Diamonds Designers

Wholesale Diamonds

When I was a kid my parents used to shop at Costco’s all the time. Costco’s was this huge warehouse of everything you could think of packaged in Paul Bunyan’s overweight second cousin sized containers. You’d stock up your shopping cart as if you were doing a last minute hording for the approaching Armageddon, and the trick was, if you bought food, to finish it all before everything went bad. It never worked unless you were mormon and had 7 wives and 48 kids to feed. Otherwise you ended up with a lot of compost. Costco’s was buying wholesale. 

But what about wholesale diamonds? Is there a giant Costco’s for wholesale diamonds? They don’t exactly go bad as fast as food does, though they do spontaneously turn into graphite at a rate so slow that the universe will recontract by the time you notice it, so why would someone have to sell wholesale diamonds in the first place? The term “wholesale” in wholesale diamonds simply means who’s selling to whom. 

Back in the day when there was no internet, not everybody could sit down in front a screen and talk to, well, anybody. So not everyone knew the people who controlled the wholesale diamond mines from some mine in Zimbabwe.  So what happened in wholesale diamond land was thusly thus. Bob Wholesale Diamond Guy had a huge load of diamonds from Mt. Vulcanosuvius in Zimbabwe.  These were way too many to use in jewelry for himself, even if Bob had theoretically been married and divorced 27 times and needed lots of diamond engagement rings, and he doesn’t know everybody and doesn’t want to invest in store infrastructure. So he’d make a call to Mr. Retailer and say something like, “Hey, you have a store, right? I have all these diamonds. Can you buy them off me wholesale?” Mr. Retailer would say sure, sell them at twice the price he got it from Bob Wholesale Diamond Guy, and buy body-heat activated deodorant off the profit margins. 

Today, because of the internet, Bob Wholesale Diamond Guy can just announce that he has a whole bunch of wholesale diamonds from Mt. Vulcanosuvius in Zimbabwe and he’s selling them at such and such, whether bulk or singularly. This eliminates Mr. Retailer. 

So theoretically, yes, there are wholesale diamonds. But the only way to figure out if you’re really getting wholesale diamondprices is if you compare what you see on the net to what you see at your local jewelers who doesn’t own Mt. Vulcanosuvius and only buys wholesale diamonds off of Bob Wholesale Diamond Guy. If they prices are the same, you win. If they’re not, you’re being played.

Cheap Diamonds

If you’re like me or my wife, you get a kick out of doing exactly the opposite of everyone else and then doing your best to make it look really cool. Psychologically, it can be described as a severe overreaction to being excessively dorky as a kid and wanting to reject trends entirely, due to prolonged social isolation in high school. It’s also called “peacocking” amongst the pickup artists. The objective is to wear something ludicrous and be completely secure in it and that way use the strength of your personality to attract others. Today, let’s talk about peacocking with excessively cheap diamonds, otherwise known asindustrial grade abrasive cheap diamond bort.

Bort is essentially the cheap diamond garbage of the diamond industry. Since not every stone can be perfectly formed, some diamond crystal material is so malformed and twisted and cracked that it is unusable for jewelry, and therefore, these cheap diamonds are used only for industrial purposes. Luckily, the fact that they’re ugly does not effect their chemical properties, and they remain as hard as any other diamond. Cheap diamond bort is used mostly in diamond-tipped drill bits which are used, in turn, to dig for treasures in the earth’s crust, one of which could be diamonds, but is usually oil or coal.

It is not difficult to find cheap diamonds in the form of bort on the net. As a matter a fact, here’s a link to some really cheap diamonds at $8 a carat, but you have to buy a minimum 1,000 carats. If you can convince people in this postmodern culture of ours that wearing cheap diamonds is awesome because it brings us closer to nature or true beauty or something like that, then you could make a pretty hefty profit off of an $8,000 bort investment.

To start that trend, you’ll have to start wearing these cheap diamonds on your necklaces, your rings, everywhere. And then walk around acting really cool and carry one of those pimp walking sticks and glue some cheap diamonds on the end of it. Then walk into a post-modern jeweler in one of those towns seeking its identity like San Francisco or something and tell the owner that cheap diamonds are so in and you’ll sell them for $50 a carat.

Soon everyone will be wearing cheap diamond bort on their engagement rings and you’ll put the drill bit companies totally out of business.

 The first thing you have to know about simulated diamonds is that simulated diamonds are not synthetic diamonds. Synthetic diamonds are chemically identical to natural diamonds, except they have been created by man in a giant cruncher. They are both made of carbon, though synthetic diamonds are generally less perfectly formed than natural diamonds.Simulated diamonds, on the other hand, aren’t diamonds at all. They’re just posers. The most famous simulated diamondis cubic zirconium, chemically known as zirconium oxide.

How to tell the difference? You can either go to a jeweler and he’ll do his hocus pocus and give you an answer, or you can read this blog about simulated diamonds. There are generally two different types of methods of determining simulated diamonds from the real thing, quadruply bonded carbon in a lattice. There are destructive methods, which tend to piss people off a bit because it involves destroying their jewelry, and there are non-destructive methods. Destructive methods include trying to scratch or destroy the suspected simulated diamond. This is a very bad idea, since even real diamonds have structural weak points and can be split along those points. Also, even simulated diamonds can be valuable in their own right. A much better way to spot simulated diamonds is the non destructive method.

There are several strategies. The easiest one is to examine the stone visually. If there are scratches and chips and a lack of luster, your stone is probably a simulated diamond. This rests on the assumption that no diamond or aggregated diamond nanorods have come into direct contact with your stone, whatever it is, and therefore since those two substances are the only two things that can scratch a diamond, your stone, if scratched, must have been scratched by something else, meaning you have a simulated diamond on your hands.

Another method is to pull an Archimedes-style Eureka. If you have a suspected stone of a certain volume, take a diamond of the same volume and see if their weights are different. Get one of those scales that you find in chemistry lab. If they’re different, you’ve got a simulated diamond on your hands.

Finally, there is the electrical conductivity test. Two thermistors are are mounted on a copper tip, one transmitting electrical energy, and the other measuring the temperature of the copper tip. The suspected diamond simulant is placed on the copper tip, and if it is diamond, it will absorb the electrical energy and cause a temperature drop in the copper. If it is a simulated diamond, the tip will remain hot.

Moissanite vs Diamond

One is pure carbon, the other is carbon and silicon. Such is the chemical nature in Moissanite vs. diamond. Diamond, of course, is pure carbon. Moissanite is chemically referred to as silicon carbide. But when considering Moissanite vs diamond, this may surprise you: Taking Moissanite vs diamond, Moissanite is actually much, much rarer. Basically the only source of Moissonite we have here on planet Earth comes from meteorites – bits of rock that crash here every so often from outer space, and even that source is extremely rare.

So, in the Moissanite vs diamond equation, why, exactly, is diamond so much more expensive and desireable whereas Moissanite is considered the fake, the imposter? There are several answers. I’ll start with the simplest. The Moissonite that we have today is all synthetic, including Moissonite jewelry that serves as simulated diamond. The process of synthesis of Moissanite is not difficult, nor is it expensive. But to go a bit deeper, if we take Moissanite vs diamond in terms of simplicity, Moissonite is a lattice of two atoms – carbon and silicon, both of the same group in the periodic table of elements, both having four valence electrons, which makes it easy for them to bond. The fact that they both have four bonds to fill also makes their lattice extremely hard. However, Moissanite vs diamond, diamond is harder because its bonds are perfectly even. Moissanite has a more uneven bond structure because carbon is slightly more electronegative than silicon, pulling the bonds slightly more toward the carbon atoms than the silicon atoms.  This makes Moissanite slightly softer than diamond, so Moissanite vs diamond as far as hardness goes, diamond wins. Moissanite is 9.5 on the hardness scale. Diamond is a perfect 10.

Another thing that may surprise you in the Moissanite vs diamond fight is that Moissanite is actually far superior to diamond when it comes to its heat resistance. Diamond begins to burn at 800 °C. Moissanite, or silicon carbide, can withstand temperatures of up to 1800 °C. The best way to test for Moissanite vs diamond is a fluorescence test under ultraviolet light. Moissanite reflects slightly green or yellow. Diamond does not.

But the most elegant reason that in the Moissanite vs diamond fight, diamond is always preferred for jewelry is simply that diamond is a product of our home planet, whereas Moissonite simply is not. It is artificial. Jewelry is art. Art is a reflection of nature. Moissanite is therefore, not really jewelry.

Anything valuable has papers.  Show dogs? Yes.  Purebred cats?  Yes.  Antique Cars?   Absolutely.  So it shouldn’t be any surprise that it’s possible to buy a diamond with papers known as certifications.  For anyone who really wants to have the bragging rights of having a bona-fide diamond, GIA Certified Diamonds are the way to go.

The GIA, also known as the Gemological Institute of America – and indeed it must be an institution for people who are crazy enough to look at shiny rocks all day long – issues the highest caliber certifications for diamonds.  This institution is the global authority on gemstones and is responsible for developing the criteria via which a diamond or any other gemstone is appraised.   A GIA certified diamond will have a report that contains all information about that diamond – the “4Cs” – carat, color, cut and clarity – and a diagram that shows anything unique to that GIA certified diamond.

So how you do buy a GIA certified diamond?  You simply need to call a jeweler and ask for one or ask him to order one for you.  However, those who want to buy a GIA certified diamond should to be careful because there are dishonest people who pass off their diamonds as being as such when they are not.  The simplest way to check is to look at the GIA certification and check that the certificate is from New York or Carlsbad, CA.  Any other address is a sham or is form an organization that does not have the same standards as the GIA unless it comes from the European equivalent of the GIA, the Hoge Raad voor de Diamant, or the HRD for short.

Aside for the prestige gained from owning such a stone, anyone owning a GIA certified diamond will avoid problems those who do not own such a diamond have.  First of all, anyone who owns GIA certified diamonds will avoid being ripped off if they decide to sell their diamond.  In addition, GIA certified diamond owners will be reimbursed if their diamond is stolen or disappears for some reason.

So, it’s a good idea for anyone thinking about buying a diamond or diamond jewelry to make sure their purchase is GIA certified and in fact a GIA certified diamond.  This will ensure that you have an easy time in the future and avoid issues that other people have in regards to their diamond jewelry.

Here’s a quick tour of diamond stores around the country.

Diamond stores in Atlanta: Check out the Bennett Street Design District.

Diamond Stores in Baltimore: The Antique Row on Howard Street is a must.

Diamond Stores in Boston: Newbury Street is your target for some great jewelry pieces.

Diamond Stores in Chicago: Wabash Street is where Jewelers Row is. Shuttle on over!

Diamond Stores in Denver: If you live in the Rockies, Cherry Creek North Business district. End of story.

Diamond Stores in Detroit: New Center, among other places, but this one is the biggest in the city.

Diamond Stores in Houston: Too many places to list, but the most central is the Galleria.

Diamond Stores in Las Vegas: Oh come on! Everywhere! To list two famous ones, Caesar’s Palace and the Venetian Casinos.

Diamond Stores in Los Angeles: The Jewelry District downtown, of course. One of the most expensive in the country.

Diamond Stores in Miami: Though there are more famous jewelry hotspots, the quaintest in my opinion is Lincoln Road.

Let’s call it a day, shall we? You’re not going to get to them all right now anyway.

If you’re a charting fan and liked your Algebra II and calculus classes, then diamond prices will interest you. If you try to map out the graph of diamond prices, or the displacement, you’ll get something like a steadily increasing slightly slanted stair case for the diamond price as weight, or carat, increases. Unfortunately for two-dimensional space, you can only plot one variable at a time on a standard Cartesian coordinate system graph, making diamond prices pretty elusive when it comes to plotting them visually into a shape. This is because, when it comes to diamond prices, there are actually four variables. There’s the cut, the clarity, the color, and the carat, already discussed. Starting with the last, the carat is simply the weight of the diamond. The diamond price will raise like a slanted stair case at different intervals and jump rapidly as the carat weight hits certain thresholds. This pattern in diamond prices will continue, steadily increasing and then jumping every carat until the six carat mark, where things just get way out of control and diamonds become specialty items.

If we introduce another variable into the graph and create a z-axis, we can start to build a three dimensional graph and begin to develop a very morphy and trip-inducing diamond price graph that will look like something out of Woodstock or China just before the Opium Wars. Say we introduce color in the mix. As the z-axis gets more vivid in color, the price jumps exponentially as well, but not in jumps. Color affects price exponentially and smoothly, so as our diamond price graph is expanding like a staircase up to 6 carats, the staircase is curving sharply up as we move along the z-axis of color. In order to graph this diamond price function, you’ll need a TI-89 at least, if it’s still called that ever since I graduated high school.

The clarity also pushes diamond prices up exponentially, but in order to graph that, we would need to be in hyperspace, a four-dimensional world that we don’t have access to as three-dimensional beings. The clarity, by the way, is the physical perfection of the stone, whether there are impurities, cracks, or other interferences in the lattice. The clearer, the pricier thediamond price.

Finally there is cut. Since people like sparkles, they are willing to pay more for a more sparkly stone. The more proportional the cut is, the more it refracts light and the more it sparkles, and the higher the diamond price. Cuts vary from poor to ideal, again increasing geometrically with each grading. Conclusion, don’t buy the perfect diamond. Too costly, and too much karma, or ayin harah, as they say in Hebrew. Read The Pearl by Steinbeck to learn more about that.

I recently went to a doctor, and I live in a so-called “can do” state where medicine is socialized and centralized. One of the sad side effects of centralized government-controlled medicine is that doctors stop thinking and become robots of the Health Ministry. When I went to the doctor, I wanted a certain test done. He said that the Health Ministry doesn’t recommend the test. I asked him what he thought, personally, as a doctor who knows medicine and who was trained and educated to heal. He repeated that the Health Ministry doesn’t recommend the test. I can of course look up health ministry policy myself. What I can’t do is be a doctor. In the realm of health care, having a centralized bureaucracy is not such a good thing. But in the realm of jewelry, it’s a pretty good idea to have diamond certificates.

Here’s the difference. Health care is not a static enterprise. It’s elastic, and each case is different from the next. There is no strict rubric, only general guidelines that are interpreted by every individual doctor. With diamond certificates, everything is rigid, static, and unchanging. There is an exact rubric for diamond certificates based on the quality of a diamond which can be measured exactly with good tools and expert skill. In other words, those who issue diamond certificates are not making an estimation or a value judgment. They are simply describing the certified diamond and telling you want it is in reality, and issuing a diamond certificate in accordance with the objective value they determine. In that case, having that institution issue a diamond certificate does not mean it’s thinking for you. It’s only examining reality with tools that you do not have and giving you a number.

It is a profoundly bad idea to purchase any diamond that is not a certified diamond and does not come with a diamond certificate. First and foremost because it may not even be a diamond, but rather may be a simulated diamond or a synthetic diamond. Secondly, without a centralized grading system, there would be no agreed upon price for diamonds. With diamond certificates, the industry is regulated and cheating becomes a lot harder.

The three most reliable institutes that issue diamond certificates are the Gemological Institute of America (GIA), the Diamond High Council of Belgium (HRD), and the American Gem Society Laboratories (AGSL). Before you purchase a diamond, make absolutely sure it carries a diamond certificate from of those institutions. A non certified diamond is a risk to your wallet you don’t have to take.

But when it comes to health care, forget about the Health Ministry. Ask your doctor what he thinks. If he refuses to think, get another doctor immediately.

Diamond Brokers.  Such a name probably sends chills up peoples’ spines as it brings memories of the mot recent stock market meltdown.  However, these individuals are not the same as those people on Wall Street.  A diamond broker is someone who sells diamonds, usually at a wholesale price and quite frankly can be your best friend when purchasing a diamond.

Diamond brokers officially serve as middlemen for purchasing and selling diamonds.  They charge fees, but that’s the nature of the business.  However, diamond brokers also usually have some experience appraising, cutting, mounting and examining diamonds.  The ideal diamond broker has GIA or HRD training, that being training from the Gemological Institute of America or the Hode Raad voor de Diamant which is essentially the Belgian equivalent.  The training they have is the ability to recognize, examine and classify diamonds.  Any other skills diamond brokers have are most likely from work experience.

Who do diamond brokers deal with?  Pretty much everyone in the industry, from miners to jewelry store owners.  Diamond brokers usually have contacts all over the world, typically in New York, Tel Aviv, Hong Kong and most importantly, Antwerp, the diamond capital of the world.  So diamond brokers know the trends and what products are available.

Why is it a good idea to use a broker when you want to sell or more importantly, buy a diamond?  The reason is quite simple.  Your diamond broker will be able to negotiate a reasonable price for a diamond which saves you money by contacting the seller directly.  In addition, if you are looking for a specific type of diamond with a particular cut and color (such as a princess cut colorless diamond or a round cut pink diamond), a diamond broker will have the time and resources to track down the stone you want.  After all, it is what he is paid to do.  Finally, it’s a good idea to use a diamond brokerbecause he will be able to educate you about diamonds and what you should know about them.

However, since there are dishonest people, it is important to check that your diamond broker actually has the credentials he claims to have.  You can do this by checking with the GIA or with past clients.    If you can be wary and careful, you can save a huge amount of money and learn quite bit about diamonds via a diamond broker.

Let’s face it. The allure of a diamond is not only its beauty, rarity, and unique chemical properties. The real reason that diamonds are so beloved is that they are a piece of Earth history, formed over literally billions of years. When you wear a real diamond, you are wearing a stone that has been around nearly since the formation of planet Earth itself. Such a concept is oddly very comforting and gives the feeling of immortality. Cultured diamonds, on the other hand, though they are chemically identical, are nonetheless not a piece of Earth history. Cultured diamonds are created over a process of a mere three and a half days.

The two biggest companies involved in synthesizing cultured diamonds are Apollo and Gemesis. The process of formation of cultured diamonds itself is fascinating and deserves an overlook. Cultured diamonds are made in a superhot, superpressurized room using seed crystals, or diamond chips that can serve as a basis for the growth of the diamond and settling of carbon, atom by atom, into the lattice structure. The cultured diamond process begins with a plasma cloud, a superheated organic gas, usually methane, being the lightest Below the cloud is a diamond seed, which, as the carbon atoms from the superheated gas become excited and start bouncing around, they look for a more stable, less energetic place to settle. The diamond shard just below serves nicely. The cultured diamond begins to grow, atom by atom, until after three days, it builds into anything between a half carat and .75 carat stone.  For those who simply want to wear a diamond,cultured diamonds like these are fine. But for those who want to wear a piece of pre-history, cultured diamonds will not do.

For this reason, there are ways of differentiating natural diamond from cultured diamond. Reputable jewelers, first of all, are trained to do this, and they will not lie to you and risk ruining their reputation, unless they are in cahoots with Apollo or Gemesis, which is unlikely. On the side edge of any cultured diamond larger than a quarter carat is inscribed the name of the company, either Gemesis or Apollo, that created it. These companies do not attempt to pass their cultured diamonds off as natural ones.

Any diamond that is certified by the Gemological Institute of America (GIA), will have a certification that it is not a cultured diamond. The GIA is very vigilant about this. All in all, one need not worry. If you are content in sporting a cultured diamond, power to you. If you’d rather wear the product of billions of years of geology, stick to natural diamonds.