• executive_chicken@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    Look up moissanite. It’s literally the cheaper, superior diamond. The fact that it exists just goes to show how inflated the diamond market is

    • Ð Greıt Þu̇mpkin@lemm.ee
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      1 year ago

      Saw a story about a wedding ring where instead of a diamond the ring was jeweled with the couple’s birth stones fit together into the shape of a heart, which honestly I think is WAY better and probably WAY cheaper too.

    • fristislurper@feddit.nl
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      1 year ago

      Moissanite is chemically different to diamond (SiC vs C), has a different crystal structure, and is less hard. You can also get actual lab-grown diamond, but they are quite expensive. But you probabaly won’t be able to tell the difference anyway.

      • hperrin@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        Usually you can tell the difference. Lab grown diamond is pure while rock grown diamond is imperfect.

        But you have to look at it under a magnifying glass to tell, and know what you’re looking for.

      • TheActualDevil@sffa.community
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        1 year ago

        But also, who cares that it’s less hard? I’m not using it for a drill bit, it’s a cosmetic piece. Literally it’s only function is visual. And moissanite is superior. All the visual markers that are used for beauty in a diamond it surpasses. And some quick googling I did to confirm that also showed me that diamond is only barely harder (“With a hardness of 9.25, moissanite is the second-hardest material used a gemstone.” a diamond is a 10.) and it turns out, less likely to break in some cases. “Moissanite doesn’t have a cleavage plane, while diamond does. (This is an internal plane along which a diamond crystal can easily split)” So if you hit a diamond in the wrong spot, it can still crack. Moissanite does not have a weak spot.

        source

        • Chunk@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          It’s very important to me that my gemstone only has carbon. If it has silicon I’m going to get very upset. Silicon interferes with your inner flow and can have harmful ions.

          • my crystal wearing, hippy Grandma.