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Perfect "fake diamonds" threatens global trade

Jewelry Discussion
#1

Hello all,

The daily newspapers are reporting a new fraude in the diamond
industry. Be warned! I translated the texst myself as specific as
possible.

Perfect “fake diamonds” threatens global trade.

The Antwerp court is investigating a scam with "synthetic diamonds"
that threatens the global diamond trade and mistrust can raise anyone
who buys jewelry. That reports the Time Tuesday.

A specialised laboratory in Antwerp has discovered that about 600
stones that were sold on the market as real, natural diamonds in
reality synthetic, manufactured stones. The quality is this good that
even faux-diamond dealers with years of experience can’t make the
distinction, using a loupe or microscope.

After the discovery in their lab, the international Gemmological
Institute sneds an explicit warning to laboratories all over the
world. These practices can undermine the integrity of the entire
supply chain of diamonds, with damage to the confidence of both the
diamond traders and consumers.

Coincidentally discovering.

De spokesman for the Antwerp public prosecutor’s Office, Ken Witpas,
just want to confirm that an investigating judge is still
investigating the scam with synthetic diamonds. According to other
sources, the Court has no idea where the fake diamonds are created.

The scams are rather coincidence discovered, because diamond traders
pebbles of only 0.30 carat -as is the case here- was often not send
to a lab, They rather use to like examinate themself under a Loupe or
microscope.

It is a question mark how much synthetic diamonds of this kind are
going around the world as real natural stones.

Have fun and enjoy
Pedro

#2 
It is a question mark how much synthetic diamonds of this kind are
going around the world as real natural stones.

George Berkeley once posed a question "If tree falls in the forest,
but there is no one to hear it fell, does it make a sound ?“
Philosophers still struggle to give coherent answer to it, because
it raises question of existence without perception and etc. The
problem can be re-phrased " Is synthetic diamond that everybody
think is real, really synthetic ?” I can appreciate problem it poses
to diamond merchants. But if you making jewellery where selling
point is craftsmanship, it is a welcome turn of events.

Leonid Surpin
studioarete.com

#3

True it’s not good that these synthetics are being sold as real, but
it shows that the quality of synthetics are being realised.
Synthetics that can fool experts, and the technology to make them,
has been around for years anyway,

The threat is mainly to the diamond cartels, maybe the value of
diamonds will drop?

Regards Charles A.

#4

Does anyone say how these diamonds test with diamond/moissonite
electronic testers? What are they made of?

David L. Huffman

#5 
Does anyone say how these diamonds test with diamond/moissonite
electronic testers? What are they made of?

It tests as real diamond, and it is real diamond, but made in
laboratory. The only clue is that they are type IIa, which is of no
help to anybody except labs who can make differentiation between
types. It is exactly the situation like it was in 70th with amethyst.
Synthesis got so good that it took hours with microscope to tell
natural from synthetic. Market responded by pricing everything as
synthetic and that is what is going to happen with diamonds.

Leonid Surpin
studioarete.com

#6

In what sense are these “fake diamonds”. If they are simply
crystalline carbon then they are diamonds, artificially made but
still diamonds with the same hardness, chemical composition and
bling of diamonds dug out of the ground. The threat they represent to
global trtade is to the cartel marketing and artificially high price
of “real diamonds” and there are lot of people with a stake in this.

Jen

#7 
George Berkeley once posed a question "If tree falls in the
forest, but there is no one to hear it fell, does it make a sound
?" Philosophers still struggle to give coherent answer to it,
because it raises question of existence without perception and etc.
The problem can be re-phrased " Is synthetic diamond that everybody
think is real, really synthetic ?" I can appreciate problem it
poses to diamond merchants. But if you making jewellery where
selling point is craftsmanship, it is a welcome turn of events.

I dont see this as a problem.

A diamond thats recovered from mother earth is a natural diamond,
and a man made one is just that, there may not be any physical
difference between them other than their origin. Let the market decide
which it wants and thus the price. Its up to the cartel to make a
case for the mother earth stone. Where there is a big profit to be
made there will always be those that put greed before honesty.

As for price? of natural diamonds? there not exactly cheap to mine,
consider the alluvial coastal deposits I believe is it in Namibia?,
they shift thousands of tons of sand to find the elusive diamonds.

#8

Hello,

But if you making jewellery where selling point is craftsmanship,
it is a welcome turn of events.

Yes indeed Leonid, that is an interesting point of view. Your
craftsmenship will stand out, but what happends if you have to deal
with a person who loves your work and want it enriched with a
diamond? To me this is a valued customer and I like to see him/her
back without complains about a fake gemstone.

My trustability and credibility as a craftsmen is on the line right
here. If I can’t stand up for what I’m selling, I certain will lose
that customer. … and others aswell. Just think about how this can
influence engagement rings in America for example. I don’t think it’s
that easy as you describe it. This issue may have a larger range as
many think it can be.

The way of how they are tested is not mentioned for some well
thought-out reasons to my believe. I don’t want to prepare an
avalanche or another doomsday. I do want to informe jewellers as much
as possible about the ongoing practice concerning the -I think - most
beloved gemstone.

Have fun and enjoy
Pedro

#9 
Does anyone say how these diamonds test with diamond/moissonite
electronic testers?

Just like diamond

What are they made of?

Diamond. These are lab made diamonds. My understanding is it takes
some fairly sophisticated hardware to detect them.

James Binnion
James Binnion Metal Arts

#10

There are essentially 2 different ways of making synthetic diamond
and CVD is far the easiest and cheapest and you can make nice
transparent diamond, wheras the ultra high pressure method is good
for fancy coloured stones.

Where do they come from?

Well, the Russians have been making the fancy coloured ones for a
while, more as a novelty rather as a commercial exploit. The CVD
ones can be done with very little outlay but I would look to the far
east for my original stock and then perhaps China, India or Thailand
(and maybe Russia) for cutting them on the cheap. The formed rough
diamonds tend to be rather flat as they are formed as thin layers so
you would need to offer them to the market as small cut stones as the
time taken to produce larger ones is less economical and can create
flaws that under a microscope would give the game away.

I’m not sure if companies like DeBeers would send their men round to
raid a workshop that only deals with small stones in their inventory
and would they be able to employ a suitable sanction as they can
with cutting shops that handle blood diamonds (basically they stop
the company from buying rough diamonds legally and then chase them
through the courts in whichever country as they have all signed up to
the diamond accord). The people doing this can keep below the radar
for quite a while as long as they are not greedy but anyone doing
this by default will be greedy so we will all read about is sometime
soon.

Nick Royall

#11

The issue is not is it a diamond, the issue is that it is not being
sold as a Synthetic, or Lab grown. I know little about diamonds, and
they do not interest me because I am against, not the stone, but
DeBeers. This may be an attempt to break the hold that this cartel
has over diamonds. And in the end may do just that. My personal
opinion is that this is related to the new find of Russian diamonds.
I consider lab stones as Betty Crocker stones. Mix the ingredients,
shake them up and throw them in the oven. They facinate me more than
diamonds do, and just bought a kiln that will help me get there. I
want to create sapphires and learn to facet on the home made stuff
so that I can get good and then buy the real stuff. Blessings from
the land of no snow(Alaska) and a moose attacked my dog.

#12 
but what happends if you have to deal with a person who loves your
work and want it enriched with a diamond?

I had a very similar situation when I was developing my style. I
believe that underneath of jewellery must not have any extra metal,
and that includes area where hallmarking has to be. So I dispensed
with hallmarking in order to achieve perfect transparency for
The second thing is that I do not like white gold. I am
fine with platinum, but for some designs like large earrings,
platinum is too heavy. I am using silver alloyed with some gold and
some platinum. Alas, under our “smart” laws it cannot even be
hallmarked as sterling. Never mind that it is 10x better than
sterling. I had clients who simply could not swallow idea that
jewellery can be made part of silver and on top of it all, is not
even hallmarked. Some made peace with it and some didn’t. Life goes
on.

Leonid Surpin
Studioarete.com

#13

“Letting the market set the price” is exactly the point.

If everyone is above board about whether a stone is mined or lab
grown, then the market will determine the price, and buyers well get
what they pay for. The problem, obviously, is when one thing it’s
paid for and another is received. There is no reason to hide the
identity of a lab diamond unless mined diamonds are perceived as
better and worth more.

A rose by any other name would smell as sweet, but it might not cost
as much.

Noel

#14

There have been synthetic Ruby on the market for over 100 years. What
has that done to the price of natural ruby, nothing. Likewise with
synthetic Emerald, they have not been around as long but same price
effect, none. Detection and demand for gemologists is the likely
result of synthetic diamond, just has fracture filling and other
frauds past off on the public. At least the synthetic diamonds are
not likely to be as much of a problem for the bench jeweler as
fracture filling is!

Mark Chapman

#15

“Be warned!” says Pedro

Gosh Pedro, I was thinking of investing in a “Yoshi Blue” ceramic
and diamond frying pan @ $20 from Walmart. Can you offer any
investment advice on the diamond content? Is it fake?

#16

Hi Mark,

There have been synthetic Ruby on the market for over 100 years.
What has that done to the price of natural ruby, nothing. Likewise
with synthetic Emerald, they have not been around as long but same
price effect, none. Detection and demand for gemologists is the
likely result of synthetic diamond, just has fracture filling and
other frauds past off on the public. At least the synthetic
diamonds are not likely to be as much of a problem for the bench
jeweler as fracture filling is!

I think the difference may be that diamonds are very common, and
this may effect the price with the flood of synthetic diamonds.

You can tell the difference between a synthetic ruby and a natural
one, and the same goes for an emerald (although I’m sure that is
enough effort were put in replica stones could be fashioned).

I heard an interesting factoid, that if De Beers released all the
diamonds they have stockpiled, it would be like $1 a carat. Probably
rubbish, but sounds interesting :wink:

Regards Charles A.

#17

Hi Charles,

I heard an interesting factoid, that if De Beers released all the
diamonds they have stockpiled, it would be like $1 a carat.
Probably rubbish, but sounds interesting ;-)

I heard a rumor floating around the London trade when I was going to
school there, 20-odd years ago, to the effect that DeBeers had
enough diamonds in the vaults under Charterhouse street to keep up
with worldwide demand for 15 years, even if they never mined
another carat. I was also interested to note that they started
flushing the vaults (slowly) about 10-15 years ago. Gave me a sense
of their belief in the long-term worth of those holdings.

Regards,
Brian

#18

Hello Peter,

Gosh Pedro, I was thinking of investing in a “Yoshi Blue” ceramic
and diamond frying pan @ $20 from Walmart.

Pedro said aswell that he didn’t want to start an avalanche or
another doomsday.

If you feel that this article is funny by posting your question, be
my gast Peter, I didn’t wrote that article myself but translated it
for the people of this forum. If you can used it, well that is fine
and I’m happy.

When this article sound funny for you, I’m fine too. There are people
out there who don’t know about this fact and welcome any kind of
concerning fakes. There are people out there who give
nice comments about why’s and how’s around the diamond industry. There
are people out there who do buy diamonds and don’t know about
"perfect" fakes.

I don’t like diamonds thatmuch, there are far more interesting
stones then diamonds. I do like to pass on that can help
other fellow jewelers.

My advice for you is, buy as many pan’s as you can and just wait
untill diamond prices go for a record price. It might happen that you
can sell your pans for double or even triple prices as you purchased
them.

However, I couldn’t hide a smile by reading your mail-)
Have fun and enjoy
Pedro

#19 
There are people out there who do buy diamonds and don't know about
"perfect" fakes.

You keep saying “fakes.” The synthetics under discussion are not
fakes, they are genuine diamond and have all the properties of
diamond, which makes them hard to distinguish from mined diamonds.
“Fake” diamonds are imitations made using another material, such as
CZ or moissanite.

The problem with synthetic diamonds is when they are represented as
natural, mined diamonds.

Al Balmer
Pine City, NY

#20

And on the science front: Diamond film has been made from tequila.

Wondering if they will be making emerald film from limes. …and
what about Cointreau?

Joking about the last two, but not about the first.

As for “perfect” fake diamonds? If they are physically and
chemically diamonds they are not “fake”, they are real diamonds that
are lab grown. If these lab grown stones are indeed almost
undetectable, all this will succeed in doing is lowering the price
of diamonds if the market becomes flooded. Did anyone mention the
possible sizes of the lab-grown diamonds? If the size is kept to
melee proportions the venture won’t be that profitable as melee
isn’t going for much these days. Larger diamonds will invite
skepticism. Most jewelers will be a little curious if all of these
perfect, flawless “diamonds” suddenly appear. . or will the
inventors (can they?) build in random inclusions too? Lab grown with
pique? Just ruminating on the possibilities.

Lisa (Its raining here. As soon as I have my coffee I’m heading out
to check the tarps on the chicken coop and the goat pens. Thinking
that me in my yellow slicker will either scare them or make them
laugh. I swear, goats can laugh.) Topanga, CA USA