Various Diamond Colour And Irradiation Techniques

The whiter a diamond is the rarer it becomes and this increases its value as well

. At the other end of the colour spectrum we have the natural fancy colours which are intense vivid and represent a wide variety of colours from red to pink, from brown to blue and from intense yellow to green, in fact all colours of the rainbow.

These so called 'fancy' colours are more expensive than their white cousins, in fact far more so as they are among the rarest of all diamonds found in nature.

Their value and rarity has pushed people to recreate them artificially and there are several techniques employed to do this.

One of these is the coating treatment, easily applied in order to mask the yellow tints either by adding a blueish colour on the diamond or even dipping the diamond in a specially prepared solution, this technique is not permanent and will fade in time and more so after cleaning in specialised cleaning solutions.

Then there is the 'irradiation' technique where the diamonds are subjected to being neutron 'bombarded' within a nuclear reactor changing the colour of the diamonds in a mass of different intense and less vivid colours. The diamonds treated in this way are lightly radioactive and the colour change is permanent unless the diamond is subjected to further treatment. These diamonds may not be sold without explicitly being identified as 'treated' or 'enhanced' and should always be accompanied by a good gem laboratory report. These diamonds are much much cheaper than their 'natural' equivalents in most cases less than 90% cheaper in fact so great caution is involved during their selection especially where the supplier is concerned.

High Pressure High Temperature ( HPHT) treatment is another method pioneered by General Electric in the United States. This is a highly specialised technique developed by this company where they in fact recreate real diamonds artificially from carbon as they would have been created in nature. This method allows diamonds to be created 'to order' so to speak but is still quite expensive. All diamonds having been created using this technique must be marked, by laser engraving, as HPHT made but it has been known that these marking have been removed from diamonds.

The ethics, therefore, of diamond suppliers are of the utmost importance so it is most important that you choose your supplier, both on reputation and technical know how.

The HPHT technique is very difficult to detect so once again be very wary about whom your supplier is.

Artificially enhanced diamonds are plentiful on the market and it is obvious that many dealers, knowingly or not have been duped in the past and sold them on occasions as the real thing.

Best is to purchase these irradiated diamonds from a good source, one with a reputation to maintain, even more so if the real 'natural' fancy coloured diamond is required.

One such supplier can be found online at www.JewelleryWebShop.co.uk where you will be assisted and guided by a real diamond merchant with vast experience and technical know how.

by:George Ziadmann

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