse onto conrete is what can happen to the diamond.

DiaGem The diamond that you witnessed that split into two pieces was that a loose diamond and was it thrown or droped onto the concrete??

 

[diagem]

Date: 5/25/2006 7:12:17 AM
Author: cmelb
That''s scary to know that a diamond if dropped onto concrete it can chip or split into two or more pieces.

The reason I ask this is, when a diamond is set on a ring and lets say you place the ring on a table and it falls off the table and the worse onto conrete is what can happen to the diamond.

DiaGem The diamond that you witnessed that split into two pieces was that a loose diamond and was it thrown or droped onto the concrete??

Relax..., it happens very, very rarely....

No, the diamond i witnessed droped from a "dop" (a tool that is used to hold a diamond while going through the cutting procedure) onto a metal based table...
The diamond was super-hot at that time, and could have helped the cleaving of it since it droped on a "cold and hard" surface...

But yes, if the diamond has a knife edge girdle covered with a prong, and it drops accidently and lands on the prong itself...., there are chances it will chip on that same spot...

But again, these things are extreemly rare!!!!!

 

[cmelb]

How thin is knife edge girdle covered with a prong, as I have a Asscher that has a Medium Girdle that will be set in a prong.

I also noticed that there are different types of prongs like 2 small prongs on each corner, are these safer then the one thicker prong on each corner.

 

[diagem]

medium girdle on a straight edge shape..., no worries...., youre safe by all means

 

[kenny]

I think the only way a diamond gets "thrown" onto concrete is when the wife walks up to a car and catches her her hubby in the back seat with another woman.

 

[Capitol Bill]

This thread reminds me of a funny (but true) story.

A jeweler friend of mine had a very upset customer come in with a badly damaged engagement ring -- a round brilliant in a Tiffany-style, six-prong setting. The prongs were bent and mangled and just barely managed to hang onto the stone. The jeweler asked, "What happened?"

The woman explained that she was looking at her diamond from the side and noticed a crack across the middle. (She didn''t realize that this was just the girdle reflection in the pavilion.) The woman called her insurance company and they explained that the "crack" might have been a pre-existing condition and that she should take the ring to a jeweler to assess the condition.

Now this woman is completely distraught and doesn''t want to face the prospect of her insurance company denying her claim because of a pre-existing condition (this goes to show the importance of a good appraisal).

Anyway, now to the good part: The woman decides that she just can''t live with the prospect of wearing a cracked diamond. So she proceeds to repeatedly smash her ring against the tile floor of her bathroom to force the "crack" to split the stone in two.

Exhausted and exasperated after numerous attempts, the woman finally decides to take her ring to the jeweler for an assessment.

It turns out that while the ring had to be totally rebuilt, the diamond was completely intact and undamaged (not even a chip!). The woman ended up paying for a new ring and learning an expensive lesson about girdle reflections.

Bill Scherlag

 

[asscherisme]

Oh my gosh Bill, that story is really funny. That woman sounds a bit neurotic at best. Wow. have never heard of such a thing! And if she DID suceed in damaging the stone I''m thinking that may have been insurance fraud by purposely damaging her ring and filing a claim. IN the same way that burning down your house for a insurance payment is fraud as well. Wow.