Diamond Guide

Buying a diamond is not a day to day task, unless you are very much rich to afford it. For most of the people, purchasing a diamond could be the biggest purchase they have ever made. Choosing the right diamond is sometimes very difficult for the buyers since they don’t know much about the characteristics of a diamond. So it is sometimes essential to have the understanding of some important characteristics of the diamond before you made your purchase. This article will give a little insight on the four key terms that you need to remember while purchasing a diamond: the four Cs which are Cut, Color, Clarity, and Carat Weight. You should also consider the certificates of the diamonds that you purchase which will ensure you that the diamond has passed a professional and legal inspection test. Let us discuss the Four Cs in brief:

CUT

The brilliance of a diamond is dependent upon its cut. According to most of the gemologists, even with a perfect color and clarity, a diamond with a poor cut will lose its brilliance. Determining the diamond’s cut grade is usually a bit complex process since there isn’t a single measurement that could easily define the cut of the diamond. So number of different measurements and different observations are used to determine the brilliance of a diamond. One of the most important observations is to see how the lights travel through the diamond. How the light travels through the diamond usually depends on its width and depth. It should neither be too shallow nor should it be too deep. The cut determines how the light will enter the diamond and how it will exit. Cut is the major factor that determines the sparkle of a diamond. Different dimensions of a diamond affect the way lights enter and exit from a diamond.

According to the anatomy of a diamond, following are the dimensions that affect the entering and exiting of light:

• Table
• Crown
• Culet
• Depth
• Diameter
• Girdle
• Pavilion

The cutting process of a diamond includes two important things; symmetry and polish. While purchasing a diamond, you should review the polish grade as well as the symmetry grade. A poorly polished diamond will lose its sparkle and will look dull. Similarly a diamond with poor symmetry can cause the light to be misdirected when it enters or exits the diamond; making it looks dull. There are different grades for both polish and symmetry e.g., VG (very good), P (poor), F (fair), Ex (excellent) etc. You should look for these grades before buying a diamond.

COLOR:

Another important feature that you should consider while buying a diamond, since you won’t be buying a diamond every now and then, is to observe the color of the diamond. The body color of a diamond ranges from colorlessness to yellow color. The color won’t affect the brilliance of the diamond as the cut affects. The color of the diamond depends on the preference of the buyer. Mostly people look for a pure colorless diamond in order to retain its purity, while some may look for a warmer color.

Different diamonds looks different with different settings. For example a white diamond with a yellow gold setting may reflect the yellow tint of the setting; similarly, if a light yellow is being used with a yellow gold setting, then the diamond will look whiter. The combination of diamond and its setting depends on the personal preference of the buyer. One fact about the diamond that the buyer should know to increase his /her knowledge is that diamond is made of carbon. Why diamonds are in different colors? The answer is that during the development of a diamond, there are a number of different natural elements that are added into the carbon which eventually causes a reaction; which results in different colors. For instance, yellow color is the result of nitrogen traces; blue color is the result of boron traces etc. Diamonds are available in other fancy colors too like pink, red, orange, violet etc.

CLARITY:

Clarity is another important feature of a diamond. The more clarity the diamond has, the more valuable it is. Many diamonds are not clear because of some inclusions. Different standard bodies have defined different grades and set of rules to describe the inclusion in a diamond. For instance

• SI: This grade means that the diamond has Slight Inclusions which are visible at 10x Magnification and which might be visible to an unaided eye.
• VSI: This grade means that the diamond has Very Slight Inclusion which is not visible to an unaided eye.
• VVSI: This grade means that the diamond has Very Very Slight Inclusion and it guarantees excellent diamond quality.
• FL: This grade is given to a Flawless Diamond. There are no internal or external flaws in these diamonds but these diamonds are very rare.

CARAT WEIGHT:

The last C of the 4 Cs is the carat weight. The carat weight is measured or described using a point system e.g., 1 carat = 100 points and ½ carat = 50 points, similarly 1 carat = 200 milligrams and 142 carat = 1 ounce.

Sometimes people confuse the word carat with karat. Karat is a unit used to measure the purity of the gold while carat determines the weight of a diamond. Today, the diamonds are measured using different electronic scales. In early ages, people used to weigh the diamonds using different mechanical scales. 1 carat diamonds are much more expensive since they are rare in nature. Smaller diamonds are not rare so they are usually not expensive. Some people would think that the price of a one carat diamond would be equal to two half-carat diamond; no, since 1 carat diamond are rare in nature, their price is far more than two half-carat diamonds. One interesting fact is that the largest diamond ever found was 3,106 carats in South America in 1905. It was then cut into many smaller diamonds. The name of that diamond was Cullinan.

Whenever you want to buy a diamond, make one thing sure that it will look bigger on a smaller hand. So you should take in account the wearer’s hand before buying a diamond in order to avoid any bad effects on the appearance of your diamond.