Clarity Enhanced Diamonds – What's the deal?
Ok… So you are looking to purchase a piece of diamond jewelry, a loose diamond or an engagement ring and you may have come across clarity enhanced diamonds. There are a great many rumors, positive and negative spins from both in and outside of the diamond and jewelry industry and this can be extremely confusing, especially when you are about to part with hard earned money.
One important thing to remember is that like with anything, you will never be able to get a 100% purely unbiased opinion and at the end of the day, you must make an educated decision on what is right for you. Local jewelers and diamond dealers that do not deal with clarity enhanced diamonds due to lack of access to the wholesale market, will inevitably not support clarity enhanced diamonds whereas manufacturers of clarity enhanced diamonds and retailers of
clarity enhanced diamond rings and jewelry will inevitably boast their advantages. The following information is to help you make the right decision for yourself.
There are two types of procedures that will improve the clarity of a diamond. The first is called laser drilling and the second is called fracture filling (more commonly known as clarity enhancement).
All diamonds besides flawless diamonds will have internal characteristics commonly known as inclusions, including black carbon spots, feathers, clouds, bubbles and more. Laser drilling creates a minute hole in the diamond, allowing for black carbon spots to be cleaned out. This type of enhancement is permanent, which is both an advantage and disadvantage. One the one hand, the tiny holes, although not visible to the naked eye, will always be in the diamond. On the other hand, the diamond will be clearer for good.
Fracture filling, despite its name, does not mean that the diamond is broken or cracked, rather that the original inclusions are coated with a clear substance to make them invisible to the naked eye. Diamonds that are filled are cleaned and boiled to remove any dirt and other imperfections, and then they are filled with a microscopic amount of clear material that cloaks the feathers.
There are two types of filling used for clarity enhancement. One using bromide and the other using a silicone based material. The former is the lower quality treatment and can discolor or fade over time. The higher quality treatment can last a lifetime so long as it isn't exposed to extreme heat (over 1500 degrees) or acid.
This type of enhancement is not permanent, which again is both an advantage and disadvantage. On the one hand, the enhancement process can be reversed at any time you choose, meaning that whenever you decide you do not want a clarity enhanced diamond, you may remove the enhancement and you will have a 100% natural diamond. It will not look quite as good as with the enhancement, but the value will be the same. On the other hand, if by accident, the enhancement is damaged for any reason, this can be inconvenient, although if anything ever happens to the treatment of the diamond some companies will offer a lifetime guarantee and will fix it for you free of charge.
So should I buy a Clarity Enhanced Diamond (Ring) ?
As I mentioned before, this decision should be your own, based on the information you have at hand. Many companies will offer both enhanced and non-enhanced diamonds, with non-enhanced diamonds of course being more expensive. The big difference in the price starts with 3/4 carat diamonds and is more significant with 1 carat diamonds and above, where prices can be anything from 2 times the price and more for the same grade (or "look"). Note that CE diamonds are graded after the enhancement, so it is sometimes difficult to see what the original grading will have been. With smaller diamonds, from 1/4 to 1/2 carat weight, the prices are closer with the mid and lower ranges and differ more with the high quality ranges.
