A diamond may be forever, but it doesn”™t take forever to create one anymore.
According to Mamaroneck jewelry manufacturer Gary Ptak, it can take anywhere from a few days to a month to produce a real, genuine diamond in the lab ”“ for 70 percent less cost than for a natural diamond.
Like Superman crushing a piece of coal into a diamond with his fist, Ptak said his gem-quality lab-made diamonds are created via the same concept ”“ an incredible amount of heat and pressure.
“It”™s not a fake stone, it”™s a real diamond ”“ it”™s just made differently,” Ptak said.
Last month, Ptak introduced the Conscience Collection, laboratory-grown diamonds and gems.
He is currently shopping his jewelry collection around to retailers.
Brian Heaps from Talner Jewelers on Main Street in New Rochelle said he would sell Ptak”™s collection as long as it was disclosed the stones are not natural diamonds.
“We are, as I would hope most jewelers are, in the business of disclosing,” Heaps said. “There is nothing wrong with selling something so long as you are upright about what it is that you”™re selling.”
The Conscience Collection is a subsidiary of Gary Ptak L.L.C., a jewelry manufacturing firm that Ptak said is “committed to social and environmental responsibility and keeping manufacturing in the U.S.A.”
Earth’s conditions are replicated in the lab to create the stones, which are cultured, colored diamonds and gems.
“It”™s a very labor-intensive process,” Ptak said. “Even with the perfect equipment there”™s no guarantee you”™ll get a perfect diamond.”
The high-pressure, high-temperature (HPHT) process starts with a small seed of 20-million-year-old carbon. The seed is either part of a natural diamond or synthetic diamond. Under the HPHT conditions, Ptak makes gem-quality ice.
A multi-diamond $7,000 lab-made ring from the collection would cost $100,000 if made with natural diamonds, Ptak said.
Ptak said in nature nobody knows for sure exactly how long it takes to produce a diamond. It is generally thought to be several million years.
The first man-made diamonds were made in the 1950s by G.E., used for cutting and industrial purposes.
“The fact that diamonds occur in nature at all is pretty amazing,” Ptak said.
Ptak said the lab-made diamonds have better quality, they sparkle and are clearer than natural diamonds. “They tend to have more brilliance than natural stones,” he said. “It”™s really shaken up the industry quite a bit.”
Ptak analogized you don”™t have to go to the tropics to get a beautiful Orchid ”“ you just need a greenhouse.
Ptak said his collection is named Conscience Collection because it is environmentally friendly. He noted 275 tons of earth are moved to mine one diamond and that synthetic diamonds do not contribute to the social unrest often associated with diamond mining.
The Gemological Institute of America (GIA) reports it began issuing synthetic diamond grading reports for the first time in 2006 in response to the growing number of gem-quality, laboratory-grown diamonds entering the marketplace and the need to distinguish them from natural diamonds.
“We felt that if these (synthetic diamonds) came into the market with a grading report, they would come into the market in a more organized, structured way,” said James Shigley, a GIA distinguished research fellow.
Shigley said the GIA has been looking at synthetic diamonds for much of the 25 years he”™s been associated with the institute. He noted many synthetic diamonds have a coloration, often yellow.
“It”™s hard to grow a high-quality crystal suitable for a gem,” Shigley said. “I think they offer a price break compared to a natural diamond of similar color, so there”™s a place in the market for them. I think they will have a place in the jewelry market as long as they are correctly identified and appropriately priced.”
GIA invented the 4 Cs for diamond classification ”“ carat, cut, color, clarity ”“ used by virtually every jeweler in the world.
“A synthetic diamond is in fact a diamond, but it”™s grown in a lab,” said Laura Simanton, senior public relations manager for the GIA. “They”™re nearly identical in chemical composition and properties.”
However, Simanton added, trained scientists with the proper equipment can tell the difference.
“In some cases there are some features a trained gemologist can look for with a loop or microscope,” Shigley said. “In some cases they contain small metal inclusions which are a result of the growth process.”
Shigley said it”™s very hard to grow a colorless diamond by the HPHT method because the diamond contains a small amount of nitrogen. In order to create a colorless diamond the nitrogen must be removed from the equation, a difficult process.
At this time Ptak is not producing colorless stones.
Another method, called CVD, or chemical vapor deposition, uses a vacuum chamber with no pressure. This growth method can more easily exclude the nitrogen, but is more experimental and is generally not used for commercial production.
“I think that a diamond is a tremendously important material for many applications, not just gemstones,” Shigley said. “I think we”™re going to continue to see developments in synthetic diamond growth.”
Heaps at Talner in New Rochelle said what”™s really the concern is what”™s not readily detectable.
Talner currently sells other lab-created stones, so Heaps would be open to selling Ptak”™s. Heaps said virtually any gemstone is enhanced to some extent, from heat-treating a sapphire to laser-drilling natural diamonds to eliminate dark spots.
Heaps said advantages of lab-made diamonds include pure, sometimes better-looking stones for less money. But, they don”™t have the aura of something nature created.
“There is always the fascination with nature”™s beauty,” he said.
