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Where can I buy a colorless "cultured" or "lab-created" diamond?

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prettyinpave

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Hi, everyone. I hope I am not offending by asking this here. I am honestly curious and wonder how they are priced.

Just for clarification, I am not talking about moissanite or CZ''s. These are real diamonds -- with the same chemical make-up -- except that they are grown in a lab instead of in the earth.

I have only found colored lab created diamonds -- anyone know where I can buy colorless ones?

Thank you very much.
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strmrdr

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Im not sure the colorless are available.
Last I heard not enough of them were coming out right to make it worth while messing with.
 

Paul-Antwerp

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There are basically two techniques to produce ''synthetic diamonds''. Please use this wording, because terms like ''cultured diamonds'' are misleading, and deemed illegal in certain countries.

One is the Russian technique, which uses the same machines that are used for HPHT-treatments. Commercially, Gemesis in Florida is the best known user of this technique. The majority of their production is in yellow-orange colours. It seems that they are also capable of producing white rough, but with little to no evidence seen on the market, it is safe to conclude that this is probably a very complicated and expensive exercise.

The other technique is CVD, as developed by Apollo. Their product is a thin layer of rough diamond, and the resulting polished diamond is therefore generally very small (under 0.15 Ct.). Concerning colours, their production has a brownish tint, and in order to get a white final product, an extra HPHT-treatment is necessary. You should remember that the HPHT-treatment will ''burn'' the surface, and polishing that again, will get you an even smaller diamond.

Hope this helped.

Live long,
 

valeria101

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Date: 2/1/2005 8:55:30 AM
Author: crankydave

At this point, colorless 'synthetic' (Courts in Gemany ruled 'cultured' cannot be used as Paul poited out) diamonds are not available.
Is HPHT fading too ? There doesn't seem to be that many around.

Woud those work, prettyinpave ?
 

diagem

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cultured diamonds do not exist, mashine made, or synthetics diamonds are still not worthy, not in their price and not in their quality....


you are better off with the mother nature diamonds...
 

Paul-Antwerp

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Date: 2/1/2005 9:28:17 AM
Author: valeria101

Is HPHT fading too ? There doesn''t seem to be that many around.
Well Valeria,

You have touched a very sensitive topic there.

In rough, it is quite easy to distinguish which stones are Type IIA, and there is even some machine-predictability to what extent one can improve the colour with HPHT. With that in mind, the sellers of rough are not stupid, and they keep those stones separate.

They are then sold at higher prices than their present colour would warrant, because the HPHT-processors can afford to pay more for this.

For honest HPHT-processors, this leaves little extra margin, and they have no interest to increase their activity in a field, where it takes more time to turnover their product.

However, there probably still is a market for less honest HPHT-processors, who sell their product in markets where the consumers are less educated, and they do not ask for reputable grading reports. In other words, I fear that a certain part of HPHT-goods is going underground, and is being sold as untreated.

Examples of such markets are China and Italy. I would not fear too much of being conned in the U.S. The risk of getting caught is much higher. Just be careful if you are thinking about buyin an uncertified marquise or pear-shape of 1 Ct or more. In that case, there is an extra security in a reputable grading report, in a sense that you avoid the small possibility of the stone being HPHT-treated.

Live long,
 

valeria101

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Date: 2/1/2005 11:20:9 AM
Author: Paul-Antwerp

In other words, I fear that a certain part of HPHT-goods is going underground, and is being sold as untreated.

Examples of such markets are China and Italy. I would not fear too much of being conned in the U.S.
Thanks for the insight
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Are all diamonds certified by mianstream labs tested for HPHT ? On colored gem reports one expects a laundry list of ID checks, but there is no such thing on diamond reports and the volume of processing seems daunting...

Can HPHT treatment be done "undergroud" ? It seems rather technologically challenging, but what do I know
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