Black Diamonds

Black diamonds are also called carbonado and they date back billions of years to mediaeval times. They are known to be extremely rare and are difficult to cut. They are immensely popular and have traditionally been used as a setting for men’s rings. Black diamonds are believed to have pushed their way to the Earth’s surface approximately 1 million years ago through a series of volcanic eruptions. They are, in fact, regarded as a fairly young clear diamonds, although they were initially formed over 4 billion years ago.

Black diamonds are opaque and are typically full of scratch marks that contain sulphide deposits. They are most abundant in Brazil and are just as hard as the vast majority of clear diamonds. Black diamonds will generally appear to be grey or dark grey, although they do not commonly have a uniformed color. Black diamonds are considered to be extremely tough to cut and this is mainly due to the surface of them being pitted.

There are various myths about Black Diamonds that seem to conflict with each other. Black diamonds are regarded as a curse and a sign of death in India as they are believed to closely resemble the eyes of spiders and snakes. However, with that said, in Italy it is believed that a couple is able to save their marriage simply by touching a black diamond. This action of touching the stone would force your troubles to leave you and then enter the diamond. The world’s largest cut Black Diamond is considered to be the Karloff Noir at an amazing 88 carats. Legend states that whenever a person would touch this diamond they would be graced with happiness, fortune and good luck.

As mentioned, black Diamonds have traditionally been most commonly used in men’s jewelry. However, their popularity in women’s jewelry has increased dramatically in recent times. They are most often seen set in either platinum or titanium to form a man’s ring, although you should be aware that a Black Diamonds will not have the typical fire that is associated with white diamonds. However, black diamonds are considered to have a certain entrancing beauty of their very own. The color of titanium can also be altered to specifically match the stone and will typically provide an extremely striking effect.

Black diamonds are most often seen in women’s jewelry when they are paired with white diamonds. The contrast between these two different diamonds is simply beautiful. You will actually find that Black Diamonds will generally produce a far better contrast when paired together with white diamonds, as opposed to the clear variety. White diamonds are also known to cost less which will allow you to offset the higher price of Black diamonds. The most popular jewelry designs that typically pair white and Black Diamonds together include cocktail rings, pendants, tennis bracelets and earrings.

Black diamonds have also proved to be extremely popular when used as wedding jewelry. Often, both the bride and groom may choose wedding bands that have Black diamonds set in them. Another popular item of jewelry would be a bride’s engagement ring which may have a Black Diamond as the main stone and then surrounded by smaller white diamonds, or even a white diamond solitaire which is surrounded by black diamond accent stones. Fashion jewelry does not make use of genuine Black diamonds, although the names of certain gemstones may allude to this fact. Certain examples of this include the Alaska Black Diamond which is known to actually be hematite and the Nevada Black diamond is actually obsidian, whereas the Radium black diamond is known to be smoky quartz.

There are actually various shades of black diamonds which will typically range from deep, dark black, light smokier greys to shades of charcoal. They are also known to be more porous than any other type of diamond. As mentioned, Black diamonds are unable to reproduce the sparkle or fire that a white diamond possesses, although they do have an attractive and mysterious lure of their own. Many people actually choose to enhance the color of black diamonds as a genuinely natural midnight tone is extremely rare. Black diamonds which have been enhanced are typically ordinary, low colored diamonds that have specifically been treated to produce a pure black color. The process to achieve this for either involves heating a black diamond to extreme temperatures, which will then create a graphite residue or the stone can be irradiated which will actually help to alter the overall structure of the crystals that make up the gemstone, thus turning it black. Just to enhance the mysterious effect that Black Diamonds are known to have, an Astrophysical study completed in 2006 stated that Black Diamonds do not rise from the Earth’s mantle as other diamonds do, but in fact they have actually originated in outer space and have eventually fallen into the Earth’s atmosphere.