Hacker News Reader

Comment by diamond1 | Hacker News Reader

"The big difference between moissanite and diamond is that moissanite can be manufactured reliably and efficiently in a laboratory."

Thats not true, diamonds can be manufactured reliably and efficiently in a laboratory as well. And its nearly impossible to tell the difference between natural and artificial ones. Only a very complicated lab test with a machine can tell the difference.

View on HN

I thought fabricated diamonds were yellow-ish and easy to tell apart from real ones?

This depends on the method of fabrication - there are several. From my recollection of a Wired article from a decade ago, there was a then-new technique that produced diamonds that were indistinguishable from natural diamonds but for being maybe a little too perfect.

Article seems to be here, method in question was "Chemical Vapor Deposition": https://www.wired.com/2003/09/diamond/

You do realise that the OP article was from 2006 while the article you cite is from 2009?

The article I cited was from 2003, but I'm not sure what the relevance is of the relative dates. My comment wasn't directed at the OP, but at the parent's question about fabricated ("cultured" ;) ) diamonds.

At the moment I believe labs can make anything you want diamond wise... And somewhere around 2012 diamond grading labs started issuing certificates for man-made/synthetic stones. http://www.gia.edu/gem-lab-service/synthetic-diamond

This was written in 2006, so things may have changed since then.

I'm curious how difficult moissanite is to manufacture compared to diamonds, as I was under the impression diamonds require high pressure and temperature to make.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com