What You Need to Know The About Clarity Of Enhanced Diamonds

February 27, 2011 • Posted by StunninfJewels in Diamond Clarity, Diamond FAQ’s, Diamond Rings • Tags: Diamond Clarity, SI1 Clarity, SI2 Clarity • 0 comments  

If you’re somewhat new to the wonderful world of diamonds and are searching the Internet to learn as much as you can before buying, you have probably come across the term “Clarity Enhanced Diamonds.” Okay, what are they and should you consider buying one?

To answer both those questions we first have to look at what diamond clarity means. I’ve been buying diamond jewelry gifts for a long time and I once had the good fortune to have a friendly jeweler show me a “diamond in the rough.”

As you know, the diamond you see in the jewelry counter started its life as an undistinguished looking natural stone. Natural products have imperfections and diamonds are no exception. Considering their ultimate value it is no surprise that diamond cutters do not simply discard stones with imperfections. So most of the diamonds you see in the store or on the net have flaws of varying degrees of severity in them.

These imperfections or inclusions as they are referred to in the diamond business, include little cracks and fissures and spots of white or black where some foreign material has crept into the stone.

Back when I started buying diamonds there was no technology available to improve some of these imperfections, but starting about 20 years ago some techniques for enhancing the clarity of diamonds popped up in the marketplace. Here are the three major technologies in use today:

1. Fracture Filling
2. Laser Drilling
3. Deep Boiling

Fracture filling, as its name implies, is simply the process of filling a fracture in the stone with a silicone compound material which becomes invisible when it dries. For some stones, specialized drilling is needed to be able to reach the fracture in order to fill it with the silicone. As a bit of useless trivia, you might want to know the procedure was invented by an Israeli named Zvi Yehuda. You can buy Yehuda enhanced diamonds over the Internet.

Laser Drilling is used to rid diamonds of black spots beneath surface of the diamond. A laser beam cuts a passage to the spot which is then removed through a deep boiling process.

Deep Boiling can only be used for black spots at the surface of the stone. All that’s involved here is placing the stone in a pressurized acid bath which removes the spot. Obviously, if the spot can’t be reached, there is no point in deep boiling.

Now here are a few more things you need to know about clarity enhanced diamonds before we address the question of whether or not you should even consider buying one.

First, diamond dealers are supposed to disclose the fact that the diamond you are buying has had its clarity enhanced. It should come as no surprise that not all of them do. Drilling techniques leave some tell tale marks that can be detected through magnification, although not very easily by the untrained eye. You’re better off thoroughly researching the reputation of the dealer from whom you are buying.

Second, the GIA does not sanction any drilling techniques, so you can forget about getting a certificate with a diamond enhanced in this way. They do recognize deep boiling, as it really does nothing to the internal integrity of the stone itself. In fact, the procedure can be so effective, some dealers use deep boiling on all their stones, just as a precaution.

Okay, now for the question that matters: should you consider buying one? The answer is a qualified yes. If you haven’t already figured out that clarity is the least important characteristic of a good diamond, trust me when I tell you that it is. Spend the time investigating the way imperfections are graded and you’ll learn that the vast majority of them are not visible to the naked eye. So if you can’t see them, what does it matter?

The naked eye is the best judge of what you really want out of a diamond – its beauty. You can save a lot of money buying lower clarity grade diamonds with imperceptible imperfections and you can save even more buying a good looking clarity enhanced diamond.

How about those qualifications? If you are foolish enough to believe diamonds are a good investment, forget about clarity enhanced diamonds since you won’t be able to get a GIA certificate.

The final qualification has to do with whether or not bragging to your friends and family about the fact you can afford a certified diamond. If that’s important to you, forget about clarity enhanced stones. If however, you like to brag about how much money you saved on a diamond that still looks positively fantastic, clarity enhanced stones may be just what you want.