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Strain within a diamond:
For those of you who are familiar with the concept of 'strain' within the structure of a diamond, we're going to keep this short. We consider the potential effects of strain within the diamonds we buy for our Private Reserve just as any diamond dealer can using a polarized lens attached to a GIA scope if they choose to do so.
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Unlike many of our competitors, we're not afraid to talk about strain.
The potential effects of strain upon the durability of a diamond was to
the best of our knowledge originally introduced by independent GIA
Graduate Gemologist Bill Lieberum of Consumer Gem Labs and Accurate
Appraisal in the early 2000's. Bill passed away on June 20, 2007 and the
discussion of strain within diamonds largely died with him. Bill Lieberum (a.k.a. "RockDoc")
of Consumers Gem
Lab routinely checked for strain as part of his independent evaluation
process which caused many diamond dealers to shy away from his service,
however we were happy to send our diamonds to Bill or any other independent gemologist
who checks diamonds for strain as part of their verification process
because we avoid diamonds that exhibit heavy levels of strain. The
simple fact is that we carefully evaluate the diamonds in our
Private Reserve before we buy them for inventory so that we can reject
anything that we don't like. As opposed to many of our
'competitors' who merely re-publish the various multiple listing services
available to the diamond trade and drop ship diamonds direct from their
suppliers to their customers without ever seeing them. These guys
seemed to quiver when people asked them to send a diamond to Consumers Gem Lab because they had no idea whether the diamond is going to be rejected for strain
because they've never seen it and this is a characteristic which is not
disclosed on any lab report that we know of.
For the record, we want to state that we had no official affiliation,
agreement or compensation plan with Bill Lieberum, Consumer Gem Labs
or Accurate
Appraisal. The only reason that we mention his services by
company name on this page is because he happened to be the only gem lab
that routinely tested for strain as part of his evaluation
process and thus he became the person who many on-line diamond dealers
refused to send diamonds to for reasons that will be explained below.
We mention Bill by name because he is largely the reason that strain has
become a public concern and those of you who are familiar with the concept
of strain know the depths of this debate.
It is our opinion that the presence of strain within a diamond poses a
challenge to the person cutting a diamond, but not necessarily to the
durability of a diamond after it has been cut. The primary issue
that makes the subject of strain a concern to the diamond buying public
revolves around the possibility that a diamond which has significant
strain may not be able to be re-cut in the event that it has been damaged.
The reality in this situation is that the average person is going to turn
the damaged diamond over to their insurance company (assuming that they
were intelligent enough to insure the diamond against loss, theft, fire
and damage) and thus who cares if the diamond can be re-cut or not?
Let's be honest, if you happen to total your car and your insurance
company replaces the car, do you really care whether they can salvage the
car or not? We don't. And the fact is that at the present
time, we're not aware of a single insurance company who considers strain
to be a concern or which requires disclosure of strain before they write a
policy. The reality is that most jewelry related insurance claims
involve loss or theft and not damage.
Approximately 50% of gem quality diamonds have strain to some extent, not
all strain is detrimental to the structure or integrity of a diamond.
It is arguable that some types of strain are actually beneficial to the
optical properties of a diamond. Certainly many diamonds which are
quite pretty exhibit some degree of strain while other diamonds which are
equally beautiful do not. The reality is that very little
investigation has been conducted with regards to strain within a diamond
in terms of durability beyond the initial cutting process because nobody
has felt like flushing money down the drain by attempting to cleave
diamonds which have already been cut to determine whether strain was an
issue.
Here are some examples of strain within a diamond. The photographs
were provided by Bill Lieberum of Consumers Gem Lab the red, green and
purple zoning within the diamond indicates strain.
In our experience, the presence of
strain within a diamond does have an effect upon the selling price of a
diamond... Diamonds with strain seem to sell for slightly less than
comparable diamonds without strain, however we think that this is a result
of the initial price of the diamond rough and not the fact that the
diamond cutter realizes that the finished product has strain. The
reality is that most diamonds have flipped hands several times before they
reach the open market and it is unlikely that anybody is checking for
strain along the way... We've just noticed that certain diamond
cutters who always have lower prices also tend to have a lot of diamonds
in their inventory that exhibit substantial strain. Hence the old
adage "you get what you pay for" might run deeper in the selection process
of diamonds than most people realize, there seems to be a whole 'nother
world that is emerging beyond the advertised scope of the traditional
4C's: Cut, Color, Clarity and Carat Weight.
On a similar note, many fancy shape diamonds exhibit substantial strain...
And as it so happens, the rough that is used to cut fancy shape diamonds
costs less than the rough that is used to cut round brilliant cut
diamonds... Correlation or Coincidence? We don't know for sure
and the cutters aren't talking.
Long story short, if the concept of strain is a concern to you, we want to
reiterate that we routinely check for strain as part of our evaluation
process. We do not photograph the presence of strain within the
diamonds that we sell at this time because it is simply too time
consuming and the reality is that few people would know what they were
looking at. Keep
in mind that most diamond dealers don't even take the time to check for
it.
If you want to read additional information on strain within a diamond, we
suggest conducting a search for "strain" on the more popular public
diamond forum's because many in-depth and very long threads pertaining to
this subject can be found on all of them. The general consensus on
"strain" within in a diamond is that it is "no big deal" and we
generally concur.
May we help you find the diamond of your dreams?
Send us an email diamonds@niceice.com
and tell us what you are looking for.
Or give us a call at 206.319.8152 or Toll Free 877.844.5443
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