Diamonds, a Love Forever

A “blood diamond” (also known as conflict diamond, war diamond, dirty diamond, hot diamond, or converted diamond) is mined or produced in unethical conditions, including in war zones to finance insurgencies. In 2003, the UN-backed Kimberley Process began requiring participating countries to certify that their exported diamonds were conflict-free. According to the World Diamond Council, this program has been very successful, with 99% of the world’s diamond supply certified as conflict-free. Some other estimates are not as optimistic, but the Kimberly Process does seem to work—the amount of blood diamonds in the market is estimated to have dropped from 15% before the Kimberly Process was introduced to less than 5% today. Some retailers also offer “conflict neutral” diamonds . The retailer or the consumer makes a donation to a relevant charity, with the expectation that the good works promoted by that donation help balance against the negative works in the diamond industry. An alternat...

Diamonds are most often associated with jewelry, but their strength is highly sought in a variety of industrial applications: to cut, polish, and grind hard surfaces; to manipulate concrete, metal, ceramic, computer chips, eyeglasses, stones, and other gems; and as parts of surgical blades, heat spreaders, and specialty windows. Even though 80% of the natural diamonds mined each year go toward industrial purposes, four times as many diamonds are synthetically created to also go toward industrial use. Approximately 25 million carats of natural diamonds go toward jewelry each year, another 80 million carats of natural diamonds go toward industrial use, and an additional 570 million carats of lab-manufactured synthetic diamonds are created for industrial purposes. This does not mean synthetic diamonds should not be considered for jewelry. Prices are much lower than natural diamonds, and the quality can be worse or better than a natural diamond.

How are diamonds formed? What is the geographic origin of my diamond? What is a blood diamond? How do I know whether my diamond is conflict-free? How effective is the Kimberly Process? Answers to these questions are covered in this article.

“Manmade diamonds” are actually more prevalent than natural diamonds. Since 1950s, laboratories have manufactured diamonds, either by forcing carbon atoms to juncture under extreme heat and pressure or by reducing methane gas. Depending on the particular company’s formulation, the process can take days to weeks. Though the process is sped up, diamond formation is still a sensitive process where conditions fluctuate, yielding diamonds just as flawed and unique as those found in nature.

What is important to you as a diamond buyer: shape, size, quality, store’s brand name, ring setting design? Learning about these attributes will help you decide exactly what you want in a diamond. Once you narrowed it down, the DiamondPriceGuru.com search engine will help you do the rest.

Diamond is a perfect "10" , defining the top of the hardness scale, and by absolute measures four times harder than sapphire (which is #9 on that scale).

Diamond has the highest tensile strength of any material, at 2.8 gigapascals. However, that does not quite translate into the strongest rope or cable, as diamond has cleavage planes which support crack propagation. The strongest ropes can likely be made from another material, carbon nanotubes, as they should not suffer from the effects of cracks and break. Still, if a long, thin, perfect crystal of diamond could be manufactured, it would offer the highest possible pulling strength (in a straight line - don't try to tie it in a knot!)