Trend Watch: High-End Replicas Take The Pressure Off Fine Jewelry
For many jewelry lovers, the whole point of owning fine jewelry is enjoying it. A special thrill comes from wearing that sparkling tennis bracelet when it calls our name and taking pleasure in the way the sun sets the diamonds on fire.
Taking our most prized pieces out of safe storage comes with risks, however. Wearing jewelry exposes it to damage, loss, and theft, which may mean greater expense—especially if we’re traveling with our fine jewelry and need to adjust our insurance plan accordingly.
Increasingly, as a way to mitigate these risks and potential expenses, those who can afford it are opting to wear high-end replicas of their most cherished jewels while keeping the real thing in a secure vault. Some celebrities prefer to wear replicas during the day and reserve their truly fine pieces for evening wear and special events. Accordingly, faux gems are becoming more socially acceptable and are often seen as a practical way to flaunt your style without the anxiety that comes with wearing thousands of dollars on your finger!
Advances in diamond simulation technology have made it possible for diamond simulants (cubic zirconia) to look just like the real thing to an untrained, unexamining eye.* The key is to make sure the setting is high-quality. A low-quality setting is more likely than anything else to give away the secret.
A simulated diamond ring by Diamond Nexus
Diamond Nexus is just one company aiming to produce high-end simulated diamonds. Speak with your jeweler about high-quality custom replicas for additional recommendations and advice.
Of course, the drawback of high-end replicas looking as real as they do is that they can still attract unwanted attention, robbery, and even bodily harm. Therefore, it’s always wise to avoid flaunting your bling (real or not), especially while traveling in wealthy tourist areas where visitors are more commonly the target of theft.
*Note: A faux/synthetic/simulated diamond is different from a lab-grown diamond, which has the same tetrahedral structure as a naturally grown diamond. See more about lab-grown diamonds here.
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Photo: Pexels, Diamond Nexus
How to Use a Jeweler’s Loupe
If you’re interested in repairing jewelry, becoming a jeweler, or collecting antique jewelry, you’ll need to have a jeweler’s loupe in your arsenal. The following are a few tips for choosing the right jeweler’s loupe for your needs—and then putting that loupe to use!
Finding the Right Loupe
There are three common varieties of loupe lens configurations.
Singlet: This is a single lens that serves as a magnifying glass. There may be some distortion in the magnification, but these are fairly inexpensive. Keep in mind that if you’re using a singlet to look at a particular point in a gem (like an inclusion), you will likely be able to focus only on that point; the surrounding area will be distorted.
Doublet: A doublet features two lenses glued together. It offers a clearer, sharper view than a singlet.
Triplet: Triplets are the industry standard. These include two concave lenses and one convex lens stacked together. Triplets offer an even clearer and shaper image. Of the three lens configurations, triplets present color most accurately. A clear view of a gem's color is integral in determining its value. A triplet is also the best option for viewing a gem with minimal distortion. (Keep in mind that any magnifying lens may distort subjects viewed through the perimeter of the lens).
The are three most common powers of magnification.
10x: This is the standard power for triplets. When using a loupe with a magnification of 10x, you can keep the loupe about one inch away from your eye. This gives you a pretty decent field of vision.
20x: A loupe with a magnification of 20x will need to be brought closer to your eye (about ½ inch), which decreases field of vision. A lens configuration with a power of 20x is more expensive to produce, so many loupe manufacturers will make 20x loupes smaller than 10x loupes. This means that the natural distortion around the edge of the lens will be closer to the center.
30x: Any challenges experienced with a 20x loupe will be experienced to a greater degrees when using a 30x loupe.
Other considerations:
Some loupes come with LED lights mounted around or beside the lens(es). Some also include diffusers to cut down any glare caused by the lights. This innovation in loupes can certainly come in handy if you’d appreciate a little more light when viewing small pieces.
A loupe with an LED light.
Using Your Loupe
Using a jeweler’s loupe may feel a bit counterintuitive at first. You don’t have to close one eye or squint when using the loupe. In fact, keep both eyes open to avoid eye strain and headache. You will, however, want to view the subject with your dominant eye.
With one hand, bring your loupe about one inch away from your dominant eye. You can rest your hand against your cheek for extra stability. With the opposite hand, bring your subject under the lens. For stability, you can rest your hands together.
How to hold and steady a loupe.
There you have it! With two hands and your loupe, you’ve created a microscope of sorts through which to view jewelry.
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Photos: Grainger Industrial Supply, Esslinger, FDJtool
How Diamonds Are Used (Beyond The World of Jewelry)
Although diamonds are beloved for their starring role in many a fine jewelry item, they have a lesser-known yet critical role to play in many industrial and non-jewelry pursuits. We often forget that diamonds are the hardest naturally occurring substance—each carbon atom in a diamond is surrounded by four other carbon atoms connected by strong, covalent bonds. Thanks to this structure, diamonds are the only stone with a hardness of 10 on the Mohs Scale. Because diamonds are so resistant to being scratched, they can come in handy for a variety of uses.
In fact, only a small portion of diamonds are used for jewelry purposes. These gem-quality diamonds are graded for color and clarity. Diamonds that don’t rank highly in these respects may find themselves in an industrial setting, serving to grind, cut, drill, and polish other durable materials. In other cases, industrial diamonds are sometimes used to protect sensitive materials from heat and abrasion—or even deliver medication. Industrial diamonds are so versatile and useful that the demand for them exceeds their supply. For this reason, lab-grown diamonds (rather than diamonds mined from the earth), help meet the high demand.
The following are the primary uses for industrial diamonds:
Diamond drill bit.
Abrasive. Most industrial diamonds are used as abrasives. To become abrasives, diamonds are crushed into micron-sized abrasive particles that are then embedded into saw blades, drill bits, and grinding wheels. In fact, diamond abrasives are used to cut and polish other diamonds!
Polishing a diamond.
Cancer treatment. Diamond particles have been used to treat certain cancers. After absorbing chemotherapy drugs, the particles are used to deliver the medication to the right area of the body while protecting the medication from the body’s defense system. Moreover, the particles help the treatment stay in the cancerous cells for longer, rendering it more effective.
Diamond windows. Diamonds can be turned into thin membranes to cover openings on lasers, X-ray machines, and vacuum chambers. Diamond windows are useful because they resist heat and abrasion.
Diamond speaker domes. These are used to enhance the performance of high-quality speakers. A thin, diamond dome will vibrate rapidly when exposed to sound vibrations; this vibration does not degrade the quality of the sound, however.
Heat sinks. Diamonds can absorb and transmit excess heat. In fact, they have the highest thermal conductivity of any element. When used as heat sinks, they conduct heat away from heat-sensitive parts of high-performance microelectronics.
Low-friction micro-bearings. Diamonds can be used as bearings in tiny mechanical devices where durability and abrasion resistance is needed.
Diamonds serve as micro-bearings in small mechanical devices.
Water-resistant parts. To form a water-resistant coating, diamonds are vaporized, and the vapor is applied as a coating to a surface.
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Photos: Wikimedia Commons, John Englart via Flickr, Max Pixel
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