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© 2006 Josh Kaufman. Content last updated: May 21, 2006
I mean, this is still all true, but damn. Why is boingboing reporting on a nearly 20-year-old site in response to news about the diamond industry? One could argue the existence of that site and people’s knowledge of all that being true is part of why diamond sales were in the crapper anyway…
boingboing has really gone downhill since most of the original team left and it became an ad-infested mess.
While I agree we shouldn’t be using them for jewelry, diamonds are factually very important and incredibly valuable to manufacturing.
They’re the only thing hard enough to cut and shape tungsten carbide, which is instrumental in basically any complex machinery work.
the ones in tools are man made and they’re a lot cheaper to buy
Depends on the tooling you’re going for. Synthetic diamonds are great for creating abrasives, which makes up the majority of industrial diamond tools.
But for a lot of machining where you need a large cutting head, industrial diamonds are a little too small. I think most synthetic diamonds are less than a millimeter in diameter. They can be made larger, but they take a long time and aren’t very cost effective.
The vast majority of diamonds mined are industrial grade, especially the larger ones. So you end up using a bit of both depending on your application.
Interestingly, moissanite (per the source referenced by the article) exceed diamonds in hardness (“toughness”) as well.
I saw that as well, but I think cut hardness must be jewelers terminology. As far as actual hardness diamonds are a 10 on the mohs scale, moissanite is a 9.25, and tungsten carbide is usually around 9-9.5.
Interestingly, the pic used is a diamond discovered in Crater of Diamonds State Park in Murfreesboro, AR. It’s a unique 83 acre kimberlite site where you can pay a small fee, and take the kids to search for a diamond that, if you find one, you get to keep. I lived 42 years in Arkansas, and we took our kids and had a fun time digging and teaching the kids about geology.
I say all that to make the point there are good sides to understanding diamonds without the BS surrounding shitty business practices and human exploitation. That park is a decent step in the right direction.
https://www.arkansasstateparks.com/parks/crater-diamonds-state-park
The stupidest part is synthetic diamonds are just as good for anyone but the most discerning of jewelers, but people still don’t want them.
Because natural diamonds are made artificially scarce, that is why they are so expensive.
While synthetic are not.
People want expensive things, not diamonds per se.
Not that stupid when you realize a lot of people see them as status symbols and don’t want people to think it’s “fake” even if its better or rather perfect. Sucks but ig people really like bloodied shiny rocks over anything else if it makes them look rich.
I’ve been getting podcast ads lately for “natural diamonds” which is badmouthing man made diamonds and a it give a couple very true facts about how 80% of the diamond’s value stays in the community and it’s all legal and above board and definitely no one dies for these diamonds.
Wait, wait! Lemme guess. “Exploitation of child labor, unsafe (ie. lethal) practices, and general corruption”, right?
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When I proposed to my wife, I gave her the choice. Sure could have a diamond, or she could have a moissonite (which is sparklier) and we could pay off her car loan. She made the right choice.
She married someone richer? 😂
Shit. Where’d I put my burn cream…
The engagement ring I gave to my wife had natural diamonds, but it belonged to my great-grandmother, so I felt it was ethical enough. I certainly wouldn’t have bought a new one that wasn’t synthetic.
Re-use beats new every time
You forgot about the whole, hoard heaps and pretend they’re rare and we don’t have swimming pools worth in warehouses.
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I’ve heard that diamonds brought to the surface from the depths below change with time cos they don’t experience the pressure anymore.
I love BoingBoing. It has shown me some interesting news articles from all around the internet.
Buy her cz and gold fill.
She’s banging that dude at work anyway.
Yikes
