Enhanced Diamonds

Enhanced diamonds are shunned by jewelry old-method diehards, but they can be used to significantly upgrade the characteristics of a gem that has already been cut and polished. For centuries, once a diamond was cut, it was finished. A jeweler did the best they could to bring out the beauty in a stone, and to conceal its flaws, but once they had cut the gem, their work was finished.

In the past century that has changed. Enhanced diamonds are diamonds which undergo modifications in the post-cut, but pre-marketing phase of their lives. The enhancement process doesn’t lower the value of a gem intrinsically, but many buyers are leery of a gem that has been modified, and so post-cut enhancements are usually not performed on high quality gems.

The enhancements available today specialize in altering one of the C’s of diamond value. Two C’s, carat and cut, cannot realistically be altered once the diamond has been cut. But the color; and clarity of a diamond can be altered post cut. A diamond with inclusions or fractures in it can have them repaired with a laser. A diamond can have its color altered in a variety of ways as well.