There is no other item in the world of jewelry purchasing that causes as much anxiety and confusion as diamonds. This page should help you simplify things a little. Having said that, NOTHING helps as much as seeing diamonds. We can give you enough information to pass any diamond knowledge course in the world, but until you SEE diamonds and what all these terms mean in the real world, you're still shooting in the dark.
Diamonds
Explained
Let's start with the basics. Nearly everyone has heard of the 4 C's, but what does that really mean? The simple terms are these:
1. Cut
2. Carat
3. Color
4. Clarity
We'll break this down into each category.
WE CAN'T STRESS ENOUGH HOW IMPORTANT IT IS TO SEE THESE THINGS RATHER THAN JUST READING ABOUT IT. NEVER BUY DIAMONDS JUST BY THE "NUMBERS!"
The second "C"
Carat
"Carat" is simply a unit of weight. Do not confuse that with physical size or appearance. The two will be related, but as you study about cut you will see that appearance can be deceiving.
The word "carat" comes from "carob." Carob seeds, because of their consistency in size, were used as a standard of measure for gems. A carat today is .20 grams. In other words it would take appr. 2270 carats to be one pound! Diamonds are valuable enough that weight gets broken down into hundreths of carats. Think of it like breaking a dollar down into pennies, so a quarter carat is .25carats (cts.), a half carat is .50cts. etc. Sometimes this will be called "points." In other words, a 22 point diamond is just a simple way of saying .22cts. or 22/100 of a carat.
All things being equal, the larger the diamond, the more valuable. Do NOT miss those words, "all things being equal." Larger alone may not mean higher value. We've sold 1/2 carat diamonds for more money than 1 carat diamonds because of quality differences.
The Third "C"
Color
Color in diamonds is looked at differently than in other gems. With diamonds, it's the absence of color that determines rarity. (The fancy colors, like the blue and orange pictured above, can be the exception to this.) They can be any color you can name. Most of us remember hearing about J Lo's pink diamond!
Diamonds are graded for color on an alphabetized scale starting at Z and moving up to D. D is the absolute absence of any color in the body of the diamond. Do not confuse this with the sparkle you see from the surface of diamonds. That's the result of cut. You must look into the body of the diamond from the bottom with pure white light to see diamond color.
Grading diamond color is comparable to taking a crystal beaker of purified water. It's absolutely clear. For each of the grades of the color scale, it's like adding a tiny drop of dye into that diamond. That dye can be any color, so what we are really grading is the amount of color rather than the hue. The chart below is a little misleading because of that. Most charts talk about diamonds being yellow, but the most common color of diamond is actually brown and grey. Yellow shows up to the human eye more easily, so a diamond that is a K color yellow would appear to have more color than a K color brown. It can get a bit confusing, but in seeing diamonds next to master color diamonds alleviates that. Again, see them, don't just assume the numbers. Again, all else being equal a diamond of a D color grade, being more rare than others, is more valuable than a J color. That does NOT mean it's more beautiful. The old saying about beauty being in the eye of the beholder is absolutely true here. Some people prefer diamonds with a bit of a tint. Hey, some of us like blondes, some brunettes. When it comes to diamonds, some of us like them all!
The Fourth "C"
Clarity
Clarity is a term that means something different in gems than what the rest of world thinks of. Most people associate clarity with the sparkle. That's not it. When we measure clarity in diamonds we are looking at the absence of internal natural characteristics called inclusions. Many jewelers will call these inclusions "flaws." That's not a great term for it because it infers that God made mistakes. Actually these inclusions tell us that this gem is a diamond (the CZ's are flawless) and these inclusions separate your diamond from everyone else's diamond in the world. Inclusions are just like fingerprints and your diamond can be "plotted" just like fingerprints.
FL............................Flawless under 10X magnification
Under 50X we will probably find inclusions!
Very, very slight inclusions
VVS1.........................Extremely difficult for the trained eye to see under 10X power
VVS2...................................................................Very difficult for the trained eye to see
Very slight inclusions
VS1..............................................Difficult for the trained eye to see under 10X
VS2......................... Somewhat difficult for the trained eye to see under 10X
Slight inclusions
SI1.................................Somewhat easy for the trained eye to see under 10X
SI2.........................Easy to see under 10X (May be visible from the bottom without magnification
Imperfect (Not a great term since 80% of all gem quality diamonds are here or lower)
I1.........................................Somewhat visible by the trained eye without magnification
I2....................................Very visible without magnification
I3....................................................Extremely visible and may affect durability
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Click the pictures to enlarge
The First "C"
Cut
This is THE most important aspect of diamond grading and beauty. The cutting of a diamond affects more of the beauty and the cost than any oither single factor. In fact, the cut or make of a diamond can affect 60% of the total value!
Many people confuse cut with the shape of the diamond. Diamonds are cut to any number of shapes with the most popular being the round, marquise, princess, emerald, pear and heart. Other shapes include baguette, fish, horse's heads, stars, and you name it. Whatever the shape, however, a well cut diamond is better able to handle light. That is what you see when you see the glimmer or sparkle of a good diamond.
It's the cut that enables a diamond to make the best use of light. When a diamond is cut to the right proportions, light is reflected from the bottom of the diamond back through the top where it is dispersed into all the colors of the rainbow. This is often called the "Ideal Cut." (see figure 1)
If the diamond is cut too shallow much of the light "leaks" out the bottom instead of being reflected back out the top. (figure 2) The same thing happens if it has been cut too deep, as most of them are. (figure 3)
We also look at the polish, symmetry, and the exact placement of each facet (flat surface) in determining how well the diamond has been cut.
Figure 1
Figure 2
Figure 3
Notice that because of the cut, the diamond in the center (Figure 2) would appear the largest when set and the one on the right (Figure 3) would appear the smallest. Actually, the one in the center would be the lightest and the heaviest one is on the right. Both, however, would not have the beauty of the one in Figure 1. It will handle light the most effectively and break up the white light into the rainbow colors most effectively too.
The percentage numbers you see at the left are percentages of the diameter of the diamond. Everything is measured by that. The most important number shown is the percentage of the pavilion depth (43%). (The pavillion is from the edge (the girdle)of the diamond down to the point.) That determines total light reflection. If that number is off, the diamond can not sparkle because too much of the light is "leaking" out the bottom as seen in the figures above. If the pavillion is correct, the top part of the diamond (the crown) becomes important since this angle and height determines the breakup of white light into the rainbow.
This is kimberlite, the rock from which diamonds originate. They must blast 250 TONS of this stuff to find ONE gem quality, 1 carat diamond!
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