a trend creation

Diamond Introduction

The mere mention of the word fills the mind with a multitude of concepts and images. Diamond is a mineral, a natural crystalline substance, and the transparent form of pure carbon. Diamond is something superb, the peerless "king of gems" that glitters, dazzles, and symbolizes purity and strength. Diamond is for engagement and the 75th wedding anniversary, for a commitment to never-ending love. Diamond is indomitable, the hardest surface known. Diamond is exotic, formed in Earth's interior and shot to the surface by extraordinary volcanoes. A diamond is likely the oldest thing you will ever own, probably 3 billion years in age, fully two-thirds the age of the Earth. Diamond is a strategic and high-tech super material for our technological society.

Owning a diamond has always meant possessing something of great beauty and lasting value. Diamonds are certainly the most precious of all nature's creations. Their fiery brilliance captures our hearts as the eternal symbol of love. However, if you're like most people, you probably know very little about diamonds. Diamond is the name given to the crystallized form of the element Carbon. Diamonds were formed under extreme heat and pressure at our Earth's core. They traveled to the surface through volcanic pipelines known as kimberlitic during the Earth's formation. Due to their unique physical properties, diamonds have been sought after by Kings and nobles throughout eons of time. Diamond is a form of carbon that is crystallized in the crystal system of highest symmetry known as the cubic system. It possesses a hardness far surpassing that of any other substance known in nature. The durability of a gem depends on both its hardness and toughness. Diamond although highest on the scale of hardness, is cleaved before forming the consumable shapes like other gems. Cleavage is one of the tendencies of a diamond to split in certain directions where the carbon atoms are furthest apart. Diamonds have a very high degree of transparency, refractivity and dispersion or 'fire' which gives rise to cut diamonds to a high degree of brilliancy and a display of prismatic colors. A diamond's fiery brilliance makes it cherished above all other gemstones by the majority of people. Diamonds occupy a position of incomparable demand.

Today diamond symbolizes wealth, durability, status and peerless quality. Across time and Cultures, diamond has also been associated with Invulnerability, lightning, magic, healing, protection and poisoning. In unraveling the history and associations of diamond, we also need to know the history of the words attached to it:

 

Did the words used by the ancient Indians or Greeks signify the same thing they do today, or something very different?

"Diamond" comes from the Greek adman, transliterated as "adamao," "I tame" or "I subdue." The adjective "agamas" was used to describe the hardest substance known, and eventually became synonymous with diamond. It is difficult to determine at what point in history the hardest known substance become diamond. "Agamas" may have previously referred to the next hardest mineral, corundum -- the gem variety is sapphire -- or to something else altogether. Tracing the history of diamond is complicated by this problem with names.

For over 2000 years, diamonds were found only as eroded crystals in river gravel. Until 1725, India was the major source of diamonds, with much smaller amounts mined in Alimental (Borneo). Diamonds were then discovered in Brazil, which became the leading supplier as Indian production waned. South African diamonds were found first in 1867, in gravel near the Orange River.

Further exploration in the Kimberley region of South Africa revealed volcanic formations called "pipes" filled with a hitherto unknown rock type that contained diamonds. The rock, a variety of predictive, was named "Kimberlitic" after the region of its first discovery and was recognized as the diamond source rock: this discovery formed the basis of the huge modern diamond industry and placed South Africa at honorary position in the diamond world. This has also been the case due to South Africa's role as the center of the main operations, at the time, have De-Beer--the world leading diamond explorer and marketer. Many similar pipes have since been found since in other African countries (Namibia, Angola, Botswana, Zaire, Ghana, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Gabon, Cameron, Central African Republic, Zimbabwe, and others), Venezuela, British Guyana, Brazil, Siberia, India, China and recently Canada and the U.S. The Kati and David mines in the cold, northern part of Canada are believed to be supplying, soon, between 10% and 15% of the world's supply of roughs. A closely related rock type, Lamproite, is the source of Western Australian diamonds. These latter mines produce also yellowish ("Champaign") color and pink diamonds. With the shifts in the countries producing diamond, shifts took place also in the centers that have specialized in cutting and trading in them. Those included Amsterdam, Lisbon (during the heights of Brazilian supplies), and major cities in India, Bruges and then Antwerp in Belgium and finally New York and Tel Aviv. The three leading centers today are Antwerp (where over 40% of the roughs are traded as well as much of the cut diamonds), New York (specializing in large diamonds), Tel-Aviv (specializing in middle range diamonds) and India (specializing in small size and lower end diamonds). There are signs of development and growing of new centers in the Far East in places such as Thailand and Japan.

The Virtues of Diamond: A diamond octahedron was highly valued: "He who, having pure body, always carries a diamond with sharp points, without blemish, free from all faults; that one, as long as he lives, knows each day will bear some things: happiness, prosperity, children, riches, grain, cows and meat. He who wears [such] a diamond will see dangers recede from him whether he be threatened by serpents, fire, poison, sickness, thieves, flood or evil spirits."

The Finest Diamond: A diamond that flashed rainbow colors was best: "Even if it has blunt points, if it has a speck, a crack, the diamond that has the reflection of the rainbow procures wealth, grain and sons. The king who carries, so it is said, a beautiful diamond with glittering flashes has a force that triumphs over all other powers and becomes master of all neighboring lands." Rainbow disperse color from a diamond octahedron takes overall precedence and the finest colorless diamonds, transparent octahedral with rainbow reflections, are reserved for kings.

The Hardness of Diamond: Diamond's supreme hardness was recognized: "The gems and the metals that exist on earth are all scratched by the diamond: the diamond is not (scratched) by them. A noble substance scratches that which is noble and that which is not; the diamond scratches even the ruby. The diamond can scratches, but diamonds not scratched by any."

Origins in India

Diamonds were discovered in India by the 4th century BCE. In addition to the diamond legends, India yielded many legendary diamonds, including the Koh-i-Noor, the Orlov, the Hope, and the Sancy. Except for a minor supply of diamonds from the Dalmatian deposits of Borneo, dating from the 6th century CE, India was the world's only source until the 1730s. Most of India's deposits were alluvial, but today the Majhgawan pipe, a primary source near Panna, is the country's only producing diamond source.

Knowledge of diamond and the origin of its many conations start in India, where it was first mined. The word most generally used for diamond in Sanskrit is transliterated as vajra, "thunderbolt," and indrayudha, "Indra's weapon." Because Indra is the warrior god from Vedic scriptures, the foundation of Hinduism, the thunderbolt symbol indicates much about the Indian conception of diamond. The flash of lightning is a suitable comparison for the light thrown off by a fine diamond octahedron and a diamond's indomitable hardness. Early descriptions of vajra date to the 4th century BCE that is supported by archaeological evidence. By that date, diamond was a valued material.

Writings: The earliest known reference to diamond is a Sanskrit manuscript, the Arthasastra ("The Lesson of Profit") by Kautiliya, a minister to Chandragupta of the Mauryan dynasty in northern India. The work is dated from 320-296 before the Common Era (BCE). Kautiliya states "(a diamond that is) big, heavy, capable of bearing blows, with symmetrical points, capable of scratching (from the inside) a (glass) vessel (filled with water), revolving like a spindle and brilliantly shining is excellent. That (diamond) with points lost, without edges and defective on one side is bad." Indians recognized the qualities of a fine diamond octahedron and valued it.

Archaeology: No diamonds have been found in ancient sites, but holes in ancient beads show diamond's "footprint" cylindrical holes with conspicuous concentric grooves left by a twin-diamond drill. The holes are unlike the marks of any other modern or ancient drilling technique -- a signature of this diamond technology. Beads from sites in Sri Lanka, India, Thailand, Yemen and Egypt show the marks of diamond drills prior to 700 CE and as early as the 4th century BCE in Yemen.

Indian Production:

Total: 29 million carats

Where does Diamonds Come?

Experiments and the high density of diamonds tell us that they crystallize at very high pressures. In nature this means that diamonds are created by geologic processes at great depth within Earth, generally more than 150 kilometers down, in a region beneath the crust known as the mantle. Other processes, explored later in this exhibition, bring diamonds to where people can find them.

The three concentric layers -- the core, mantle, and crust -- formed within a few hundred million years of Earth's coalescence 4.5 billion years ago. The core is primarily an iron-nickel alloy and makes up a large fraction of the mass of Earth. The vast mantle is sandwiched between the core and the thin crust and is composed predominantly of magnesium and iron silicate minerals. Our planet's crust is a thin, rocky skin. Diamonds can form in most of Earth's interior but not near its surface, where graphite is the stable form of carbon. Indeed, diamonds only survive at Earth's surface because great heat is required to break down the diamond structure.

What is Diamonds?

It is perhaps difficult to believe that diamond, like graphite and charcoal, is a form of carbon. Diamond crystallizes in cubic form crystals, at enormous pressures and high temperatures over the course of millions of years. The process has been imitated under laboratory conditions and then applied industrially to create "artificial diamonds". These have proven to be mainly of either industrial, plain quality or very small. The diamond's exceptional properties arise from the crystal structure, in which the bonding between the carbon atoms is immensely strong and uniform. Much diamond occurs as well-formed crystals, most commonly as octahedral (eight-sided) crystal.

 

Diamonds are blessed with three extraordinary qualities:

First, a diamond possesses unique powers of light reflection. When properly cut, it gathers light within itself, reflecting it back in a shower of fire and brilliance.

Second, it is the only gem mineral composed of a single, unadulterated element, making it the purest of earth's gemstones.

Thirdly, it is the hardest transparent substance known to man. Steel, for example, of which most machine tools are made, cannot cut diamond. The only material that can cut diamond is ...another diamond! The industry uses, therefore, for that purpose, "industrial grade", usually black-color diamonds.

 

Diamond: Vital Statistics

Composition: C (carbon)

Crystallographic Class: Cubic -- hex octahedral (highest of the symmetries)

Space Group: Fd3m -- a = 3.57 A (cell edge)

Common Forms {indices}: F Octahedron {111}, cube {100}, dodecahedron          {110} rounded variations

Twins: Spinal-law common, yielding the flat triangular "macle"

Hardness: 10 Moths' scale, 56-115 Knops hardness number (GPa), 10,000 Brooks identical scale; octahedral face hardest, cube face softest

Cleavage: Excellent parallel to octahedron face -- {111}

Density: 3.51 g/cm3 (or specific gravity =3.51)

Luster: Adamantine (diamond provides the definition for this kind of luster)

Colors: Colorless, yellow, blue, and many others

Refractive Index: 2.4175 (in the yellow light of a sodium lamp)

Dispersion: Large (0.044), leading to rainbow colors on refraction

Optical Transmission: Transparent over broad spectrum of the electromagnetic spectrum; an excellent material for optical windows

Thermal Conductivity: Superb -- 5-25 Watts/centimeter-degrees C (at 300 K); 4 times greater than copper, an excellent thermal conductor

Electrical Conductivity: 0 to ~ 100 ohm-cm (resistively at 300 K) -- an insulator

 

What is the Carbon?

Most diamonds consist of primeval carbon from Earth's mantle, but those from ecologists probably contain carbon recycled from the ocean crust by plate tectonics -- the carbon of microorganisms.

 

How do we know Carbon?

Carbon atoms occur in three different masses, or isotopes. Unlike high-temperature processes in deep Earth, low- temperature, biological processes, such as photosynthesis, are sensitive to the differences in mass, and actively sort different carbon isotopes. Thus, the ratios of carbon isotopes in organic materials--plants, animals, and shells -- vary, and differ from those in the carrbon dioxide of the atmosphere and the oceans. Geochemists "read" the carbon isotopes in samples to interpret nature's record. Virtually all carbon atoms, the ones in a diamond or a tree or you, came from the stars. Particularly at Earth's surface, the proportions of 12C and 13C (the carbon isotopes of mass 12 and 13) are redistributed. Expressed as simple numbers in 13C notation -- in which larger numbers mean more 13C -- organic carbon has large negative values, average Earth has a mildly negative value, and the carbon in shells is near zero.

Glossary

Blemish: Blemish the surface of a diamond on flaw or abrasion.

Brilliance: Cutting a diamond to the correct proportions maximizes its brilliance, defined as white light reflected up through the stone’s surface.

Brilliant Cut: A brilliant cut utilizes 58 facets. It can be heart shaped, pear, oval, radiant or round.

Carat: The unit of weight, which diamonds are measured. One carat equals one-fifth of a gram.

Clarity: A grade that indicates how many inclusions a diamond has. The scale ranges from Flawless (FL), which means that the diamond has no flaws inside or on its surface, to Severely Included (I3), meaning a diamond has numerous flaws that can be seen without magnification.

Cloud: Cloud is a group of small inclusions inside a diamond.

Color: Color is a grade that indicates the color of the stone. The scale ranges from D, completely colorless, to Z, which refers to an easily noticed yellow tone. The higher scale, the more distinct the stone’s yellow or brown cast.

Culet: Culet can be seen as a miniscule focal point where the pavilion’s facets converge. Facet on the bottom tip of the diamond is culet. A diamond with no culet has a pointed tip. A diamond with a small to large culet has a flat surface at the tip. Culets can prevent chipping, but are less desirable when of the medium to large range. A diamond with a medium to large culet will appear to have a hole in the bottom when looking down on the stone, through the table.

Cut: Refers to both the shape of a stone (heart-shaped, oval, round, etc.) and the make (the precise proportions that result from the diamond’s cut). The stone’s make determines how much sparkle it reflects more than any other factor.

Cut, Ideal: Refers to perfectly proportion, round diamonds that receive high grades on symmetry and polish. The finest craftsmanship enhances the beauty of these stones.

Cut, Very Good: A diamond with this cut adheres to strict requirements for uniform proportions that make the most of the stone’s brilliance and fire.

Cut, Good: This diamond’s cut displays proportions that are acceptable but not perfect. It has very good fire and brilliance

Cut, Fair: This cut makes the most of the diamond’s weight, which often results in less fire and brilliance. A diamond with this cut is less expensive than a diamond with a Good or Very Good cut, but it will not sparkle nearly as much.

Cut, Poor: Poorly cut diamonds appear lifeless. We do not recommend stones with this cut.

Depth: Depth refers to the height of a diamond from the culet to the table. The depth percentage listed on the certification indicates the height of the diamond relative to the width measurement (height value, width value). A diamond, which is too shallow or too deep, will disperse light through the sides or the bottom instead of the top facet.

Depth Percentage (%): The depth percentage, divided by the width of the diamond, mitigates the brilliance and fire in the stone. A diamond lacking sparkle probably has a depth percentage that is too shallow or too deep.

Eye-clean: Refers to a stone with no flaws visible to the naked eye.

Facet: The diamond’s table polished surfaces. A round brilliant diamond possesses 58 facets.

Fire: The Fire of the color light reflects from the surface of the diamond

Fluorescence: A glow, often bluish in hue, that emanates from some diamonds when they’re bathed in ultraviolet light. Avoid high degrees of fluorescence; faint to medium fluorescence, however, usually does not change the diamond’s appearance. The effect of fluorescence depends on the combination of the color of the stone in question and the strength of the fluorescence. Faint fluorescence has very little effect on a stone of any color. Medium blue fluorescence and strong blue fluorescence can have a positive effect on stones of low color (J or worse). The fluorescence actually has the effect of making the stone look closer to near colorless. On stones of high color (D-G), strong or medium blue fluorescence can make the stone look milky instead of colorless or near colorless

Girdle: A diamond’s girdle is a thin band that traces the stone’s diameter. The girdle is the narrow belt around the stone, which divides the top portion of the diamond (crown) from the bottom portion of the diamond (pavilion). Girdle is usually expressed as a range, indicating that it may vary from one part of the stone to another. If a girdle has small, flat, polished surfaces on it, it is referred to as "faceted". 

Inclusion: Inclusions, or tiny flaws, are created during the diamond’s formation underground. They are fractures, mineral traces, and other imperfections that contribute to the stone’s uniqueness.

Make: Make of the stone’s proportions as determined by its cut. The better the make, the more fire and brilliance in the diamond. A worse make results in the stone’s inability to reflect light well, which means it will sparkle less.

Measurements: Measurements are calculated to the nearest hundredth millimeter and are usually written in this format: length x width x height

Pavilion: The diamond’s bottom area is just under the girdle to the culet.

Point: The point measurement of the weight is equivalent to one of the 100th of a carat. (50 points = 0.50 carat)

Polish: A grade assigned to the stone’s outer finish. The grading scale ranges from excellent to poor. Polish refers to the external finish of the facets. An excellent polish reflects the quality of the work the diamond cutter has put into the stone.

Symmetry: A grade assigned to the cut’s overall uniformity. The grading scale ranges from excellent to poor. Graded according to how precisely the facets are aligned (i.e., the top of the facet should mirror the bottom of the facet). A facet that does not have symmetrical sides will negatively affect how light reflects from the stone.

Table: The largest flat surface on the top (crown) of the diamond is table. The table percentage refers to how much of the total width is occupied by the table. A table that is either too large or too small will negatively affect how Light reflects up from the surface of the stone.

Table Percentage (%): The table’s width divided by the diamond’s diameter. A proper table percentage is necessary for a diamond to sparkle. A too-low or too-high table percentage will make the stone duller. 

 

4Cs Description:

Many people are confused about how diamonds are priced. The best Explanation is that asking for the price of a diamond is like asking for price of a house. A real estate agent can’t quote you a price for a house without knowing its size, condition, location, etc. This process is the same one used when buying a diamond. A diamond’s beauty, rarity, and price depend on the interplay of all the 4Cs.

4C's of Diamond Quality Diamonds are graded by four characteristics: cut, color, clarity, and carat (weight). All four of these properties determine how much a diamond is worth. The 4Cs are used throughout the world to classify the rarity of diamonds. Diamonds with the combination of the highest 4Cs ratings are more rare, consequently and more expensive. All this 4Cs are important than another in terms of its beauty and it is important to note that each of the 4Cs will not diminish in value over time. Once you have established those 4Cs characteristics that are most important to you, a jeweler can then begin to show you various options with quoted prices. The Diamond Picture is a framework to help you compare diamonds. While all diamonds are precious, those closest to the best combination of cut, color, clarity, and carat (weight) are the earth's rare and most valuable.

Cut

Color

Clarity

Carat

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