Natural mined diamonds have been under a lot of heat lately. The award-winning journalist Cecil Adams sums it up best in a recent article: the? Diamonds are a scam, pure and simple? Most people in the new millennium understand that between the diamond cartel DeBeers, the introduction of child labor in the diamond processing operations in the third world, and diamonds? Blood? Used to finance oppression and genocide in Africa's third world, not to mention your local jeweler snooty and pretentious, diamonds are just not worth the hassle, guilt, and let's not forget thousands and thousands of dollars questionably spent.

Lately, new synthetic diamonds came on the market that have all the beauty of the look, appeal, and shine of natural diamonds, but without the baggage, and at a fraction of the cost.

Since moissanite burst upon the scene in the late 90s, has created quite a stir. Moissanite is silicon carbide of gem-quality. The production of moissanite is a proprietary process and is available only from C3 Inc, a division of Cree Research.

When moissanite was first introduced to the market created much publicity. This was due to the fact that moissanite often fool a jeweler into thinking it was a natural diamond. the 20/20 TV news shows and made the new segments featuring hidden cameras showing jewelers fooled and embarrassed by moissanite. What was really happening though was not quite so simple.

Jewelers usually rely on something called "thermal-probe? to detect a fake diamond. The thermal probes work well with cubic zirconia, for example. Moissanite, however, has a thermal conductivity that is very close to the diamond. Could fool probes thermal older. The fact of the matter is though, moissanite really just does not look that good as the diamond. The two substances have radically different optical properties. These differences are clearly visible to the naked eye. It was obvious in the new segment on 20/20 that jewelers were clearly confused. They kept looking at the stone and then testing in and saying things like? Well, I guess it must be real? What were they really are? Well, I guess it must be real, but it sure is a weird looking diamond?

Problems with Moissanite as a stimulant diamond

Unlike natural diamonds, or some of the synthetic diamonds of better quality like those available from diamond, moissanite have a optical quality known as the "hexagonal polytypic.? What this means is that moissanite is doubly-doubly-refractive. And because of this creates a strong visual effect known as "birefringence.? This is visually seen as bending the facets of the stone back that creates a? Drunk-vision checked?

Dispersion

Moissanite has a dispersive power nearly 2.5 times greater than that of diamond. This creates what is known as a "hard-ball? effect. Some think that this fire is extra nice, others think they look cheap and fake.

Color

It is impossible to produce a pure white moissanite. The stones have a quality known as the "fluorescence? this causes them to appear slightly green or gray. This effect is a natural light than much bigger. In the jewelry store a moissanite dealer will always show the stones under a pink tinged light pink, as this tends to cancel out the fluorescence. Many people said they loved their moissanite ring until they got it in the sunlight.

Cost

Due to its manufacturing process relatively extensive and the fact that it is only available from one source, moissanite tends to be (though still cheap compared to diamonds) quite expensive stones moissanite good quality run around $ 520 per caret .

Best Alternative Synthetic Diamond

The last two years there have been almost miraculous breakthroughs in the science of creating synthetic diamond. There are several new processes that create gemstones that are virtually indistinguishable from natural diamonds. One of the best I have found are the gemstones available. I recently did independent research for several synthetic diamond companies and found their products to be among the best.

Cut glass gemstones are the factors of brilliance, dispersion and the radiance that is very close to the diamond mines, and best of all, because they are new on the market of E. U., are priced at a incredible $ 79 per caret. This is a business that probably will not last.