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BS: What IS a 'Black Diamond'?
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Subject: BS: What IS a 'Black Diamond'? From: Sorcha Date: 02 Feb 04 - 10:35 PM I've Googled until I'm blue and can't find out what really is a black diamond....son wants titanium wedding/engagement rings for Owens mum...is a Black Diamond a 'nature made' stone with a mineral deposit like the other colored diamonds or are they all Man Made? And, just how big, visually, is 1 carat? I know what it weighs, but that doesn't help....Thanks! |
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Subject: RE: BS: What IS a 'Black Diamond'? From: GUEST,ozmacca Date: 02 Feb 04 - 11:06 PM Traditionally, coal has always been referred to as "black diamonds", but I suppose a nice lump of nutty slack might not be an appropriate stone for an engagement ring. 1 carat is a fairly large rock, about 6.4mm across ( quarter of an inch). Try http://search.jewelrydays.com/cgi/u/1054/keyword.cgi?k=73 |
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Subject: RE: BS: What IS a 'Black Diamond'? From: Chief Chaos Date: 02 Feb 04 - 11:11 PM They used to be some of the best guitar strings ever made. Maybe you could just wind them around and sodder them in place? |
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Subject: RE: BS: What IS a 'Black Diamond'? From: GUEST,pdc Date: 02 Feb 04 - 11:16 PM Black diamonds are found in the north of Canada, and are very popular here. They are not diamonds at all, but I'm not sure what their proper name is. I will google various terms and if I come up with something will let you know, but they are a specific stone, I can tell you that much. |
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Subject: RE: BS: What IS a 'Black Diamond'? From: MarkS Date: 02 Feb 04 - 11:17 PM Black Diamond strings were great for beginning musicians. If you were able to survive the first few weeks of playing a beginner guitar strung with Black Diamonds, you really had the dedication to succeed. Mark |
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Subject: RE: BS: What IS a 'Black Diamond'? From: GUEST,pdc Date: 02 Feb 04 - 11:19 PM AHA! Still life in the old girl yet -- black diamond is another name for hematite, so if you google that you should get some answers. Apparently there are genuine diamonds that are "black" as well, but extremely rare and extremely expensive. Good luck with your search. |
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Subject: RE: BS: What IS a 'Black Diamond'? From: Sorcha Date: 02 Feb 04 - 11:36 PM Well, I know about strings, and hematite and obsidian...but...Damme, I found it! Finally! I'll be damned...finaly found this... They are diamonds...not hematite. Photo here. Don't know why this didn't turn up before. |
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Subject: RE: BS: What IS a 'Black Diamond'? From: Bill D Date: 02 Feb 04 - 11:51 PM where I came from, it referred to the best watermelon there was!..big ROUND ones, not the skinny little anemic things you mostly see now. |
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Subject: RE: BS: What IS a 'Black Diamond'? From: GUEST,pdc Date: 02 Feb 04 - 11:55 PM Be careful, Sorcha! In Canada, you can buy "black diamond" rings and jewellery all over the place, and it isn't expensive. Looks like it must be a trade name or nickname for black hematite. But it is very, very inexpensive. Sorry if I gave you incorrect info. |
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Subject: RE: BS: What IS a 'Black Diamond'? From: Sorcha Date: 02 Feb 04 - 11:56 PM LOL!, yes I remember Black Diamond watermelons... |
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Subject: RE: BS: What IS a 'Black Diamond'? From: Stilly River Sage Date: 03 Feb 04 - 12:08 AM I heard coal referred to occasionally as black diamond. As in the town of Black Diamond, Washington, where they mined coal. I'm not sure what kind of coal they mined there. In Whatcom County, up above where we had a cabin on the lake, was the Blue Canyon Mine, site of a mining disaster (my Dad wrote a song about it). They took high-grade bituminous coal out of Blue Canyon, and it was used for the Navy's Bering Fleet. There was also railroad logging in the area (another subject Dad wrote about, as he did the "Reggie," a boat that ran up and down the lake for years). SRS |
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Subject: RE: BS: What IS a 'Black Diamond'? From: Stilly River Sage Date: 03 Feb 04 - 12:11 AM The "gems" in those photos look no more interesting than onyx, which is a helluva lot cheaper to find and buy, and people don't die down in the mines. SRS |
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Subject: RE: BS: What IS a 'Black Diamond'? From: Cluin Date: 03 Feb 04 - 12:31 AM Owned several black hematite rings. They are usually a simple oval band of the stone. and will break pretty easily but luckily only cost a couple of bucks. Every touristy shop sells them here and are quite common on the festival circuit. Never heard them referred to as "black diamond" before, though. And both coal (and graphite) and diamonds are made up of atoms of Carbon. It's just the bonds between those atoms which are different. |
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Subject: RE: BS: What IS a 'Black Diamond'? From: Sorcha Date: 03 Feb 04 - 12:55 AM Yes, I know that coal, onyx,hematite,etc are known as Black Diamond but is there really a 'black' diamond? If so, how do we tell what it really is? And, yes, I know that some of the above, hematite for instance, are very brittle and break easily. I am looking for a Real Black diamond......like a pink or blue or yellow diamond.... |
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Subject: RE: BS: What IS a 'Black Diamond'? From: Metchosin Date: 03 Feb 04 - 01:14 AM How about here Sorcha. |
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Subject: RE: BS: What IS a 'Black Diamond'? From: Metchosin Date: 03 Feb 04 - 01:47 AM Although what the previous questionable site advertises as "black diamonds" from Brazil are stilll only a form of hematite. And an outrageously expensive form at that. |
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Subject: RE: BS: What IS a 'Black Diamond'? From: mouldy Date: 03 Feb 04 - 03:08 AM When I lived in South Africa I visited the De Beers exhibition at Kimberley. They had every possible colour of diamond on show, right through the spectrum of possible colours from purest blue/white to what looked like black. It's been 20 years, but I think I remember the blackish ones as looking like extremely shiny faceted coal. My mineral book says something about there being a blackish variety of diamond called carbonado. My son picked up a small piece of the mine spoil that had been used to surface the municipal campsite we stayed on, and in it are some brown diamond crystals. Andrea |
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Subject: RE: BS: What IS a 'Black Diamond'? From: Metchosin Date: 03 Feb 04 - 04:53 AM Here you go Sorcha, more than you'd ever want to know about black diamonds .....maybe. |
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Subject: RE: BS: What IS a 'Black Diamond'? From: JohnInKansas Date: 03 Feb 04 - 09:28 AM Some years ago (early 1980s?) when I was prowling jewelry shops for ways to impress a certain sweet person, there was a brief surge in popularity for colored diamonds. One jeweler showed me a nice collection of them, with quite a range of colors ranging from fairly light tints to pretty deep yellows, blues, and reds. None of the ones he had were really black, although there were a couple "almost" there. He had a few stones that he offered to sell, but the majority of his collection was "too radioactive" to be safe worn next to the skin, and not for sale. Diamonds can be colored by irradiating them, and a small but active trade had arisen in "irradiated" diamonds. The ones he had, he said, were ones that came in before it was discovered that a significant number of "hot" gems were in circulation, and before people had reported health consequences from wearing them. The importers were selling them as naturally colored stones (which are quite safe). Since there's no real reason to "color" a good diamond, most of the ones I saw were visibly "less than perfect." (Inclusions and defects probably contributed to the retained radioactivity of these stones.) He explained,though, that presence of defects isn't a reliable indicator of a faked color, because "perfect" colored stones are extremely rare, so naturally colored ones usually contain more "defects" than the more plentiful clear (or very lightly tinted) ones. Since the scam is, or should be, well known in the jewelry trade, I would expect it unlikely that you would run into one of these "artificially colored" stones now, at least not without being told what it is, if you're dealing with a reputable source. No particular warning seems in order - this is just an anecdote from my experience with "colored diamonds." John |
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Subject: RE: BS: What IS a 'Black Diamond'? From: Cluin Date: 03 Feb 04 - 11:45 AM How about a rare blue Canadian beryl? |
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Subject: RE: BS: What IS a 'Black Diamond'? From: Stilly River Sage Date: 03 Feb 04 - 02:44 PM When we last visited the Quartz area in Arkansas (around Hot Springs and west to Mt. Ida) there were a lot of shops selling artifically colored quartz. The smokey color was really vivid. They use gamma rays. http://fgms.home.att.net/impgems.htm SRS |
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Subject: RE: BS: What IS a 'Black Diamond'? From: SINSULL Date: 03 Feb 04 - 10:40 PM Black Diamonds are walnuts as well as watermelons. |
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Subject: RE: BS: What IS a 'Black Diamond'? From: GUEST,.gargoyle Date: 04 Feb 04 - 12:01 AM You son is seeking a perilus union with one whose stone is corrupt, and not ever-lasting.....It is his choice....let him spnd the folly of his youth.,
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Subject: RE: BS: What IS a 'Black Diamond'? From: Bo Vandenberg Date: 04 Feb 04 - 12:10 AM Found this: The noun "black diamond" has 1 sense in WordNet. 1. carbonado, black diamond -- (an inferior dark diamond used in industry for drilling and polishing) It might well be a diamond. A new use for industrial diamonds. Sigurd |
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Subject: RE: BS: What IS a 'Black Diamond'? From: mouldy Date: 04 Feb 04 - 03:05 AM Carbonado. That's the one in my book. (I believe the vast majority of diamonds mined are only of industrial quality). There's a wonderful jewellers/pawn shop in Goole which has some very unusual stones in. A few years ago they had a diamond solitaire in the window, of at least 1 carat weight, and priced at only £120. The description read: "Possibly the worst diamond we have ever seen!" It was dingy grey with faults and inclusions. Obviously had belonged to someone for whom size DID matter! I am married to a mining engineer, and about 30 years ago he said he'd buy me a stainless steel engagement ring (he liked stainless steel, and it WAS the 70s), set with coal (as it's still carbon, but cheaper). Luckily for him he wasn't serious, although the latest line I get is "Why would anybody in their right mind spend all that money on a bit of metal with a mineral of some sort stuck in it?" Andrea |
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Subject: RE: BS: What IS a 'Black Diamond'? From: JudyB Date: 04 Feb 04 - 01:55 PM I have a little pendant with black and white diamonds from a reputable local jewelry store. I didn't think to ask what exactly the black diamonds were - I liked the item and the price was reasonable. Charley teased me about buying coal in a jewelry store, and I suppose that to the extent I thought about it at all I suspected it was some form of that hard, shiny coal. All the stones are pretty tiny - which seems reasonable if the stone is as difficult to cut as it sounded from some of the information above. I'm quite sure that what I have isn't hematite, and I will check to see if it's radioactive - though I very much doubt it, considering the source. There were matching earrings, but I didn't see a ring - and while the total weight might be reasonable, the individual stones are tiny. But some black diamond jewelry is out there. JudyB |
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Subject: RE: BS: What IS a 'Black Diamond'? From: GUEST,MMario Date: 04 Feb 04 - 02:08 PM "Black Diamond" is also a nice boneless steak marinated in a Teriyaki sauce... delicious! |
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Subject: RE: BS: What IS a 'Black Diamond'? From: The Fooles Troupe Date: 04 Feb 04 - 07:22 PM My father used a combination of gut and steel violin strings. Some of the strings were "Black Diamond" I'm sure. Robin |
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Subject: RE: BS: What IS a 'Black Diamond'? From: dianavan Date: 05 Feb 04 - 02:36 AM Sorcha: Before the big purchase, encourage the youngster to learn about the history of diamond mining and especially the diamond trade in Africa. Be sure he understands that the worth of a diamond is totally artificial. There are lots of pretty gems out there and most are UNTAINTED by the blood, sweat and tears of innocent people. Diamonds are the biggest advertising hoax in the world. Diamonds are not a girls best friend. d |
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Subject: RE: BS: What IS a 'Black Diamond'? From: *daylia* Date: 05 Feb 04 - 07:11 AM Wow Sorcha, check this baby out! This one's a bit more affordable. It's not too likely that hematite would be used in a wedding ring. It's a fine, showy stone but it's not really "gem quality" as it scratches and breaks very easily. Also known as "volcano spit", hematite rings sell here in Ontario for about $5 - $10. Here's a titanium diamond "scatter ring" ... is this more like what your son is thinking of? daylia |
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Subject: RE: BS: What IS a 'Black Diamond'? From: GUEST Date: 05 Feb 04 - 04:10 PM Diamonds are DeBeers best friends--dianavan has pegged it exactly (echos my post 03 Feb 04 - 12:11 AM). SRS |
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Subject: RE: BS: What IS a 'Black Diamond'? From: GUEST,Stilly River Sage Date: 05 Feb 04 - 04:11 PM oops--that was me, sansacookie. |
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Subject: RE: BS: What IS a 'Black Diamond'? From: Cluin Date: 05 Feb 04 - 04:24 PM DeBeer's diamond ad spoof. (adult content) |
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Subject: RE: BS: What IS a 'Black Diamond'? From: Mr Red Date: 05 Feb 04 - 08:46 PM It is also a Folk Club in Birmingham (see cresby.com)- not to be confused with the black country which was black from the smoke not the coal per se. As Dr Johnson so described. AND while we are on the subject of coal the difference between a young miner and an old miner is "a handful of slack" |
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Subject: RE: BS: What IS a 'Black Diamond'? From: GUEST,JTT Date: 06 Feb 04 - 08:16 AM Black Diamond used to be a beer. Wonder if it still is. |
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Subject: RE: BS: What IS a 'Black Diamond'? From: lady penelope Date: 06 Feb 04 - 07:45 PM That sounds like a big stress over a symbol. I'd get the pair of them to concentrate on a ring ( or pair of rings) that will last. My mother's engagement ring is no longer wearable ( the band has worn too thin) and that's since before their 25th aniversary. I understand the idea that they want something special, but it's your daughter and her fiancee that make the rings special, not the other way round. Oooh. Don't I sound pompous? What I mean is, make sure they think about choosing something that they will be happy with in ten, twenty, etc. years time. good luck TTFN Lady P. |
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Subject: RE: BS: What IS a 'Black Diamond'? From: MartinRyan Date: 07 Feb 04 - 03:17 PM Theres a fine comic murder song called "The Ballad of Joe Frawley" in which the murder weapon is "a Black Diamond banjo wire" - after which the body is slung in a lake. The policeman's initial assessment goes: "We have reasonable suspicion foul play is involved here For we found his body floating at the bottom of the lake And those marks around his windpipe - a blunt instument did make"! Regards |
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Subject: RE: BS: What IS a 'Black Diamond'? From: GUEST,TJ Date: 07 Feb 04 - 10:11 PM My first thought was that "black diamonds" was the universal slang for coal in the anthracite regions of eastern Pennsylvania, back when there was a lot of money to be made from the coal trade. But it's also worth noting that the artificial diamonds used for industrial cutting tools and drilling bits are black and opaque -- no point maing them look fancy when they're just used to grind things up. They're every bit as hard as gemstone diamonds (the hardest substance on the planet), but not especially attractive to look at. As for black gem diamonds, I'll defer on that to the others who have already posted. I never knew such things existed. |
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Subject: RE: BS: What IS a 'Black Diamond'? From: Mr Red Date: 08 Feb 04 - 12:55 PM I don't think they were ever called black diamonds but Jet is a form of coal and was made into very nice, if not that durable, jewelery. And for a time coal was tried but even if it survived it was found to mark any cloth it came into touch with. Iron gravestones where considered the acme of fashion when it was expensive. Fashion was never about functionality, it just had to be different from last year's model. |
