Peter W.. Rowe, wrote:
> On Sat, 21 Jun 2008 14:52:20 -0700, in rec.crafts.jewelry "William
Black"
> <william.black@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
>
>
>>> British Customs (I'm not sure what the agency is called this week) has
just
>>> bought a very clever device for telling the origin of diamonds by some
sort
>>> clever test, probably crystalography of some kind.
>
> Very costly machines. They detect very slight differences in the
various
> impurities in the crystals, which tend to vary based on location. Even
then,
> however, it seldom can proove origin, only suggest it, as there's
significant
> overlap in these properties from one location to another. They can, for
> example, take some stones and know for certain that they did not come
from
> Sierro leone (one of the biggest problem areas), but the machine can't
say this
> for certain for all locations, especially stones from other parts of
africa with
> similar geology. And then there are the stones from Sierra Leone that
happen to
> be legal. Perhaps mined legally before the war, or since, etc. etc. No
> separation there. And some stones, both blook diamonds and not, will
simply not
> give any definative reading on the machine. It's a better test than
nothing,
> but a long way from being even close to perfect. So far, the only real
> solution has been requiring im****ters, cutters, dealers, to maintain a
paper
> trail showing the origin of the stones. But I've yet to see a retail
store
> offering retail customers any paperwork that verifiably continues this
paper
> trail, so consumers are left hanging. And dishonest dealers have been
known to
> forge paperwork.
>
>>> I gather that if you're even wearing too much expensive looking
jewellery
>>> they get to play with it. ****pments of diamonds all get to go through
it...
>
> ****pments are probably less of a problem, since the likelyhood of proper
> paperwork and do***entation is higher. Such do***entation is not likely
with
> finished jewelery, and even then, the testing may be not very
meaningful. Even
> if diamonds are suspected of being originally from Sierra Leone or other
> conflict areas, there's no way to tell when they were mined, or if
legally. You
> could have a fine diamond necklace, purchased legally in Hong Cong, with
> paperwork claiming conflict free diamonds, which are in fact bloody as
hell, but
> if properly declared at customs, this would be legal. no grounds to
confiscate
> it. Or another similar necklace, except from Harry Winston made in
1955, also
> with stones from Seirra Leone that the machine might yell about, yet it
too is
> legal and the diamonds were not in a conflict then. All in all, lots
of
> problems with such test. But at least, smugglers don't always know
this. The
> real testers are likely to remain the customs officers themselves,
looking for
> things being brought across that they can prove are illegal, or when
smugglers,
> thinking themselves caught, will give away clues as to their activity.
>
>
>>> I keep looking for these synthetic stones here in the UK, but, as
I've
>>> said before here, so far nobody seems to be interested in supplying
them to
>>> jewellers in small quantities.
>>>
>
> In part, they're simply not available even in large quantities. Don't
feel
> excluded. Gemesys, the main manufacturer of the nice yellow synthetics,
is not
> able to make anywhere near as much as they could sell, so they hardly
need to
> look for new distributors, either large or small.
>
>>> Then I must have misheard the chap at one gem supplier.
>
> Look for Chatham ruby,
Tom Chatham's (http://www.chatham.com/clippings/c95-1.html)
office is
here in San Francisco, one block from my studio. He makes nice Emeralds
too.
--
Abrasha
http://www.abrasha.com
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