Diamonds girls best friend! Why do girls love diamonds? Why are they so precious? Is it because of their beauty and exquisiteness? Talk about buying. Purchasing a diamond can test the nerves of even the most astute buyer – what do you look for? What do the terms mean? What makes one diamond worth more than another?
When you get in the diamond shop and attempt to buy one, but do not know what the different between this one and that one. Even though those two have the same size and carat, the price can be completely different. Why? Here is a simple guide to the essentials of diamond grading.
Understanding these terms will help you discuss with the dealer the features most important to you, ensuring you get the very best diamond for your money. Diamond appraisers look for four qualities in a diamond when discerning its value. Commonly called the ‘4 Cs’ they are: Cut, Clarity, Carat and Color.
CUT
There are 2 big aspects of CUT.
1. Quality of cut – affecting the brilliance of the diamond – the other refers to the actual shape of the diamond.
2. Shape – Diamonds are available in many shapes. Some of the more common are; round, oval, pear (teardrop shaped), heart, princess (square shaped), Emerald (rectangular shaped), marquise (football shaped) and round. Of all the shapes available, round diamonds are the shape most capable of being cut to exude the greatest brilliance. The brilliance is determined by the ability of the diamond to reflect light. A quality cut diamond will have facets angled to reflect the greatest amount of light. Beware of diamonds cut to maintain a higher carat weight while sacrificing the cutting of a good angle as this will dramatically reduce the brilliance.
CLARITY
Diamonds from natural sources are subject to individual flaws including trace minerals and scratches. A diamond without such characteristics is called flawless and is the rarest kind. While these flaws are often not visible to the naked eye, they affect the light reflecting qualities of the diamond which affects the overall brilliance.
Diamond clarity is classified as follows: Flawless, IF, VVS1, VVS2, VS1, VS2, SI1, SI2, SI3, I1, I2 and I3.
CARAT
Carat is the measurement of the weight of a diamond. One carat may also be referred to as ‘100 points’. This means that a half carat would be listed as ‘50 points’ and so on.
The larger a diamond is the more costly it becomes. Since the larger diamonds are much rarer the cost will go up significantly with each increase in size. A one carat diamond will be more than just double the cost of a half carat, however, a ring with multiple diamonds that have a combined weight of one carat will be cheaper than a single stone of that weight.
COLOR
There are many diamond colors which called fancy diamonds. But the mostly found diamonds will be rated on an alphabetical scale from D to Z. A typical ‘white’ diamond should be as colorless as possible – a rating of ‘D’ being the rarest and most desirable. When choosing a colorless diamond it is best to stay within the D-J range or the diamond will have a yellow cast which lessens the value. The less natural color the diamond has the more colors will appear in the flashes reflected in the prism.
‘Fancy’ diamonds (diamonds with a rating over Z) come in a variety of shades and include some famous diamonds such as the Blue Hope diamond.
When decide to buy a diamond, please keep in mind of these 4 Cs as a factor of buying consideration. It takes years to gain a specialty in this area. Therefore, at least you should point out whether which features are of greatest importance to you and with a little knowledge select the diamond that will hold the greatest value and sentiment for your budget.
Diamonds as they say are a girls best friend and buying the perfect diamond ring should not be a problem for anyone. Usually any kind of diamond ring will do just so long as you get a big diamond on the ring you will be fine. However there have been people that feel an artificial diamond or man made diamond are different from mined diamonds and therefore they feel that the quality will suffer because of this. However there is nothing to fear because an artificial or man made diamond is still chemically the same as a mined diamond.
In fact it can be very hard for people to tell the difference between an artificial diamond and a mined diamond. This can create problems for many people because at the end of the day if you are going to treat someone to a diamond ring then you are going to want the real thing and nothing artificial. While it is unlikely that artificial diamond rings will replace mined diamond rings there still remains the fact that these man made diamond rings are still much cheaper then their mined counterparts.
Diamonds do look nice on a ring and because it is very hard to tell the difference from a man made diamond to a real diamond this means that any ring with a diamond on can look very nice. Diamonds can also withstand high temperatures a diamond can withstand temperatures reaching and including 1100C when it gets hotter then that the diamond will then vaporize.
Diamonds can be made to fit into almost anything for example man made diamonds can be made small enough so that they can be made into earrings, pendants, cufflinks and even bracelets. The possibilities that you have with diamonds are almost endless they can be made to fit into anything and you can visit any jeweller and just see all the diamonds that they have on display. These will range from earrings to engagement and wedding rings. Of course diamonds do not come cheap and if you want to purchase a piece of jewellery that contains diamonds then you will have to pay a pretty penny.
Diamonds are without a doubt a beautiful piece of jewellery to look at. If you are lucky enough to own a piece of jewellery with a diamond in it then you will usually only wear it for a special party. Just so you can see your friends admire your stunning piece of diamond jewellery.