The black diamond is a kind of diamond. While the majority of these gems are white, colorless or very slightly tinged with yellow, there are also pink, red, green or blue diamonds. The most enigmatic of all diamonds is certainly the black diamond, imbued with incomparable beauty and extremely rare on the market. A symbol of strength and protection, the black diamond has fascinated people since ancient times.
Origin of black diamonds
Scientists have long debated the circumstances of the appearance of this gem
with unusual characteristics. Today, the main theory of the researchers is that
the stone would come from a collision between our planet and an asteroid dating
back hundreds of millions of years (2.6 to 3.8 billion years before D-Day). The
debris caused by the collision would have spread to the atmosphere and would
have landed in Africa as well as in Brazil. This black gemstone is therefore
different from other diamonds whose origin is volcanic and dream part of its
genesis and components found nowhere else on earth.
Yet for many centuries, the black diamond has attracted little covetousness,
considered dull and much less prestigious than colorless gems. Some even did
not hesitate to compare it to simple coal. In the eighteenth-century merchant
guides, it is common to find it referred to as carbonado, a Portuguese term
meaning charred or burnt. And yet, this diamond is today a gemstone among the
most sought after and never stops turning heads.
Characteristics of black diamond
The carat
Not to be confused with the gold carat, a unit used to define the purity of
gold, the carat for a diamond has a different meaning. It is the unit of
measure for the weight of precious stones. Appeared in the twentieth century,
it is a very precise measure that determines the price of precious stones. A 1
carat black diamond weighs 0.20 grams, so 1 gram equals 5 carats of black
diamond. The heavier a stone is, the higher the price (equal quality). The
density of the stone also plays in terms of visual impact: the denser the stone,
the heavier it will be. The black diamond has a density ranging from 3.50 to
3.53 while a ruby, for comparison, has a density ranging from 3.97 to 4.05.
With equal weight, the black diamond will be visually bigger.
The color of the black diamond
To understand what makes the specificity of this unique mineral, we must first look at its colors and reflections. One of the most fascinating features of the gemstone is its luster, unlike any other. Another particularity, this dark-colored diamond does not diffuse the light and therefore has an opaque appearance and a characteristic intense black. Color differences make a difference in price and buying online, say buying black diamond by segaljewelry, allows us to have more choices.
The purity of the diamond carbonado
We find in the composition of carbonado microscopic inclusions of graphite or hematite, which explains why it does not reflect light. It was only in the 1990s that jewelers began to take an interest in black gemstones and to include them in jewelery and especially on rings. The particular hue of this diamond with distant origins is indeed perfect for creating jewels with strong color contrasts. In frames of white colors to contrast, it is however very beautiful also on yellow gold or pink gold.
The size and shape of black diamonds
The black diamond, just like the white diamond is the most solid stone (it has a hardness of 10 on the Mohs scale – that is to say the maximum). It is therefore possible to carve it of all shapes.
