|
|
| Treatments
Is the color and clarity of your diamond natural -- or "enhanced"
artificially by science?
You may have seen articles or TV shows recently on the subject
of diamond treatments. Here's the whole truth about treatments
-- and why you have nothing to worry about if you buy from
Mondera.
What is a treatment? Not every diamond is a thing
of beauty. Fine diamonds are quite rare, so it's not surprising
that entrepreneurs have experimented with ways to take diamonds
with inferior color and clarity and give them makeovers.
Scientists have had some success in developing ways to treat
diamonds to improve their appeaance. By law, treatments
have to be disclosed to consumers.
There are two basic kinds of diamond treatments:
· Clarity treatments, the most common type,
improve a diamond's clarity by hiding its fractures with
a glass-like resin. These treatments
are not permanent, and can be "reversed" by high heat.
· Color treatments, which have only been around
since last year, improve a diamond's color grade
artificially by heat and pressure.
This treatment is permanent.
Will Mondera sell you a treated diamond? Mondera
believes one of the reasons diamonds are special is because
they are natural. We have a firm policy against selling
diamonds treated by artificial means to improve their color
and clarity.
We can 100 percent guarantee we will never sell you a clarity-treated
diamond. And we can 99.99 percent guarantee you we will
never sell you a color-treated diamond. But we can't say
for certain -- and neither can any diamond seller. Here's
why.
Right now, it's easy for trained gemologists to detect a
clarity-treated diamond. But it's still impossible -- even
for the top scientists at GIA -- to tell the difference
between color-treated diamonds and naturally-colored ones,
although the industry is spending millions researching this
topic.
The industry thought it had this problem solved when the
treaters agreed to have the stones laser-inscribed to signify
the "colorizing" process. Unfortunately, these inscriptions
are not permanent, and the GIA has spotted color-treated
diamonds with their inscriptions polished off. By any standard,
this is unethical behavior, and the industry recently passed
tough new rules against it. Since then, the number of these
incidents, never large to begin with, has fallen to almost
zero.
Should you worry? Color treatments are a huge concern
for the jewelry industry, but they shouldn't be a worry
for the average consumer. Only several hundred diamonds
have been color-treated treated so far, out of literally
hundreds of millions sold each year. Moreover, all color-treated
diamonds are inscribed to ensure disclosure. It's unknown
how many of these have had their inscriptions polished off,
but it's believed to be no more than a handful. Even if,
by some extraordinary chance, you buy a de-inscribed "whitened"
diamond, the treatment is permanent and requires no special
care, so you never have to worry about it changing back.
How do I know I can rely on Mondera? Because Mondera
believes so strongly in selling only un-enhanced diamonds,
we are taking extra precautions to make sure none of our
diamonds are treated in any way. We buy primarily from sightholders,
the elite diamond dealers who get their diamonds straight
from De Beers. (This also gives us considerable cost savings.)
We are also considering screening out type IIa diamonds,
the main diamonds affected by color treatments. And most
of our diamonds are sold with GIA certificates, since GIA
scientists are the world experts in treatment detection.
They have successfully protected the industry from previous
attempts to sell treated diamonds with the inscriptions
removed and we have confidence that they will continue to
do so.
With treatments and other ways to fool the public out there,
it's important that you have faith in the company you buy
from. Mondera is owned by fourth-generation jewelers from
the Mouawad family, with a 110-history of integrity and
reliability. When you buy from Mondera, you can rest assured
that every diamond is exactly as we say it is. |
|
