Half a croissant, on a plate, with a sign in front of it saying '50c'
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Solid Diamond Ring

More bang for your bling
  (+19, -1)(+19, -1)
(+19, -1)
  [vote for,
against]

Wow your boorish snobby friends with a ring made from solid C-12 -- lab-grown, laser-cut & custom-made, of course, to your size and specifications.

And hopefully your fingers won't get frostbite from all that ice.

nihilo, May 23 2006

(?) How to make a diamond http://www.amnh.org...amonds/growing.html
To get you started. [nihilo, May 23 2006]

Man-made diamonds http://www.usatoday...made-diamonds_x.htm
[nihilo, May 23 2006]

Bigger & blingier http://ltc.smm.org/buzz/node/1064
See poignant comments at bottom by "anonymous". [nihilo, May 23 2006]

"The world's first diamond ring" http://www.huffingt...rats_n_1373283.html
Where's my royalty? [nihilo, Mar 24 2012]

AIDS diamond ring https://uncrate.com/the-red-diamond-ring/
Where's my royalty II? [nihilo, Nov 14 2018]

[link]






       It would be painfully obvious that it is man-made and would have as much Wow factor as serving the mimosas in steins.
methinksnot, May 23 2006
  

       Being man-made makes it no less sparkly. It IS still diamond, after all. And it's still likely to be incredibly expensive, possibly affordable only to a smattering of meretricious hotel heiresses, and their ilk. At least until the price of personal home universal matter replicators comes down.
nihilo, May 23 2006
  

       It is still diamond, yet it is not the real thing. Just like the meretricious hotel heiresses you mention.
methinksnot, May 23 2006
  

       Would not a rose, lab-grown, laser-cut and custom-made, still smell as sweet?
nihilo, May 23 2006
  

       By any other name, yes. Yet Prada, Gucci, Bentley, Moet, Omega, and a few others would disagree with you.
methinksnot, May 23 2006
  

       Slam your hand down on the table and your ring shatters. Diamonds are hard, but not all that tough.
Texticle, May 24 2006
  

       Yes, yes: care should always be taken to avoid slamming one's hand on tables, or in car doors, against brick walls, etc.   

       Perhaps a large yellow warning label affixed to the 100% diamond ring may help to prevent such mishaps?
nihilo, May 24 2006
  

       Women who buy these rings are not the kind to slam their hands on tables.
methinksnot, May 24 2006
  

       No, I didn't think so, either.
nihilo, May 24 2006
  

       I had this idea myself a while back - make the ring out of crystal (diamond, sapphire, amethyst, whatever...) and add small details of gold and/or silver.
<aside>(Personally, I think using expensive materials is over-rated. A ring made of stainless steel with a polycarbonate 'jewel' would look just as good, but far less prone to damage)</aside>
neutrinos_shadow, May 24 2006
  

       You mean you don't drink mimosas out of steins? I have a friend who will be sorry to learn that, he makes his in flower vases.
normzone, May 24 2006
  

       Mimosas are to steins like:
a) Britney Spears is to parenting
2) Aforementioned meretricious hotel heiresses are to decorum
III) 100% diamond rings are to fish
methinksnot, May 24 2006
  

       did 'eats, shoots & leaves' say anything about a, 2, III?
po, May 24 2006
  

       Just like to pipe in and say "meretricious" again.   

       What a wonderful word.
zen_tom, May 24 2006
  

       Let's not forget "smattering". I know I can't.
nihilo, May 24 2006
  

       I like this, if for no other reason than it being high-tech.
Shz, May 24 2006
  

       /Women who buy these rings are not the kind to slam their hands on tables./   

       I would have thought the opposite.
Texticle, May 25 2006
  

       Why? Judging by the frailty of some of the expensive fashion accessories and jewellery I have seen, the target demographic for these products must be a very measured bunch.
methinksnot, May 25 2006
  

       I guess I just thought that the personality associated with spending all that money on such a selfish extravagance would be the same personality that would slam hands on tables in toddler-like tantrums.
Texticle, May 25 2006
  

       That's why we have house boys and personal slaves. I would never dare think of slaming my own personal fragile appendage on to some filthy countertop. Please.
NotTheSharpestSpoon, May 25 2006
  

       You there! Slam your hand on this table immediately. That's a good chap, now go fetch me another mimosa.
methinksnot, May 25 2006
  

       I think this is an absolutely brilliant idea! Long have I wondered if someone else would ever think of it. [+]
ShellCandy, Jul 12 2007
  

       Stud it with some gold nodules.
Cuit_au_Four, Jul 12 2007
  

       insert a shiny stainless ring into the 'ring' portion of the diamond. this will not be visible when the ring is worn, but will add immense strength and act as a reflector for incoming light (which may otherwise be absorbed by hand meat, decreasing the overall luster).
TIB, Jul 12 2007
  

       //insert a shiny stainless ring// I think this is very unlikely to help appreciably, since the Young's modulus (stiffness, crudely) is about 1/5th that of diamond (depending on the steel). Hence, the steel will flex and the diamond will crack. It's a bit like trying to reinforce a sheet of glass by bonding it to a strong sheet of rubber.
MaxwellBuchanan, Jul 12 2007
  

       Hey [MaxwellBuchanan], you just described blast proof glass (the "rubber" is PVB, though). The diamond will still smash, but the ring might remain in one piece.   

       Make the inner, metal ring a Metal Matrix Composite if you want, but it'll be more brittle.
TheLightsAreOnBut, Jul 12 2007
  

       Just for the ironic effect, have a piece of 24 kt hold shaped like a "diamond" attached to where the diamond would have been on a gold ring.   

       There are definite new aesthetic possibilities with this.
cowtamer, Jul 14 2007
  

       [Max]: you'd want the steel to be relatively flexible i think. that would allow the load (of the incoming deformation) to be spread out over the entire inner perimeter of diamond, rather than just one spot as it would be if the insert was composed of something less flexible than diamond. perhaps this steel band could be used to 'pretension' the diamond with an outward force.   

       of course, i really have no clue if this would help - i'm just guessing. diamonds, despite their amazingly strong 3-d lattice, just seem a little too brittle to serve as structural members on anything above the micro scale.
TIB, Jul 14 2007
  

       Well, maybe they could fabricate a chain of these interlocking solid-diamond-rings and sell it for a million dollars.
quantum_flux, Jul 14 2007
  

       I find in favor of the plaintiff and award the halfbaker known as [nihilo] a one half of one percent royalty totalling $340,000, untaxable and delivered in small unmarked bills or its equivelent in precious stones or metals as the plaintiff wishes. Payment to be delivered forthwith.
<bangs gavel>
  

       As to the shatterability of the thing, [Max] has the right of it. It's like trying to reinforce a brittle glass rod with a soft plastic sleeve. The plastic deforms elastically allowing the glass rod to shatter. Reinforcement needs to be done with something as stiff or stiffer than the parent material (unless you can do something really zen, like apply tension or compression to pre-stress the item, in some cases that can help).   

       The real question then becomes - can you temper diamond, and has anyone tried?
Custardguts, Mar 26 2012
  

       My wife lost her diamond and her temper in quick succession.
AusCan531, Mar 26 2012
  

       Speaking as one who frequently tempers things but is not a Known Authority on the subject, no, I don't think you can temper a diamond. The diamond-creation process is kind of an exaggerated hardening process. Also, I think diamond is up there with Teflon and Ru$# L1mb@ugh in terms of immutability.   

       I can say with full confidence of truth that a solid diamond ring would be shatterable. I smashed a small lab-grown diamond with one blow of a sledgehammer a couple of years ago (to win a foolish bet made by a former co- worker). It left tiny marks on both the hammer and the anvil, but the diamond was pulverized. Even I was surprised by that--I thought there would be shards.
Alterother, Mar 26 2012
  

       There are a few diamond-like allotropes of carbon; some of them are tougher than natural diamond. So yes, loosely speaking, you can temper diamond.
spidermother, Mar 26 2012
  

       I stand loosely corrected, then. It's amazing how quickly I can be wrong about things.   

       But is a diamond-like allotrope actually diamond? And does 'tougher' mean 'tempered'?   

       (I happen to know the answer to the latter.)
Alterother, Mar 26 2012
  

       //does 'tougher' mean 'tempered'?//   

       ...Look, I know. Point made. But Tempering is used to "toughen" glass which is otherwise not-so-tough. I thought it the best term, at the time.   

       How about using cubic Boron Nitride, Silicone Carbide, or another synthetic gemstone instead? I'm sure you can find one that's tougher than diamond, but still blingingly bright.
Custardguts, Mar 26 2012
  

       OK, further reading suggests that I was a little off the mark. The main candidates for tougher, diamond-like forms of carbon are not strictly allotropes, as they do not have a precisely defined molecular structure. But their formation could still be described as tempering, since it involves time- and temperature-critical transformations which lock the carbon atoms in a semi-crystalline, intermediate state. I think that is the essence of tempering; annealing, for example, differs from tempering in that the process can be arbitrarily slow; it is not time-critical.
spidermother, Mar 26 2012
  

       //hopefully your fingers won't get frostbite from all that ice.//   

       Diamond indeed has remarkable thermal conductivity!   

       I would guess that a SDR would increase the effective surface area of the circumannular orbit of the finger, and cause it to feel much colder in Winter, and perhaps become too hot in the Summer.
csea, Mar 26 2012
  

       //meretricious hotel heiresses, and their ilk//   

       <überpedant> 'Ilk' means 'same', so that's a tautology. For example:   

       Erth art tu to goode seede,
on thee lighte th'even dew;
of thee sprong thet edi bleede,
th'oli gost hit on thee sew.
Bring us ut of kar, of dreede
that Eve bitterlich us brew;
thu schalt us into hevne leede;
wel sweet is us thet ilke dew.
  

       The 'ilke dew' in the last line refers to the particular dew that was mentioned in the second line, not simply to some dew or other that is similar in some way.   

       Note also that 'wel sweet' means just what it would to modern teenagers - the last line translates as 'that same dew is well sweet (to) us'
spidermother, Mar 26 2012
  

       Pondering diamonds and anvils, I was thinking a better bet was whether one could shatter a diamond with a sharp quick bite. But then it occurred to be that a better use of diamonds would be tooth crowns. Blingitude aside, a thin diamond coating should go far in preventing wear. Better yet would be to deposit diamond on the surfaces of native teeth.
bungston, Mar 26 2012
  

       Damnit [nihilo], I came here to post that link...
Custardguts, Apr 02 2012
  

       I know I'm a bit late to this discussion, but when talking about reinforcing diamond with steel, the thought that comes to mind is post-tension concrete. One example of this is a concrete slab poured with steel cables running through it. After the concrete cures, the cables are tightened, putting the concrete in continuous compression.   

       Obviously we don't want tightening bolts sticking out of the diamond ring, but say a solid diamond toroid is formed with a stainless steel core at a fairly high temperature. Since Stainless steel has a much higher coefficient of expansion, when the ring cools, the steel ring will have significant tension, putting compression on the diamond ring.   

       Of course forming the diamond around this stainless steel ring is a whole different problem.
scad mientist, Nov 14 2018
  

       We will be intrigued to observe the economic effects when (not if) your species perfects the process for manufacturing pure tetrahedral carbon crystals by the tonne, in any size.   

       There are precedents. Materials that were once very rare and expensive are now commonplace. Pure Silicon boules are available in very large sizes, limited more by the practicalities of handling equipment than anything else.   

       Diamond will go the same way ... might even end up being cheaper than float glass, or acrylic sheet.
8th of 7, Nov 14 2018
  
      
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