Selling Diamonds

(via Diamond Promotion Service) Diamonds: The buying public today has more information about diamonds than ever before. The diamond is studied in science courses in schools and colleges. A great many articles about diamonds have appeared in magazines and newspapers. Both technical and non-technical books are published every year. Jewelers and others give many talks about diamonds, both to ‘live’ audiences and to the far larger audiences of television and radio programs. There is an increasing amount of diamond advertising.

All of this can be considered direct information. But human nature being what it is, the assimilation and retention of this information are always perfect. Therefore, the ‘pass-along’ or indirect information people get from other people is not always completely accurate. So the buying public also has a lot of misinformation about diamonds.

As a result, the customer who comes into your store has a definite interest in diamonds. He probably has some basic information, which may or may not be accurate. In most cases he will ask questions. These you must answer with the clarity, confidence and accuracy of an expert.

This section is not intended as a short course on diamondology. Rather, it is intended to present briefly the principal facts about diamonds in which customers have shown the most interest.

What is a diamond?
1. A diamond is a transparent gem made of pure carbon (like the graphite in a lead pencil) which has been crystallized, in nature, by tremendous heat and pressure. It is the hardest, the most imperishable, and the most brilliant of all minerals.

Physical Properties Of Diamond
2. The physical properties are important for a complete understanding of the long-lived beauty of the diamond and of its value in comparison with other gems. These properties are usually expressed in technical terms, but you should explain them in terms that will be clear to the customer.

3. Hardness: Diamond, by a wide margin, is the hardest substance known to man. On a scale that measures resistance to abrasion, for example, diamond is 42, while corundum (ruby and sapphire) is 9 and tungsten carbide is 12. On a scale that measures resistance to indentation, diamond is 8500, while corundum is 2200, tungsten carbide is 1500, and topaz is 1250. On the Mohs scale, a measurement for hardness of gems, diamond has a hardness of 10. This is the top of the scale, and it means that diamond will scratch but will not be scratched by minerals lower on the scale: corundum—9; topaz—8; and so on. However, this is not a true measure of the relative hardness of diamonds because on this scale there is a vast disparity between 10 and the remaining numbers. In fact, diamond is almost 100 times more resistant to scratching than the next hardest substance.

Why is hardness one of diamond’s most desirable and unique features? The hardness of the diamond enables it to be cut with precise accuracy for maximum efficiency in the handling of light. Hardness gives the surface of the diamond a luster unsurpassed by any other transparent gem. Hardness enables the diamond to last forever, in a very literal sense. Hardness provides resistance to scratching and other damage.

4. Toughness: Many people equate hardness to toughness, or resistance to breakage, and to expect a diamond to be unbreakable. This is not true. A diamond’s crystal structure, like the grain in wood, had ‘hard’ and ‘soft’ directions. A blow of sufficient force, in a very exact direction, can crack, chip, split or even shatter a diamond. This characteristic is important for the cleaving step in the cutting process. It is also a warning for the wearing of diamond; a diamond ring shouldn’t be worn on hands that are doing rough work.

5. Refractive index: The refractive index indicates how much a ray of light bends when it passes from one medium into another. For example, when you put a pencil half way into water it seems to bend, because water has a refractive index of 1.333. The refractive index of diamond is 2.417, the highest of any precious gem. In general, the higher a gem’s refractive index, the greater its power of dispersion, or the ability to break up light into colors of the spectrum. Ruby has a refractive index of 1.770; emerald is 1.585.

Selling Diamonds (continued)