Hi Orchid - This question seems to keep coming up for me and perhaps some of you have thoughts on the matter.
Personally, I think clarity enhanced diamonds are an excellent value. Customers seem scared away from them, sometimes for (what I think) is the wrong reason. Durability, specifically susceptibility to clouding or other issues during re-tipping and repairs that require the torch.
My understanding is that the newer treatments are totally fine and stable under heat.
Anyone?
My two cents is that my experience with Yehuda clarity enhanced diamonds, this was 8 or 10 years ago and was many dozens, possibly hundreds of them, is that the treatment is not always stable. Plus, once damaged they can not always be successfully retreated. Usually the damage was shop related where the CE diamond was not identified as such prior to repair and was heated beyond the enhancing materials temp tolerance. A careless error but the damage was done. We found that temperature tolerance to vary depending on some mysterious variables, possibly the amount of material in the stone. We also had trouble with customers damaging the filler material, we suspected with chlorine or ammonia in pools or cleaning products.
Over time we lost confidence in clarity enhanced diamonds and so sales dropped off, way off. I’m unsure if the material has been improved but I would not necessarily take the dealers word for that if I were you.
Mark
I wouldn’t trust any kind of clarity enhancement in any gemstone to be stable under any circumstances, no matter what the manufacturer / vendor says.
The problem with doing anything at all to an enhanced stone, even simple cleaning, is that you now own it forever. If there is ever an issue, even five years from now, in the eyes of way too many consumers, it will have been caused by your mishandling and therefore it is your responsibility to repair or replace.
They believe this because the people they bought it from told them that the new treatments are entirely stable under normal care and repair procedures. Given that fact, they couldn’t possibly have done anything to damage it, so it’s got to be something you did to it. You’re the only person other than the lady that wears it that ever touched it, so…
Ask me how I know.
Dave
The Problem with treated diamonds in production of jewellery is one has to handle them very carefully during the manufacturing process. Clouding and breakages are a major issues apart from colour changes that occur. Caution needs to be taken at each stage of manufacture especially lost wax casting and laser soldering along with hot ultrasonic baths and chemicals used for pickling need a change in production.
Education down stream plays an important part.
Umesh
I agree with David Phelps… and I probably know for the same reason; different stone. Clarity enhanced diamonds are a nightmare because once they go south - and they will - there is no way back
C~
I agree… but would add that they can often, but not always, be re-enhanced.
Mark
We had a 3 carat that went back to the previously mentioned company three times. It never looked right. It was a fiasco.
C~
We had a similar unresolvable problem. The company doing the ineffective re-enhancement was very sorry and the customer was losing her mind. That was it for me.