[guju4life]

Technology has gotten a lot better in producing man made diamonds. How does a customer know if they are purchasing a real diamond or a man made diamond without using high tech expensive detector?

[RushabhS]

Because synthetic diamonds can be made for less than it costs to mine natural diamond, they are used mostly in industrial applications and have not yet made much of an impact in the diamond jewelry space.

Gem-quality diamonds grown in a lab can be chemically, physically and optically identical to naturally occurring ones. For all practical purposes, there is no way to distinguish between synthetic and natural diamonds without using sophisticated instruments such as spectroscopic equipment working in the infrared, ultraviolet, or X-ray wavelengths. Synthetic diamonds can fool even a trained gemologist. The DiamondView tester from De Beers uses UV fluorescence to detect trace impurities of nickel or other metals in or hydrogen in synthetic diamonds.

However, synthetic diamonds are only 30% cheaper than natural diamonds due to the difficulty of making gem-quality diamonds even under controlled environments (it's far easier to make industrial-quality diamonds). So it is unlikely that synthetic diamonds will affect the diamond jewelry market in a disruptive way.

[britt06]

I alway hold my diamond rings,and other jewelry in sunlight to see how it reflects. This seems to be a good test-but the fake diamonds have gotten better over the years.

[bigheartedmommy]

Some of the manmade diamonds I own actually look better than the real diamonds and of course cost way less. I still prefer real diamonds just for the fact that they are "REAL". It would be nice to have a fake one that looks like your real diamond so when you are on vacation you don't have to take your real ones with you.

[pattiycake]

Some of the manmade diamonds I own actually look better than the real diamonds and of course cost way less. I still prefer real diamonds just for the fact that they are "REAL". It would be nice to have a fake one that looks like your real diamond so when you are on vacation you don't have to take your real ones with you.

My thoughts exactly. There are instances where we do not want to take our expensive jewelry with us however we don't want to be without nice jewelry either.

[mangelo3211]

isnt the ultimate test whether or not it will cut glass. real diamond=cut glass, fake diamond=will not.

or is this just a myth

[jmacmillan]

I have always heard that only real diamonds would cut glass and that was a test. As far as one versus the other aren't diamond naturally occuring stones. So the man made process takes the same "ingedients" so to speak and just causes it to happen faster?

I thought diamonds are basically carbon that had been compressed over time. So if you could take charcoal and put it in a vice and make a diamond or wait 1 million years whats the difference?

Thanks.

[emontefusco]

What is the hardness range of synthetic diamonds? Are they able to create them to a hardness of 10?

[ssalapek]

I would love to know where I can get a simulated diamond that actually looks real. I have purchased some in the past and they always look fake to me. I'm looking for a white gold eternity ring possibly with manmade diamonds to save on cost. Anyone know of some?

[kimplovely]

The cost is noticeablly different when comparing the two for sure. I know I personally can't but if you want value in the long term...