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"Silver" diamonds

#1

All,

We have a client looking to create a ring with a gray or silver strip
of diamonds down one side. We are thinking we may be able to obtain
the look she is after with some low grade diamonds like you often
times see in merchandise from Kohl’s or JC Penneys here in the
states- heavily included, but with whitish inclusions, not the salt
and pepper black inclusions. Does anyone have about 50- 1.5mm
diamonds that look silvery or gray? Anyone know where I might source
something like this? This is outside of my normal diamond buying
zone…

Thanks and take care.
Brenda
davidleejeweler.com

#2

CGM findings sells strings of diamond material that is very heavily
included but not rough diamond, and can get undrilled material for
you too. Or consider buying natural diamond rough as its definitely
silvery to grey can be formed into standardised sizes (look at Todd
reed’s work if you aren’t familiar with using natural rough material)
also industrial diamond material is available in a variety of
colours, as well as clear-ish silver/grey. Another stone that you may
want to introduce your customers to if they want something faceted is
natural silver grey spinel - looks great, is cheap, can be had in a
variety of cuts or you can have it custom machine cut (so it’s easy
to channel set)… rer

#3 
Or consider buying natural diamond rough as its definitely silvery
to grey can be formed into standardised sizes (look at Todd reed's
work if you aren't familiar with using natural rough material) also
industrial diamond material is available in a variety of colours,,

rer

Is there a difference between the natural rough diamonds Todd Reed
uses and industrial diamonds? The ones that are faceted seem to be
industrial quality…Heavily included and opaque… i

Richard Hart G.G.
Denver, Co.

#4

There is a big difference between bort (or boart) and even industrial
grade diamond crystals. Heavily included diamond crystals that are
generally only good for industrial abrasives are a lot harder and
tougher than the black mass diamonds known as bort. The nice crystal
rough often have an interesting surface texture and a pleasing lustre
wheras the bort looks like coal in the rough and so is often cut and
polished BECAUSE it isnt actually good enough to use as an abrasive.
If this sounds counterintuitive it is becasue the bort breaks down
too quickly to offer quantifiable wear results that would allow them
to be used for precision tooling or grinding/polishing dust/paste. I
wouldnt buy cut black diamonds because they are overpriced and always
will be. 1ct industrial diamond octrahedra are not expensive and can
look great.

Nick Royall

#5

the industrial diamond material I was referring to in my initial
post is not for lapping, or otherwise cutting materials (i. e.
pastes, wheels, etc.) but for precision tooling like centering and
laser equipment (a beam is passed through or bounced off a face) and
is crystalline, not easily cut but less expensive than a faceted
diamond of equal size and in my opinion appeals to people looking for
rare appearing natural diamond stone/crystal as opposed to wholesale
faceted stones that all look identical and are far overpriced (the
economics of that trade of which I don’t want to get into any
disscussion). I guess i should have been clearer. Yes there is a lot
of cheap industrial, heavily included material out there, but I was
referring to industrial diamond that is sold to specialty tool
makers, although jewelers do buy it too, not the stuff sold by the
oz. or kilo type grinding, drilling, and otherwise simply because
it’s hard material!..rer

#6

todds rough diamonds are a step above industrial diamond material in
that he chooses specific shapes (octahedral, cubic, etc. and they
are somewhat more distinctly coloured than industrial diamond lots
that are considerably cheaper and not selectable or “matched” in any
way. Good rough diamonds are generally three times the cost of
industrial diamonds for the same sizes (relatively the same).
Industrial diamonds are very opaque and sometimes have visible
inclusions on the faces of the crystals- good rough has much more
transparency and can be had with perfect, natural faces (no rutile
needles, etc. obvious on the crystals). He sometimes does use med.
size industrial crystals and cuts them to a basically uniform size or
shape to end up with the equivalent of a .25 diamond cube but even
then they are “high grade”- if you want to call it that, for
industrial material. there are also S. American “fruit salad” rough
diamonds that are translucent to almost transparent that are far
above industrial grades but generally smaller than the largest
industrial material available yet still at a reasonable price (even
some industrial material can run on the pricey side). I suppose I
shouldn’t have used Todd Reed as an example, I use a fair amount of
rough diamond crystals in some collections and the material I buy is
translucent with inclusions that would be equivalent to a SI1-2
graded faceted diamond. It all comes down to what amount you want to
spend for what appearance you need. Industrial material is fine if
you just want to say it is a diamond, if you want to use crystals for
their shape or colour, i find industrial diamond too opaque and
imperfect for my designs,; even if i’m going to shape a stone to any
degree I want some natural colour to it,(even if its grey or silver,
or pale green) and don’t want to have a spot of included material on
a visible face of the crystal. the ring below is a good example of
what I mean by a transparent rough diamond crystal - this is a 15th
century find shown on BBC’s Antique’s Roadshow. I couldn’t find an
image with a view from above but the difference in clarity is
tremendous over industrial material.(the ring probably cast in
cuttlefish bone originally is 24 kt gold and the engraving work quite
nice also!)…rer