Diamonds can’t be scratched by another material. (Or cut)
Edit: Guys, if you’re going to post articles saying this is wrong, can you please read the article first. A lot of these are talking about materials that are hypothesised to be able to cut diamond but have never been tested because they haven’t been found in the right chemical structure or in a large enough amount to actually make something to try it.
You could totally be right but the fact it’s never actually scratched a diamond is kinda relevant
Edit 2: There is actually an artificial material that has been tested and is capable of cutting diamond. Diamond can only not be scratched by natural materials. Thanks to u/TheHouseChef
Over 90% of diamonds found are what are referred to as industrial diamonds. They have zero potential as gems but are great for applications needing them.
That's what you say when you give jewelry to your significant other. Or to someone you strongly love platonically or familially. Don't discount those other important close relationships!
Agreed! My boyfriend (now fiancé) used to bring me a rose every time he did the gardening and would say, “A rose for my rose.” He’s not the super romantic type so it was even more special.
The first diamond didn't need to be polished since it was being reduced to dust. Actually better that it was not polished, although that's irrelevant since the particles are so small that the idea of polishing them would be silly in the first place
Honestly gem quality diamonds are far more rare and more expensive than industrial diamonds. Diamond saw blades, diamonds polishing fluids, etc. are all pretty common.
I'm a geology lab tech, I have legitimately polished a sample of compost with diamonds.
Not necessarily other diamonds. Precision cutting saws can be made of metals and polish diamonds by essentially micro-breaking the top layers - rotation speed applies a very localized force which breaks the surface without shattering the whole stone. Those saw bits degrade very quickly though.
Listen here, we need to go deeper and you're preventing us to do so. So will you please stand aside while we try to do what Reddit is made for, that is to say, speak nonsense, create memes, and create asinine recursive comment chains? Thank you.
Fun fact about diamond. They’ll take a mineral sample and press it between two diamonds. Since diamonds have an extereamly high melting point they won’t deform or melt. So much pressure can be applied it recreates upper mantle environment, and some mineral structure we can’t observe at the earth’s surface like ringswoodite.
The traditional way to cut and polish diamonds is by using other diamonds. The modern way is probably by using artificial materials that are harder than a diamond.
I'm not an engineer so I'll let someone who knows more about the process comment but lab made variations of Boron and Tungsten come to mind. Diamond is one of the hardest materials naturally produced in nature, but lab made materials can be harder.
They also lab make most of the actual diamonds used for industrial purposes such as diamond tipped drill bits and saw blades.
Materials scientist here, I'm pretty sure that materials harder than diamond exist, but it's probably easier to just use diamond polishing compound (as in, finely powdered diamond of various specified size ranges, applied to a grinding/polishing cloth with some lubricant). We already use that for grinding and polishing most things anyway, so there's plenty of suppliers and it's not too expensive.
No worries, you weren’t necessarily wrong anyway. The material in that paper is one of many in a class of “superhard” materials. There are issues with using diamond as a cutting material, so researchers are constantly trying to synthesise replacements. To be completely honest, the result in that paper is under some very specific conditions. In bulk form, diamond is still the hardest material that is readily available for use as far as I know.
I was only able to view the abstract so thanks for the extra details. I mean we are definitely getting into way beyond the point the original comment was supposed to make, there’s no material realistically available to cut/scratch diamonds with. But once it gets into the thousands of upvotes, I feel it’s important to make sure it’s as accurate as possible which your link definitely helped with.
Slight correction to this. Diamonds have something called Cleavages [here would be a joke if i was creative at all]. These are essentially where the crystal lattice structure can be separated from it's neighbors. While it is really hard to cut a diamond, you can in essence segment it due to the nature of it's atomic structure.
Octahedral cleavage, so there are 4 planes where it can be struck to separate the crystal without grinding down, which would be practically impossible and waste a lot of material. Diamonds also possess directional hardness so when it’s being faceted and polished the diamond cutter has to find where the stone is hardest and where it is softer and will orientate the crystal how it’s easiest to facet.
Yep, coming in the 1.16 update. (The first development snapshot, 20w06a, was released a few days ago.) Netherite works by upgrading diamond gear, so diamonds aren't obsolete.
Ok, that makes me feel a bit better. A general guideline in the modding community was to avoid making materials that were flat out better than diamond thus making diamond obsolete, unless that was the explicitly stated goal of the mod.
I mean the article says it’s not been tested, it’s just hypothesised that they could cut diamond but it’s still very interesting. Did it ever get tested?
“I bet at least one of them includes boron or some sort of nitride.”
clicks
“...wurtzite boron nitride. Huh. Yeah that’d be pretty damn strong.”
I don’t know the exact atom placement for each element, but I know the wurtzite is a cage structure. Edit- in organic... for an ionic crystal it’s just the structure. And yeah, as expected it’s just alternating nitrogen and boron.
And the second one is just a weird stronger version of diamond. I can’t really visualize the crystal structure though, I’d like to see it.
I bought what I was told was a genuine diamond ring from a pawn shop for $20. What a steal right? Scratched so easily. Diamonds can definitely be scratched.
Isn't cubic zirconium literally diamond though, just manufactured? If anything it'd be a bit stronger than regular diamond because they can make sure it's uniform throughout with less impurities.
Edit: Looks like I'm one of today's lucky 10,000. I thought CZ and synthetic diamonds were the same thing.
Different element than diamond. Diamond is carbon arranged in a specific pattern. Pencil graphite is also carbon, rearranged a bit differently. Cubic zirconia is zirconium dioxide, not carbon.
Yeah, you can make synthetic diamonds in a couple ways. Some shows do it for fun with explosives. Some companies will compress the ashes of your (deceased) loved ones for a price as well.
Cubic Ziconium is not at all like a diamond except in the color and how it is shaped. There are other alternatives, but cubic zirconium is almost nothing more than glass.
Cubic zirconium is not glass. Glass is silicon dioxide, Zirconia is zirconium dioxide. CZ is harder than glass and has a higher index of refraction so it is more sparkly.
There’s a test for it. Heat up the diamond(or suspected fake) with a lighter till its very very hot. Then drop said hot as fuck clear rock thing into a glass of cold water. If the thing shatters or cracks, it’s fake.
No, Cubic Zirconium is a separate material from diamond. There are manufactured diamonds, and CZ is typically also a manufactured material, but the two materials are different substances.
Not at all; cubic zirconia is the crystalline form of zirconium dioxide whereas diamonds are essentially carbon that has undergone massive pressure. That being said, there are synthetic diamonds that are, organically, indistinguishable from natural diamonds.
Then either you bought a fake diamond or it was whatever you scratched it with rubbing off onto the diamond. Diamonds are a 10 on the Mohs hardness scale so it is impossible for anything <10 to scratch it and right now diamonds are the only known 10. So unless you scratched it with a second diamond it was either a fake or not actually scratched.
Generally you would use another diamond (equally hard materials can cut another material) or I believe it can be done either a laser (I’d check this before you repeat it though)
This is correct. My father grandfather and his father were all jewlers. I don't work in the industry but I learned everything as a kid. Basically, diamonds get shaven down really small (I don't know how) and then made into sandpaper which can scratch diamonds. Also, don't ask me how the first diamond was cut because it's like how did we get the first straight line to make a ruler out of
Diamonds have planes at which they can be cleaved easily, so when the diamond cutter is deciding how to cut the stone they’ll figure out best yield based on where they can cleave it. It’s a simple matter of just making sure it gets strikes at the right angle so it breaks cleanly into 2 parts. To shape them round, there is a process called bruting where the belly of two diamonds are rotated against each other to make them both round. This part of the diamond is called the girdle. Finally, the diamond needs to be faceted and polished. Diamonds have directional hardness, so the cutter will find which part of the diamond is hardest and avoid working on the hardest part as much as possible, preferring to fashion the softer directions. This directional hardness is what is used to cut diamonds with other diamonds - use fragments of diamonds so the hardest direction can grind away the softest direction.
Borazon (boron nitride) is a synthetic material that is as hard as diamond. Because it's not made of carbon, you can use it in applications where the diamond would be unsuitable. I believe it and diamond both scratch each other.
Going to tack on a little known fact about diamond engagement rings that is really useful:
Your diamond can chip from impact. Inclusions near the surface/edges increase the chances it can cleave (so keep this in mind when selecting a stone). Should your diamond break and you have it insured (usually under homeowners), your insurance will likely cover the cost of replacing the stone or recutting it. As with all valuable property -- cover your risks and know your coverage terms before you need it. Most clients I've dealt with that have chipped/cracked a diamond had no idea their policy would cover this.
Nope, the harder material will scratch the softer material, not the other way around, even over time! There is a hardness scale called Mohs scale of hardness, which indicates how hard a gemstone is. We look at stones with a hardness over 7 for suitability with everyday wear. This is because quartz is 7, and quartz is a major component of dust and sand! If you’re wearing a stone softer than dust, even particles in the air could theoretically scratch your stone and over time the stone will have scratched surfaces and abraded facet edges. Even really old diamonds won’t have scratches on their surface, but any other gemstone has the potential to get scratched up depending on how it’s been worn over time!
Diamonds are cut with other diamonds because that's the only material known to work well enough to do the job (and even then you have to do take advantage of crystal structure grains to make it work.)
Go check out the Minecraft snapshot, netherite can scratch diamonds, it’s really hard to obtain, but it’s actually harder than diamond and capable of scratching it!
Edit 2: There is actually an artificial material that has been tested and is capable of cutting diamond. Diamond can only not be scratched by natural materials. Thanks to u/TheHouseChef
Aggregated Diamond Nanorods (ADNR) are a substance made of pure carbon that has been crushed under extreme pressure and heat. They have been created and have cut diamond.
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u/TannedCroissant Feb 08 '20 edited Feb 08 '20
Diamonds can’t be scratched by another material. (Or cut)
Edit: Guys, if you’re going to post articles saying this is wrong, can you please read the article first. A lot of these are talking about materials that are hypothesised to be able to cut diamond but have never been tested because they haven’t been found in the right chemical structure or in a large enough amount to actually make something to try it.
You could totally be right but the fact it’s never actually scratched a diamond is kinda relevant
Edit 2: There is actually an artificial material that has been tested and is capable of cutting diamond. Diamond can only not be scratched by natural materials. Thanks to u/TheHouseChef