Diamond, It’s All AboutMarch 5, 2021
Diamond is truly the king of all precious stones, it is valued for its exceptional hardness and purity. This mineral consists of only one chemical element – carbon.
How is a diamond different from a diamond?
The word “diamond“, which is familiar to us, is a diamond, only already cut. For example, the English language does not separate the concept of “crystal” (raw material) and “faceted stone”: in both cases, they bear the proud name of “diamond“.
Diamond is the only mineral with a hardness of 10 on the Mohs scale. Although on this scale it is only one step higher than corundum ( sapphire and ruby ), but it is 140 times harder than it!
Where are diamonds mined?
Diamonds formed in the bowels of the Earth under high pressure and temperatures of about 1300 ° C for over a billion years and rose to the surface as a result of violent volcanic eruptions. The bearing rock is located all over the world. The group of 7 largest diamond-producing countries includes Australia, South Africa, Zaire, Russia, Namibia, Angola, and Botswana. A small number of diamonds are mined in Canada, Brazil, China, and Indonesia.
By the way, no one will ever tell you the name of the deposit where was found, unless you become the owner of a, particularly large and rare specimen. All mined in the world fall into a centralized warehouse, where they are sorted. After classification, different suppliers, which belong to the same quality category, are mixed. So lose their “nationality” so that the buyer could not determine the country of origin of the purchased stones.
The main characteristics
All are unique and are a miracle of time, place, and circumstances. Each of them has certain qualities that form the value of the stone.
Until the middle of the twentieth century, there was no single standard in the world. The Gemological Institute of America (GIA) developed the first standard for the description, which later became generally accepted. These parameters are called “4C” – from the first letters of the words:
- Color – color;
- Clarity – purity;
- Cut – faceting;
- Carat Weight – weight in carats.
When we talk about color, we mean how white it is (colorless). Chemically pure and structurally perfect diamond has no hue, like a drop of pure water. According to the GIA, the range of white varies from D to Z, where D is the most colorless, and Z contains a brown or yellow hue, visible to the naked eye.
Color is not covered by this call gradation Fantasy (English – fancy).
In the international system of evaluation of GIA, there are 9 main colors of this stone: red, brown, gray, purple, blue, green, pink, orange, and yellow.
The growth in the bowels of the Earth was uneven, going through a number of stages. At different stages, pressure, temperature, and cooling did not always remain unchanged. As a result, in the structure of the stone, there were inhomogeneous areas, which are now considered to be its characteristic internal features, the so-called inclusions. Today, these inclusions often indicate the naturalness of the stone.
The degree of purity shows how clean the stone is from any inclusions. According to the GIA, the purity is assessed on the following scale:
FL (Flawless) – impeccably clean;
IF (Internally Flawless) – internally pure;
VVS1, VVS2 (Very Very Slightly Included) – very, very small inclusions;
VS1, VS2 (Very Slightly Included) – very small inclusions;
SI1, SI2, SI3 (Slightly Included) – small inclusions;
I1, I2, I3 (Included) – noticeable inclusions.
Although modern technology allows you to enlarge the stone dozens of times, the standard for evaluating is 10 times magnification.
Inclusions can prevent light from passing through the stone without hindrance. Depending on their size, location, and depth, the luster of the stone may become dull, ie the diamond will not have enough “play”.
Looking at the uncut, it is difficult to imagine that under the gray crust it hides purity and incredible brilliance. If in ancient times this stone valued the beautiful shape of the crystal and its transparency, then thanks to the cutter, it has become the king of all precious stones.
The more accurately calculated the planes and angles, the better the luster and reflectivity.
There are 5 assessments of the quality of diamond cutting:
- Excellent – flawless (faceting);
- Very Good – very good;
- Good – good;
- Fair – satisfactory;
- Poor – bad.
The weight is measured in carats, abbreviated ct.1 carat = 0.2 g
Today, 4C is a universal method of assessing quality anywhere in the world. The creation of “Diamond 4C” meant two important points: the quality could be spoken in a universal language; now buyers could know exactly what they were going to buy.
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