Lab Grown Diamonds | Lab created Diamonds | man made Diamonds | cultured Diamonds | cultured Diamonds
Color Diamonds Black | Fancy Color Diamonds Black
“Black as the Night and Darkness”
“Black diamonds are mysterious and beautiful”
Fancy Color BLACK Diamonds
- Black stands for the night and darkness
- Uncertain, mysterious
- aloofness, elegance and dignity
- It is one of the most vibrant colors ever. It therefore not only emanates power – it also signals it: high dignitaries and statesmen often wear black and drive up in black limousines.
- Black is also a masculine color
- Rarity
- exceptionally rare (black natural diamonds)
- “Carbonados” (carbonized or burnt)
Black diamonds are called carbonados because they are dark and often more porous than other diamonds. - from a supernova and came to earth via meteorites.
→ only in alluvial deposits in Brazil and Central African Republic
→ unlike other diamonds, they are NOT in a kimberlite pipe.
(Kimberlite: in the earth’s crust in vertical structures (deep inside the mantle) + volcanic dikes) - irradiated black diamonds are abundant
- Color Cause
- Colour due to dark inclusions or impurities, which are distributed in large numbers and evenly over the stones → high density of mineral inclusions, e.g. graphite, pyrite or hematite
- absorb the light instead of reflecting and refracting it
- opaque appearance → mysteriously beautiful and shiny surface
- Chemistry
- differ chemically and physically from other colored diamonds
- large amount of hydrogen and nitrogen in its chemical composition
- are about 3.8 billion years old (far older than any other diamonds on earth)
- black mined diamonds are so hard that they can only be cut by other black diamonds
- black ones are polycrystalline, or made up of millions of small crystals joined into a single unit, while other diamonds are a single crystal that “cleaves”
- Price range Mine diamonds
- most black diamonds have been treated for improved durability. Irradiated or heat treated black diamonds cost much less than untreated or colorless diamonds.
- Black diamonds = Fancy Black and noted as a natural or treated color.
- Most valuable / most expensive =
- Fancy Black
- untreated
Classification
- Fancy Black
+ natural or treated colour
For example, GIA does not classify black diamonds because they are outside of their normal clarity range, but the lab produces a “Colored Diamond Identification and Origin Report (CDIOR)” for identification purposes.
Due to the opaque nature of black diamonds, the usual characteristics of colored diamonds, such as color intensity, secondary modifiers, tone, clarity, and fluorescence, are not present. GIA grades black mine diamonds only by shape and cut type, dimensions, weight, color origin, grade and distribution.
Famous black diamonds
- 67,50 Carat “Black Orlov” = one of the most remarkable natural black diamonds