The new carbon copies: diamonds

For eight years, Scott Shaffer has been teaching the kids in his physics classes at Andover High School that it's possible to make diamonds from people's hair, ashes or, if you can amass enough of them, even fingernail clippings.

"You mean, it's possible in theory?" they ask. "No," he responds. "It can be done for real."

And to prove his point, now he's really doing it. He has opened DNA Diamonds, a shop in the Rosedale mall that makes diamonds from people's carbon.

"The kids think there's a creepy factor to that, and there probably is," he admitted. But he also has some fun with it. His wedding ring has a diamond in it, and whenever he wants to get his students' attention, he waves it in their direction and says, "Do you have any idea who this is?"

It's actually a mined diamond, but it won't be for long. As soon as his 18-month-old son has enough hair to spare, he's going to combine hair clippings from his wife, son and himself to make a new diamond for his ring.

Shaffer says his store is the first of its kind in the world. Other companies offer similar services by mail, but he feels strongly that a big part of making a personalized diamond is finding out about the personality it represents.

"The first thing we do is sit down and talk about the person," he said. "Every person has a story, and some of them are amazing stories."

It's also a chance for the teacher in him to come out. He loves to explain the method he uses to make the diamonds, which basically is the same thing that occurs in nature. The machines just lop a couple million years off the process.

"First we reduce everything to pure carbon by using heat to cook off the gases, like hydrogen and oxygen, and then we use magnets to remove elements like iron," he said. "Once we have isolated the carbon, we put it under pressure. Extreme pressure: 1 million pounds per square inch."

Having explained this to his classes many times, he realizes that the number, big though it sounds, means nothing without context. So he provides it: "It's as if you were taking the entire weight of a jumbo jet and putting it on a fingernail."

The conversion from hair -- he needs about 1/2 cup, or about the amount created in a typical haircut -- or cremation ashes (¾ cup) to diamond takes 70 to 80 days. The resulting rock is indistinguishable from a mined diamond.

"It's a real diamond," he said. "It is physically, chemically and optically identical to a mined diamond."

He confessed that he initially had his own doubts about that, so much so that he took one of his man-made diamonds to a jewelry store to have it appraised. "They ran it through every test they have," he said. "They didn't know it was man-made until I told them it was."

The name of his store isn't quite as authentic. It came from marketing people with whom he consulted. While catchy, it's not scientific.

"As a scientist, I flinch a little at it," he confessed. "You don't make the diamond from the DNA. And if you analyzed the diamond, you wouldn't find any of the [person's] DNA in it. But as the name of a store, it works."

In fact, until a week ago, the six-week-old store was called GemMaxx, a name that Shaffer decided didn't convey what he sells.

Business-minded

One reason he was open to the marketing suggestions is that he comes from a business background. After graduating from college, he spent four years in a corporate marketing department before he decided to go back to school and get a degree in physics and his teaching certificate.

Even if the store does well, "I don't plan to stop teaching," he said. "I have a real passion for it."

He isn't sure why he's the only one offering man-made diamonds in a mall.

"When I first heard about this, I started asking, 'Why isn't anyone doing this retail?'" he said. "Finally, I figured I'd do it myself."

His shop only makes the diamonds. He refers his clients to a jeweler to have the diamonds made into a ring or pendant.

"Maybe someday we'll get into that," he said of making the jewelry, "but right now, this is plenty."

The shop can make clear diamonds, but the process is so much more expensive that he steers customers away from it.

"The impurities in the carbon are what create the color," he said. "Removing the impurities can be as expensive as making the diamond. And I can't guarantee that we're going to get it the first time. It might take two or three times."

As a result, you can buy a clear, mined diamond for about two-thirds the price at a jewelry store. But when it comes to colored diamonds, the price ratio flip-flops in favor of the man-made versions. Prices range from $2,750 for a quarter-carat to $18,000 for a two-carat diamond.

But even the colors are personal.

"If I make an amber diamond from my hair and an amber diamond from your hair, the color will be slightly different," he said. "It truly is unique to you."

Taking it personally

For Shaffer's customers, what the diamond represents is the most important thing. He has two clients who are having diamonds made to memorialize children who died. In one case, he's using cremation ashes. In the other, he's combining hair from the child and her mother.

He's touched that they came to him, but he doesn't want memorials to be his shop's sole focus. He's a romantic at heart.

"I want to celebrate love," he said. "I think there's going to be a big market in making engagement rings. You get hair from both the bride and groom and make a diamond that is completely unique to them."

Now that he has demonstrated that making diamonds is not just the stuff of classroom theory, what other science lessons could he turn into retail operations? His eyes lit up at the question.

"Do you realize that scientists have successfully experimented with teleportation?" he said. "They're just moving atoms at this point. Nothing big yet. But they're doing it."

Perhaps coming soon to a mall near you: Shaffer's Speedy Transfer Service.

Jeff Strickler • 612-673-7392