Lab Grown Diamonds

Created gemstones are different from other types of manmade stones, as they have the same physical, chemical and optical characteristics as their mined, natural counterparts. Although created colored gemstones were developed over 80 years ago, lab created white diamonds have been in the market for about 5 years. Questions that come to mind? Are they diamonds? Yes. Can you tell the difference between the natural and lab grown diamond with the naked eye? No. The only way to tell the difference for certain, while testers play catch up, is at a lab where they can examine the growth of each crystal; basically how long it took to grow the stone and in what direction the original crystal grew. A natural diamond takes about 3 billion years to grow; a lab created diamond about 2 weeks.

Laboratory created diamonds are created by one of 2 methods; HPHT ( high pressure high temperature) which mimics the route the natural diamond took and CVD (chemical vapor deposition) which involves the breakdown of carbon rich gas. The gas is deposited on a diamond “seed”. The crystals are shaped very differently from their natural counterparts, but the results are chemically the same. (reference gia.edu)

So is this a good development? The market says the price is about 30-40% less than the natural stones, but it may be too soon to tell if their value will hold. It seems like if the stones can be grown quickly, whose to say the market won’t be flooded in the future? When we work with a client for the creation of “perfect bling”, they are choosing the diamond with emotion, creating a story of their own. If a client wishes to see a Lab created diamond, we can get one in on approval. We will leave it up to them to determine how they want their diamond grown. Each laboratory created diamond comes with a certificate indicating the process by which the diamond grew and the stone is also laser inscribed on the girdle clearly stating “Lab grown."

works cited:
Man-made Diamonds: Questions and Answers