Diamonds are formed within the earth and usually have identifying characteristics within them. Both of these inclusions are preexisting natural breaks in the diamond crystal. The difference between the two is that a feather breaks against the grain of the diamonds atomic structure, and a cleavage breaks along the grain.
This does not mean that you should pass on every stone displaying these types of inclusions, you should, however, take note and decide whether a piece of the diamond looks like it could snap off. Usually, the risk of breaking a diamond is greater when these types of inclusions are near an edge or point of the diamond, or when they extend to the surface of the diamond. Diamonds break when they are subjected to impact, and sometimes, when there is a buildup of pressure inside the stone called strain , a slight tap in just the right place or just the wrong place will result in the stone breaking so the pressure can escape.
While there may not be many naturally-occurring materials out there that are stronger than diamonds, certain man-made metals like tungsten and steel have a higher tensile strength. That means a direct hit with an ordinary hammer can absolutely break a diamond. Be mindful of making erratic movements that may cause your diamonds or fine jewelry to be accidentally hit. Remove your diamond rings and earrings before swimming or exposure to heavy lotions or harsh chemicals that may weaken the integrity of your diamond settings.
When not in use, store your precious diamonds in a safe place wrapped in a soft cloth or kept in a box. In essence, treat them with the utmost care. Most broken diamonds can be recut by a professional diamond cutter.
Alara is proud to have Maarten de Witte founder of the American Diamond Cutting School as our diamond cutter, and he regularly performs miracles. He can either cut diamonds in the same cutting style as it originally had--or make suggestions for changes or improvements.
Of course, at some point, recutting a diamond is not sensible from a monetary perspective. So, since you now know diamond recutting is possible in case of a break, how do you pay for that service? The best financial protection against damaged diamonds is good jewelry insurance coverage. Partial losses, such as chipped stones, aren't typically covered under regular homeowners policies.
To ensure your jewelry is protected against all kinds of losses, choose a standalone policy for your jewelry like the ones offered by Alara Jewelry. Even if only one prong is damaged, your diamond is no longer held securely in its mounting.
That knife-edged portion of the diamond that is chipped has an extremely high risk of getting chipped far worse. Stop wearing it until you can have it repaired. But sometimes there can be a small feather or other small inclusion near the girdle or point that also makes the diamond vulnerable figures 17 and If the stone is hit precisely on a feather or inclusion near the direction of a cleavage plane or at a point, a chip is likely to occur. Open cavities at the girdle are much like chips and are more easily damaged figure There is no such thing as perfect toughness.
Any gem will break, not just chip, if it is hit hard enough. Diamonds are very tough, but remember that if a cutter can purposely cleave split a diamond by giving it a sharp blow in the right direction, you can achieve the same thing if you hit it hard enough accidentally. You are more likely to damage a diamond at the girdle or at a point. Diamonds with exceptionally thin places on their girdles are very vulnerable. To avoid damage, you should only wear your diamond jewelry during activities where you are unlikely to hit them hard against solid objects.
Figure 1. A comparison of the Mohs hardness scale and the Knoop hardness scale, a micro-hardness test where a pyramidal diamond point is pressed into the polished surface of the sample with a known load for a specified time and the resulting indentation is measured with a microscope. Illustration modified from V. Figure 2. Atoms of carbon are arranged in very tight rows. In the directions where carbon atoms are most compact, it is very difficult to break a diamond.
Note that atoms also lie in planes. The distances between planes are greater than the other distances between the carbon atoms. In the directions where the atoms lie in planes, diamonds can break, though with some difficulty. Those directions are referred to as cleavage planes.
Figure 4. Cleavage planes are parallel to the triangular octahedral face. Izman, Precision Engineering, , p. Figure 5. These are the hard directions in diamond crystals, the most difficult ones for the cutter to work with. Figure 6. These soft directions are easier for the cutter to work with. Figure 7. When cut from the octahedral crystal, the outer edge of the round brilliant would nearly touch the outer edge of the original octahedron. Figure 8. When sawn, the lower plane lower red line will eventually yield two princess-cut diamonds.
If the crystal were being cut to yield round brilliants, the sawing line would be the higher line upper red line. Figure 9. The corners of a princess cut are very vulnerable to chipping since they lie close to the cleavage plane.
0コメント