Some diamonds we've seen from these hot fires are absolutely fine. Others are burnt, giving a chalky, frosted appearance. Burnt diamonds look almost like an ice skating rink's thick white ice.
If you heat the diamond in the open air, it will begin to melt and burn at around 700 degrees Celsius (1,292 degrees Fahrenheit). Burning a diamond without oxygen, however, will make it change into graphite (a crystalline form of carbon) before transforming into a fluid.
The stone was recut to remove the burned area, reducing the diamond's size, but leaving no sign that it was ever damaged (right). Diamonds can be cleaned safely with lint-free cloths, commercial jewelry cleaning solutions, and household detergents. Harsher cleaning methods are not recommended for home use.
If a diamond is heated to a high enough temperature, it can unite with the oxygen from the air causing blemishes. The damage to the stone can be substantial and fixing it will result in a loss of weight. Recutting of diamonds is also worth a lot of attention.
In a stream of oxygen gas, diamonds burn initially at a low red heat. They will gradually rise in temperature and reach a white heat. Then, the diamonds will burn uninterruptedly with a pale-blue flame, even after the removal of the oxygen heat source.
Heating irradiated diamonds to above 500o C will change most blue-to-green colors to brownish or orangy yellow to yellow, or, in rare cases, pink to red. High-pressure high-temperature (HPHT) annealing: Exposing diamonds to very high pressures and temperatures can lighten the color of some brownish diamonds.
The “crack” is a reflection from the diamond's girdle and is a so-called girdle reflection. This phenomenon is caused by the pavilion facets and is the answer to the horizontal line in the diamond. As you can see in the image above, the reflection is only visible from the side and not when seeing the diamond face up.
How to tell if your diamond is real using a magnifying glass. Using a magnifying glass, hold up your diamond and look for imperfections within the stone. If you're unable to find any, then it is most likely fake — a majority of real diamonds will have flaws, which are referred to as inclusions.
Diamonds are designated to burn at about 900 degrees Celsius when there is adequate oxygen. However, melting diamonds requires a minimum of 4500 degrees Celsius at a pressure of 100,000 bar. Diamond requires oxygen to burn, which leads to the formation of carbon monoxide or carbon dioxide.
Clarity issues are the main reasons why a diamond can look cloudy. This is fundamentally due to the nature/severity of the inclusions and things tend to get worse as you go lower in clarity grades (e.g. SI1 and below).
For that reason, it is recommended that you not attempt to clean your diamond by boiling it. Boiling is no more effective than other methods of cleaning and carries a greater risk of damage to the stone and to the jewelry's metal parts.
A diamond that has not been cleaned for a while can look milky due to a buildup of film and dirt on its facets. Cloudy diamonds can also have diminished transparency from inclusions or other characteristics intrinsic to the crystal from which they are cut.
The presence of strong atomic bonds in diamond means that it takes a lot of energy to rip apart the carbon atoms in diamond in order to free them up to burn with oxygen. As a result, it takes a higher temperature to burn diamond than to burn wood.
Diamonds are exceptionally delicate, and thus, they require the utmost care. Harsh chemicals like acetone, chlorine, bleach and other abrasive substances like baking powder and toothpaste will damage your diamond beyond repair.
Fair/Poor Grade Diamond Examples
Fair and Poor cut diamonds usually have steep crowns and steep pavilion angles which gives them a really dark looking appearance. This makes them look extremely small for their carat weight. Because of their abysmal proportions, their brilliance and sparkle are horribly affected.
Visit A Trusted Jeweler
Many jewelers will appraise your stone free of charge and experts will often be able to tell immediately if your diamond is authentic or not. If your stone came with a certificate, your jeweler should be happy to take a look at it and tell you whether it is from a trustworthy source.
A real diamond has no limits on its shelf life. A lab grown diamond made in the Diamond Foundry may look the same as a real one, but has zero resale value. The brilliance of the relationship may be gone, but the stone will shine forever. It won't lose its luster and it doesn't get worn out with time.
Diamonds don't shatter when exposed to high heats.
As a result, diamonds are incredibly durable and aren't susceptible to damage from high heat. Fake diamonds, on the other hand, cannot handle heat nearly as well because they are made of weaker materials.
Girdles Can Reflect in a Diamond
If you look at the side of your diamond and see a line across it, about ⅔ of the way down, don't panic. It's most likely a girdle reflection. Because of how light moves through a diamond, light that enters through the girdle will usually come out through the pavilion.
Radiation damage can also occur when the diamond is deep in the Earth. However, the high temperature at which the diamond resides in the Earth is likely to cause the defects to change, reducing its green color and potentially changing it to brown or adding a yellow component [1].
The way that diamonds reflect light is unique: the inside of a real diamond should sparkle gray and white while the outside should reflect a rainbow of colors onto other surfaces. A fake diamond, on the other hand, will have rainbow colors that you can see inside the diamond as well.
The majority of diamonds contain a natural yellow or brown tint, while white “colorless” diamonds are the rarest. According to the GIA scale, D grade diamonds (D, E, and F), the most valuable and expensive, are translucent diamonds with no yellow hue.