Black and Blue Diamonds
Like all colored diamonds black and blue diamonds are very fashionable as gifts this season. Here are some things you need to know about these interesting gems before you buy.
Blue diamonds are inferior in quality to white ones. They are also not that rare so you should not pay a high price for them. They are blue because they are flawed. l. In fact most diamonds that you buy that are below a G grade most likely contain a bit of blue thanks to boron discoloring the stone.
True blue diamonds are cloudy looking. That is why they look so blue in the first place. These inferior stones must be heat treated or they will not have any sparkle. An unflawed stone is crystal pure white. The bluer stones might be backed with a bit of mirror so they reflect a more blue like tone.
Natural blue diamond’s do exit and come in shades of indigo, navy, blue-violet and cornflower blue. The Hope Diamond is a good example. You can only really find these in museum exhibitions. You can buy simulated blue diamonds that do the trick – just be careful not to pay too much for them.
Natural black diamonds are very rare. Only one in 100,000 diamonds have any black any of them. Black diamonds are considered to be “cursed.” They certainly make interesting conversation pieces. They look great as a string of marquise cuts in a band. One large stone can also be stunning looking if it has a special cut – like a heart shape.
You can expect to pay a lot of money for this type of stone especially if it has a bit of a red or chocolate colored hue to it. Natural black diamonds are very defective as any diamond that has a detectable hue to it has a lot of impurities or structural defects. It is highly unlikely that you will find a real natural black diamond sold online or any store. However sometimes they come up in estate auctions.
Most of the black diamond rings and so forth that are mass marketed are stones that have been dyed or heat-treated to disguise their flaws. In essence it is a way of marketing inferior grade diamonds as valuable gemstones. Still if you are looking forward to having a Goth wedding in the new year you might really like the look of a black stone in your wedding ring. Black diamonds also make incredible looking cocktail rings, especially in the Marquise cut.