Need to pick up some Diamond Stud Earring in Los Angeles

[Rusty Heap]

Have said women bring HER credit card too............

[look 171]

Originally Posted by 125shifter

What about man-made diamonds. Anyone know how the look compared to earth made diamonds?

One thing for sure they are not as hard and will not cut glass. Well, through the train eyes, they look just like glass. Right through to the other side unlike the real thing.

Cubic Zs are clearer, whiter, and the cut is almost always better then the real thing. Its like looking through a clean wine glass. you should be able to get a carat cubic Z for 50-80 bucks I suppose. That's wholesale of course, I dont know about retail.

When I got hitched, my father made her ring. my wondrerful wife decided to not wear it everyday and kept it in the safe dep. box. I decided to make a smaller ring with a 70pt. cubic Z for her. No one could tell. Dad thinks that we are nuts with the CZ. My parents have had the same rings for over 40+ years. My wife tells everyone that I am cheap and that she has a Cubic Z on her fring finger.

that's like comparing a 959 kit car on a V Dub motor and frame to the real thing. Most people wouldn't know the difference.

[look 171]

Originally Posted by Don Ro

Believe it or not...don't forget about Costco.
I was looking for the same diamonds last December & had a casual chat with the jewelry lady at Costco. I had heard from a client, years past, that it's common to jack-up jewelry prices 1,000%. Costco lady confirmed that & said that Costco's prices for fine jewelry are dramatically below the store prices.
Also, for each item they sell, they have a color photo & a page of details on it in a binder.
Who'd 'a thunk?
FWIW.

1000% is not true. Not at all. One of my dad's old friend who's in the business use to mfg the diamond rings for Costo. I would not call them fine jewelry. look at the inside back of the ring, you will see a bunch of casting marks that have not been filed or sanded. They are all polish so it seem to be clean to the entrain eye. Have a closer look. You trust the jewelry lady at Costo with a full carat stone? I can tell you this, most sales people at these big jewerly retail outfits in the mall haven't a clue what they are talking about when it comes down to really fine and expensive jewerly. I am not talking about your Garnets and Topazs but high end Rubys, Emerials and they are set.

We used to be able to get the same paper and all the details from GIA for 50 bucks.

[svandamme]

Originally Posted by 125shifter

What about man-made diamonds. Anyone know how the look compared to earth made diamonds?

Originally Posted by look 171

One thing for sure they are not as hard and will not cut glass. Well, through the train eyes, they look just like glass. Right through to the other side unlike the real thing.

That is completely not true

Cubic Zirconium is not a "Man made Diamond", but a man made diamond substitute , there's a big difference
It does not have the same properties as real Diamond does, where a synthetic Diamond, does.

Real artificially grown aka synthetic diamonds will cut glass just as well as regular diamonds.

Some are in fact harder then natural diamonds but typically suffer from impurities due to the production process ,usually blue or yellow in color...
Hence, they are primarily used for their cutting properties, because cosmetics don't matter when used for that purpose.

Fact is, they can produce colorless diamonds that are indistinguishable to the naked eye, that are just as hard, just as shiny.
The only way to detect them, is with dedicated hardware, like the gear they have at De Beers.

[Joeaksa]

Originally Posted by Rusty Heap

Have said women bring HER credit card too............

Glad that someone finally said it. Last time I was married we had plain gold rings and thats the way it will be if I ever get married again.

Glad to buy a woman diamonds if she is buying me the same value in something at the same time. Guy I worked with just got married 8 months ago and spent $35k for a diamond ring just so she can show off to the girlfriends. BTW, he is dead broke and put it on a credit card...

Aint gonna happen here, just no need to show off like this in our family.

[David]

After a little more research on man-made diamonds, I found they're not readily available.

Any company that offers white man-made diamonds are really selling CZ.

The yellow man-made diamonds are really orangeish so they don't look that great and blue and pink man-made diamonds are being made in such small quantities that you're not likely to find them and they're still rather expensive.

[look 171]

Originally Posted by svandamme

That is completely not true

Cubic Zirconium is not a "Man made Diamond", but a man made diamond substitute , there's a big difference
It does not have the same properties as real Diamond does, where a synthetic Diamond, does.

Real artificially grown aka synthetic diamonds will cut glass just as well as regular diamonds.

Some are in fact harder then natural diamonds but typically suffer from impurities due to the production process ,usually blue or yellow in color...
Hence, they are primarily used for their cutting properties, because cosmetics don't matter when used for that purpose.

Fact is, they can produce colorless diamonds that are indistinguishable to the naked eye, that are just as hard, just as shiny.
The only way to detect them, is with dedicated hardware, like the gear they have at De Beers.

For agrument, you are right, but who the heck want an industrial diamond on their ear or ring finger? I have a bunch in my diamond cutting tools. I don't even know if they are mand made of the real thing. I couldn't care less.

Around here, most people know of a mand made diamond as Cubic Z and not grown industrial grade of crystal clear diamonds. I know its had no properties of a real thing.

I would never ever tell a woman all this technical stuff if she came into our shop looking for diamonds. Real or not. Plus, we do not deal diamonds.

I know you are in Belgium, do you work for De Beers? That would be a cool job and to see all their equipments. After that, go see the Tour de Flanders.

[look 171]

Originally Posted by Joeaksa

Glad that someone finally said it. Last time I was married we had plain gold rings and thats the way it will be if I ever get married again.

Glad to buy a woman diamonds if she is buying me the same value in something at the same time. Guy I worked with just got married 8 months ago and spent $35k for a diamond ring just so she can show off to the girlfriends. BTW, he is dead broke and put it on a credit card...

Aint gonna happen here, just no need to show off like this in our family.

Hey, I thank goodness for people like that so I can eat a warm meal and have heat in the house growing up. Thankfully my, sister, and mother are not really interested in jewerlys. Maybe we all grew up with it, and couldn't really care less. Thank god my wife like no jewerly on her beside a little tiny ring.

[svandamme]

no i don't work in the diamond business, but i have a couple of customers in Antwerp that do.

Over here we wouldn't call a a Zirkonium , man made diamond,but fake diamond...

I don't even think in the US they are allowed to sell em as "man made diamond", or even use the word diamond at all when it comes to repro diamond like whatever it is.

But they can and do use it for synthetics. As long as they don't use terms like "natural" or "real" in the same sentence... Man Made Diamond would refer to a synthetic one, for those in the business.