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Comment by jacquesm | Hacker News Reader

SpaceX' master plan revealed. Poor DeBeers.

CVD diamond synthesis has become so effective that it's embarrassing.[1][2] The diamond gem industry made a terrible mistake. They promoted "flawless" diamonds as the most valuable. Now they're up against a process borrowed from the semiconductor industry, which makes flawless crystals in bulk.

DeBeers keeps trying to maintain the distinction between natural and synthesized diamonds, but it's coming unglued. They keep coming out with more and more elaborate machines for detecting synthetic diamonds.[3]

[1] http://www.cvd-diamond.com/products_en.htm [2] https://www.alibaba.com/showroom/cvd-diamond.html [3] http://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2017/02/28/de-beers-step...

"The best diamonds are diamonds with slight natural flaws; that's what makes each one unique, like your love" -- my diamond dealer.

Next up: CVD diamonds with controlled random flaws.

If that were true then IF graded natural diamonds wouldn't be multiple times more expensive than the VVS grades.

The words of salespeople should really ring hollow.

IF graded natural diamonds are rarely more expensive than any colored VVS diamond (the coloration automatically grants a VVS since it's understood that the coloration in a diamond comes from inclusions.)

Two more weeks until GIA certification. The diamond course is the final one!

Synthetic diamonds are not available to consumers much cheaper than real ones.

Moissanite is though, and it has a higher refractive index and higher dispersion than diamond, so in the metrics that theoretically make diamond attractive as a gemstone, it's superior.

Look on Alibaba. Cubic zirconia by the metric ton. CVD and HPHT synthetic diamonds, polished, in bulk. (Be careful that you don't get cubic zirconia when you order diamonds, though.)

There was a beautiful wired article about these:

https://www.wired.com/2003/09/diamond/

Wow, thanks for the link. Found sad that Apollo is no longer, and Gemesis rebranded

My wife wanted a flaw in her diamond just for this reason.

Sounds like a fantastic reason to buy a Dremel, you'd definitely save some $.

Aren't we still a ways off from when this technology can scale and become economically viable? Still, I'm sort of tempted to get one of these things off Alibaba and have it looked at.

Yeah, DeBeers has already had a rough century. Now this? When will they get a break?

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