| Cut |
Many
people confuse cut with the shape of a diamond. The shape you
select is a matter of individual taste, and today your choice
is only limited by the skill and imagination of the craftsman.
The cutting grade is determined by their effort to maximize
the refraction of light during every stage of the fashioning
process. Most brilliant-cut or fancy-shaped diamonds possess
58 carefully angled flat surfaces, called facets, whose placement
will affect the fire, brilliance and ultimate beauty of your
diamond.
The value of two diamonds with exactly the same carat weight
could vary by 40% depending on the quality of cut. |
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| Color |
| The
most prized diamonds are colorless. Their beauty depends entirely
upon their remarkable optical properties. All the colors of
the rainbow are reflected back to your eye. Though most diamonds
appear to be icy-white, the fact is that most diamonds have
slight traces of color, usually yellow or brown. The most valuable
is no color, or colorless, due to its rarity. With each subtle
departure from colorless, there is a decrease in rarity and
value. The G.I.A. color grades range from D (colorless) all
the way to Z (yellow-brownish). |
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| Clarity |
| Clarity
in a diamond is defined by the presence of natural characteristics.
A diamond is graded using a microscope at 10 power (10x) magnification.
The most rare and valuable diamonds have no natural characteristics
at 10 power, and diamonds with more and larger characteristics
are less rare and less valuable. As with color, differences
in clarity can be very subtle, yet have a decided impact on
value. |
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| Carat
Weight |
| Carat
weight is the standard unit of weight for diamonds. One carat
equals 1/5 of a gram, or .007 of an ounce. Carat weight is further
divided into decimals. For example, exactly 1/2 carat is .50
carat and expressed as 50 ?points.? Because diamonds are weighed
to hundredths of a carat, they must be weighed on extremely
precise and sensitive scales. All other factors being equal,
as weight increases, so does rarity and value. |
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| Shapes |
| The
common shapes of diamonds on the market today are: Round, Marquise,
Pear, Oval, Heart, Princess, Emerald, Radiant, Trilliant, and
Cushion. Shape does affect clarity. Certain shapes, like emerald,
princess and radiant, will highlight imperfections, making them
easily visible to the naked eye; even those that would require
magnification in other shapes. When considering a low clarity
diamond (SI2 and under) beware of these shapes, unless the imperfection
is well to the side of diamond. Clean diamonds can, of course,
be purchased confidently in any shape. |
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Round
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Princess
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Marquise
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Oval
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Radiant
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Emerald
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Pear
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Heart
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Trilliant
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