[TML] Personal Armor Noise was Re: Current USAF fleet

[Knapp]

On Mon, May 5, 2008 at 7:25 AM, Tom B <kaladorn at gmail.com> wrote:
> >  This is just one area where I became an informed consumer but most of
>  >  us are not for most purchases and this lets very poor quality rule
>  >  over good quality. Why pay the price when you can't tell the
>  >  difference? This is turn leads to the death of well crafted or hand
>  >  crafted goods and artist.
>  >
>  >  This must translate into an adventure idea somehow.
>
>  I'm pretty sure the Canadian ones have serial numbers lasered into the
>  inside that are super small. This helps ensure your diamond isn't a
>  'blood diamond' or some bootleg. Assuming, of course, you believe this
>  can't be counterfeit or that you'd bother to verify it.
>
>  I looked at many cheap diamonds when I was last buying some. I'll say
>  this, cheap diamonds in a cheap setting looked cheap. Expensive
>  diamonds, well cut, in an expensive setting (that allowed plenty of
>  light to strike them) were dazzlingly beautiful. I think the setting
>  has as much to do with it as anything.
>
>  But much like buying a Porsche or a BMW, you are getting a slightly
>  better product but not commensurate with the price rise, buying
>  diamond jewelry from a reputable merchant costs, but people recognize
>  the name and associate it with quality.
>
>  Ultimately, the diamonds exist only to provoke an emotional reaction.
>  If you think about it, they're just a metamorphasized pencil lead or
>  piece of coal. Any value they have is utterly artificial. We can even
>  produce them artificially. The market is artificially manipulated.
>
>  For all that, what you pay for is the emotional reaction and sentiment
>  you expect to be attached to the gesture. Part of that reaction and
>  its scope is based on how much you paid for it.
>
>  Most pragmatic people (more often guys) see it as a waste of money
>  because it doesn't have resale value and is only a piece of rock and
>  that much money could buy lots of other fun stuff. But it isn't about
>  pragmatism. It is inherently a waste of money. And yes, you could buy
>  a big screen TV, a living room set, and maybe a new kitchen for that
>  price. But that's soooo not the point. Like tilting at lists to win a
>  lady's favour, it is a gesture of sacrifice. It is a sign that you
>  place a very high value on the person in question.
>
>  Ultimately, that's what you are paying for. And our social conventions
>  dictate that you can't just give them a $20,000 cheque. So, you go out
>  and buy the most God-awful expensive pencil lead you'll ever buy. And
>  hope things work out.
>
>  TomB

First off I did not say a cheep diamond exactly, I said perfect cut
and perfect proportions, this is what glitters (yes, mounting counts
but that will cost about the same in most cases because a lot of the
price is for the gold itself, still good quality is better. It is not
like diamond ring mountings are new)! This will cost more that badly
cut diamonds. But the price difference between an pure white flawless
and a bit yellow with a flaw that can only be seen with 10x power will
blow you away and if mounted in yellow gold get you nothing.

The mounting quality is yet another bit where the average Joe gets bad
quality and never knows it. The ultimate in this is opal mounts. Opals
will break about as easily as glass and like glass break best if the
edge can be hit and they have no support in the middle. Most opal
settings are like this until you get to someone that knows what they
are doing. Then they protect the softer stone with gold instead of
tying to mount it like a diamond..



-- 
Douglas E Knapp
http://sf-journey-creations.wikispot.org/Front_Page