14K or 18K

As I know, there is no gold wedding ring made of 100% gold (24k) because it’s too soft (but there is 24K jewelry ring). To make a gold wedding ring, it must be mixed with other materials, usually alloy copper for rose gold or yellow gold ring and nickel or palladium for white gold ring (some people reported allergic to nickel, so you better choose palladium). Gold ring is divided into several types i.e. 9K, 14k and 18k. But for wedding or engagment ring usually is 14K or 18K gold ring. 14k gold contains 58% gold and the rest 42% is other materials, while 18K gold is 75% gold and the rest 25% is other materials. Because the other materials that used to mix with gold is harder than gold, the 14k gold is harder from 18k gold. So if you’re an active person, I suggest you to purchase 14k gold, if you are the person who will remove the ring at work or you work behind the desk, you can buy 18k gold.

White Gold or Yellow Gold

Yellow gold looks more classic, but sometimes it looks too vivid, so it doesn’t match with the clothes or jewelry that you used. In contrary, because it’s neutral color, white gold can be used in almost every occasion.

Diamond ring setting

There are several types of diamond ring settings, such as the bezel setting, Ballerina setting, bead setting, Channel Setting, Setting Cluster, Flush Setting, and Pave Setting. Settings may affect how the diamond will reflect light (whether the ring setting will block the light) and of course it will affect how the ring looks, just select the ring setting that most suit your personality.

Diamond Cut

There are several types of diamond cut (round brilliant cut, princess cut, step cut, etc) that will make a diamond shape looks different. but what most important is not what type of diamond cut, but it’s the two aspects of the cut, which is polish and symmetry. If the diamond not well polished, the surface of the diamond may not reflective and the sparkle won’t come out or it will be blurred. If the symmetry is poor, it will cause the light that enter the diamond won’t reflect to the surface of the diamond, and the light will exits the diamond.

HPHT Treated Diamond

History of HPHT

The history of HPHT treatments dates back to 1955, when the General Electric Company first discovered the process for creating diamonds in the laboratory. This led to the creation of HPHT process, whereby GE first created a press where the required pressure and temperature could be maintained for the process. One thing led to another and HPHT treatment evolved through various presses like the tetrahedral, BARS and finally the cubic press. What began as an experiment for diamond color modification in synthetic diamonds has today evolved into usage for natural diamonds also.

Usage of HPHT Diamond Enhancements

HPHT treatments basically serve two purposes

Creating synthetic diamonds: To obtain synthetic diamonds, carbon is put inside a grapite capsule. A seed is then inserted into this capsule and a catalyst is added. The diamond grows on the seed while the catalyst enables the crystallization to take place.

Color modification: Different type of diamonds react differently when exposed to HPHT treatments and a range of colors are obtained. For example, diamonds containing aggragated nitrogen, when exposed to HPHT can cause it to become single substitution nitrogen. In such cases, diamonds having green, orange and yellow hues can be created. In diamonds where nitrogen is negligible, the process is often used to produce colorless diamonds. Thus brownish diamonds when HPHT processed can obtain a colorless hue. A light pink color may also be obtained in some cases. In case of diamonds with negligible nitrogen and presence of boron, HPHT can alter the color. Thus brownish diamonds will lose the brown tone and boron will make the stone bluish in color.

Popular presses used for treatment

Belt presses: This was the initial form of press used for treatment. Here pressure is created by the usage of two high strength pistons that provide equal pressure in opposing directions on a sample. A series of rings surround the sample in order to contain the pressure.

Torid press: In this method, the two pistons apply pressure in a single vertical direction.

Cubic press: This uses many pistons that provide pressure from different directions. It is also known as a tetrahedral press.

Procedure of HPHT

If a customer intends to give diamonds for this treatment, the following procedure is used,

Pricing of treatments: Cost for these treatments varies with the size of the diamond. Also the total number of stones given and additional services like repolishing are charged extra. While these treatments are expensive,

Organizations and HPHT

Because HPHT is controversial, different bodies follow different guidelines for HPHT. As per the Federal Trade commission, HPHT treated diamonds must be disclosed to the user. General Electric follows this norm and all diamonds that are HPHT treated are laser inscribed with the terms ‘HPHT PROCESSED’, IRRADIATED. If GIA notes diamonds to be HPHT treated, it also specifies them as ‘HPHT ANNEALED’ or ‘Artificially Irradiated’. Such details are displayed prominently on the grading report under ‘origin’ in the ‘color’ section of the report.

Pros and cons

The HPHT treatment of diamonds is a controversial issue because it has both advantages and disadvantages. These are further discussed as under.

Advantages

Disadvantages

Disclosure

As HPHT has become more commercially available, today there are various methods available to detect if your stone has been HPHT processed or not. At the basic level diamonds over 0.5 carat can only be HPHT treated. A trained gemologist may use equipment like the SSEF spotter and crossed polarization filter to detect the same. DiamondSure is also used to separate cape diamonds from the rest. At the next level FTIR and UVVIS spectroscopes are used and synthetic and PT treated diamonds can easily be identified ere. Besides this, renowned laboratories have many other proprietary procedures that they use to identify such diamonds.

With all sophisticated equipment it continues to be difficult to detect HPHT processed diamonds at many instances. It is thus important that you purchase diamonds from a trusted vendor online or offline. Diamonds accompanied with a certificate from a reputed laboratory like GIA also ensure that diamonds are completely natural. You could also choose signature or top of the line branded diamonds to protect yourself. Finally, if you cannot afford GIA stones, make sure to opt for a diamond that is accompanied by a certificate from a renowned laboratory.