Patent ID: 8890091

Claim:
A method comprising: selecting a diamond material; irradiating the diamond material to increase toughness and/or wear resistance of the diamond material; and processing the diamond material into one or more diamond tool pieces, wherein the diamond material is selected from the group consisting of: a HPHT diamond material having a total equivalent isolated nitrogen concentration in the range 1 to 600 ppm; a CVD diamond material having a total equivalent isolated nitrogen concentration in the range 0.005 to 100 ppm; and a natural diamond material having a total nitrogen concentration in the range 1 to 2000 ppm, and wherein the irradiating comprises controlling energy and dosage of irradiation to provide the diamond material with a plurality of isolated vacancy point defects, the isolated vacancy point defects having a concentration in a range 1×10 14 to 1×10 21 vacancies/cm 3 .