I have a few pieces of
jewelry that contain black diamonds. Every time I wear them, I either get
compliments or questions. What is black diamond?
Black diamond, or "Carbonado" named by the Brazilians who discovered them, is a natural polycrystalline
diamond. Black diamonds, even though they are between 2.6 - 3.8 billion years
old, were discovered by mankind around 1843 in Bahia, NE Brazil. They are
normally found only in Brazil and in Central African Republic (more on this
later in the next session.)
Mostly used as
industrial diamonds for drilling and polishing, black diamonds are as hard as
regular diamonds (given a value of 10 in the Mohs hardness scale), but are
filled with pores, which absorb light rather than reflect it. They are much more brittle than normal
diamonds, so cutting and polishing them into jewels is much more difficult.
It took a Florentine
jeweler, Fawaz Gruosi, to turn black diamonds into the exotic jewelry that is
now available. In 1996 Gruosi, in
his Swiss jewelry firm de Grisogono, began designing and selling black diamond jewelry. Several large black diamonds were cut before Gruosi, but
they never achieved the same popularity.
Black diamonds represent
a challenge to jewelers, as 30% more of the material is lost in cutting and
polishing than with regular diamonds, primarily due to the greater brittleness
of this unique stone. The largest uncut black diamond was discovered in 1895
and weighed 3072 carats, and was as the size of a large pear. It is not known
what happened to this stone.
The largest cut black
diamond is 312 carats, and is called Spirit of de Grisogono, (created by Mr. Gruosi) and was cut from 587 carats.
The second largest is
the Black Star of Africa, at 202 carats, but its owner and location is
currently not known. It was on exhibit in Tokyo in
1971 and was valued at 1.2 million dollars U.S.
The third largest is the
Table of Islam, a 160-carat emerald cut. It was last reported for sale in
January 1992.
The fourth largest, and most famous, is the Black Orlov, also known as the "Eye of Brahma" at 67.5 carats, cushion cut. It is currently owned by J. Dennis Petimezas, president of Watchmaker’s Diamonds and Jewelry. The diamond was worn by Felicity Huffman to accept the Oscar for the best actress in 2006.
In earlier times, the Black Diamond was seen as the “stone of reconciliation”. Wave a Black Diamond in the face of the spouse with whom you’ve just had a fight and all will be well again. If you can’t afford a regular diamond, which is guaranteed to work, give it a try.
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