Many people come to me armed with diamond lists they print from so called diamond wholesalers off the Internet. This is all well and good and it makes me happy that people are actually doing their homework on this, because it is a big $ purchase and is one of the most important you will ever make. Unfortunately some of the information is mistaken or it has had too much emphasis put on the wrong things.
For example, i recently had a client come to see me, armed with a list he had “researched” and obviously was only prepared to buy a diamond that met his criteria, even though it was a little skewed.
Through his research he was under the impression that a diamond needed to be of the highest CLARITY possible, to give it the most sparkle. Not taking into consideration the other C’s at this stage, while clarity is important it is a minor part of what makes a diamond FIRE, SPARKLE, and SCINTILLATE. It IS important to have a level of clarity you are comfortable (both in terms of what you can afford and what you are actually looking at) with in your diamond, but it is NOT what will give it a real flash of brilliance or give it any sense of fire when it is turned in the light.
He was so hell bent on getting as high a grading in CLARITY as he could afford, i had to ask him to go away and have a coffee, so that he could compose himself, and we could begin the conversation from scratch with not only the right mindset but the right information.
So, what does make a good diamond better? It is mainly an excellent combination of the best COLOUR and CUT that falls within your budget and parameters of what will suit the style of ring you are looking for.
The CUT.
The cut of the diamond determines its brilliance. There is no single measurement of a diamond that determines its cut, but a collection of measurements and observations, that determines, how good the relationship is between the diamonds light performance (how much sparkle you get), its dimensions (what leads to the sparkle), and the finish on its individual facets (how the light passes through each facet).
Almost ALL gemologists consider CUT as the most important diamond characteristic because even if a diamond has perfect colour and perfect clarity, a diamond with a poor cut, will have dulled brilliance. or minimal fire and sparkle.
determining the diamonds cut grade, goes well beyond simple measurements of width and depth. Using an optical measuring device, a 3D model is generated to determine the diamonds proportions and angles. how these proportions an angles inter relate, greatly effects the how light reacts once it enters and how it behaves when it exits the diamond. with the sophisticated computer technology available today, we can easily measure its levels of brightness, fire and scintillation.
quickly:-
Scintillation: generally refers to the flashes of light seen when a diamond moves through the light. can also be used to describe the patterns of light and dark areas seen in a diamond.
Fire: the flashes of coloured light reflected back from within a diamond, comparable to a prism. simply, higher grade in cut means it will refract more colours when turned in the light.
Brightness: the reflections of white light seen from the diamonds top.
Cut also refers to the level of precision the diamond has been cut to. if the facets don’t line up then the light coming back out of the stone gets interrupted, and does not fire properly, if anywhere near what it should be. if the smoothness of the facets is not of an acceptable level then the sparkle will probably be dulled or blurred.
The COLOUR.
if you remember in high school science, getting a prism of clear glass and getting direct sunlight to pass through it? do you remember the effect?
well that is what happens with a diamond. when the light goes through it gets refracted and it goes from sunlight into the colour spectrum.
now do you remember what happened to the refraction when you passed light through a coloured piece of glass?
do you remember the colours that came through were either dulled, or incomplete???
this is what we are talking about with diamonds.
the LESS colour that the diamond has naturally the more it will fire and sparkle and do all the things we want it to do. if your diamond is a “tinted” or a “near colourless” (grading I or below) the light coming through the diamond is interrupted and it is not refracting properly.
the diamond colour chart starts at D, or colourless and runs right through to Z, or noticeable colour.
an ideal colour range dependant on budget is anywhere between, D and H. this way the diamonds are doing what they are meant to be doing, refracting light to give you a brilliance and fire that really catches your eye!
but what about coloured diamonds? they have a completely separate colour chart and are measured differently from white diamonds, this blog is about white diamonds, so we can talk about coloured diamonds another day.
these 2 characteristics make up the heart and soul of a diamond. it is these 2 combined that will make your diamond sparkle the most. obviously if you are buying a diamond you don’t want to have too many imperfections in your stone, as they can effect the way light travels through the diamond as well but to a lesser degree.
the best way to measure the clarity of your diamond is, if you cant see it with either your naked eye, or you have trouble or cant see any imperfections with a jewellers loupe, then it is a pretty safe bet that this diamond has good clarity.
an ideal range of clarity in a diamond without blowing your budget is somewhere between a VS1 and an SI1. above VS1, you start to throw money at the diamond for bragging rights, which is fine if that is what you are after. one thing EVERYBODY must remember, is that, buying a diamond is a truly individual thing, everybody has different goals, ideas and budgets.
your diamond should also be certified by a trusted organisation. i recommend the GIA (gemological Institute of America) they are highly regarded as the benchmark for diamond grading, and within the diamond industry have consistently shown they are unbiased and will always give a true representation of each diamond.
the other consideration when buying diamonds is the carat weight, or how big is the diamond going to be. for some it is as big as they can afford, for others it is the last consideration after the above mentioned information. again it is a personal thing, but the most important thing anyone buying a diamond can do is, at least come with the right information and the patience to buy the diamond that best suits you, your partner and what you want to get out of it.
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