How Are Lab Created Diamonds Made?

October 11, 2010 – Diamonds symbolize more than wealth and riches. They symbolize passion, dedication, and enduring love.  They are a symbol that time, heat, and pressure can make something beautiful out of a lump black coal.  Diamonds are essentially carbon that has been heated over two hundred thousand kilometers under the surface of the earth and pressed upon by the earth’s layers.   Over a huge expanse of time, that carbon is turned into a rough diamond.  Diamonds are spewed up to the crust of the earth by volcanic action and then mined, cut, polished, and sold for tens of thousands of dollars each.

But now the process of creating a diamond can be simpler and much faster.  By two processes, one called HPHT and another called CVD, diamonds can now be artificially created.  These diamonds are called cultured diamonds, lab created diamonds, or synthesized diamonds.  These are among some of the most flawless diamonds, but not the biggest.  Although the process can create nearly flawless specimens, it can hardly culture white diamonds more than 0.6 carats.  Some colored diamonds can be cultured that reach about 3.0 carats.  These are vivid colors that are extremely rare in natural diamonds.

In the early 1900’s attempts were made to create diamonds artificially but no formal records were recorded.  In the mid 1950’s Russia and the USA began to artificially make diamonds for industrial use.  Industries had major need of diamonds for military and industrial growth.  During the cold war Russia was afraid that special embargos would be imposed that would limit its import of diamonds, so they began the search for diamond mines as well as cultured diamonds.  Within fifty years the process had advanced so much that gem quality diamonds were being created in Florida and Boston.  These were precious vivid colored lab created diamonds that could be sold to the general public.

 

 

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