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posted by martyb on Sunday March 31 2019, @07:55PM   Printer-friendly

Submitted via IRC for chromas

Dead People And Pets Are Being Forged Into Pretty Blue Diamonds - Here's How It Works

When a person dies, cremation is an increasingly popular option. The practice eclipsed burials in the US in 2015 and is expected to make up more than half of all body disposals by 2020, according to the Cremation Association of North America.

[...] While at least five companies offer a "memorial diamond" service, Algordanza in Switzerland is one of the industry leaders — its services are available in 33 countries, and the company told Business Insider it sold nearly 1,000 corporeal gems in 2016.

Algordanza also claims to be the only company of its kind that operates its own diamond-growing lab for cremains — one of two in the world. (The other is in Russia.)

"It allows someone to keep their loved one with them forever," Christina Martoia, a spokesperson for Algordanza US, told Business Insider. "We're bringing joy out of something that is, for a lot of people, a lot of pain."

[...] Making a diamond from a dead person begins with cremation. The process typically leaves behind about 2.2kgs to 4.5kgs of ashes, much of which is carbon. Martoia said Algordanza requires a minimum of 500g of cremains. 'That's kind of the magic number, where our engineers can guarantee there will be enough carbon to make a memorial diamond,' she said.

[...] 'The diamonds can range from clear to very deep blue,' Martoia said. 'The more boron, the deeper the blue.' [...] Natural diamonds form out of carbon that gets stuck in lava tubes about a mile deep in the Earth's crust. To emulate that environment, Algordanza inserts the cell (now packed with graphite) into a platter and slides it into a high-temperature high-pressure (HPHT) growing machine. That machine can heat a growth cell to nearly 1,370 degrees celcius. It also squeezes the cell under 394,625kgs-per-square-inch of pressure.

[...] Depending on how big a customer wants their diamond to be, it can take six to eight weeks in an HPHT machine to coax graphite to crystallize into a gem. 'The larger the diamond, the longer it takes to grow,' Martoia said. When enough time has passed, technicians remove the puck of graphite and crack it open. Inside awaits a rough, uncut, and unpolished diamond.

Some customers take the rough gem, but many opt to have their memorial diamonds cut, faceted, and polished by a jeweller in Switzerland. Algordanza's prices start at $3,000 for a 0.3 carat diamond. Martoia said the average order is about 0.4 to 0.5 carat, though US customers usually request bigger, 0.8-carat diamonds.


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  • (Score: 2) by HiThere on Sunday March 31 2019, @08:55PM (3 children)

    by HiThere (866) Subscriber Badge on Sunday March 31 2019, @08:55PM (#822830) Journal

    I'm pretty sure that even for really skinny people they throw away most of the remains. The smaller limit is probably to keep people from requesting that their parakeet be made into a diamond or something.

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  • (Score: 1) by Ethanol-fueled on Sunday March 31 2019, @11:11PM (2 children)

    by Ethanol-fueled (2792) on Sunday March 31 2019, @11:11PM (#822881) Homepage

    Doubtful. If some jackass with too much money is offering you money to make a diamond out of his parakeet, then you do it even if it means sending them to the back of the line in favor of the larger and more expensive diamonds.

    It's kinda like the bakers who refused to bake the homosexual cake. Those homos want to give you their money! Just squirt the fucking rainbow frosting on it and take their goddamn money.

    • (Score: 2) by HiThere on Monday April 01 2019, @12:35AM (1 child)

      by HiThere (866) Subscriber Badge on Monday April 01 2019, @12:35AM (#822902) Journal

      But a parakeet probably doesn't have enough carbon to make a decent sized diamond. So it's a practical, not a matter of "I won't deal with ...".

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      • (Score: 1) by Ethanol-fueled on Monday April 01 2019, @12:43AM

        by Ethanol-fueled (2792) on Monday April 01 2019, @12:43AM (#822906) Homepage

        Then take some of the ashes from your Weber charcoal grill and add them to the mix. Not only would they have a diamond, but one that smells good, like beer-can or BBQ chicken.